Me...a piano teacher!

This week my students asked me how long I've been playing the piano and where I learned to play. I told them the truth...I learned to play the piano first by learning to sing and read the pitches on the staff, then poke out those pitches on the piano until what I heard sounded like what I was singing. I've never had any formal piano lessons, but my mother plays piano and organ and taught me little by little as I was growing up. Not too impressive, huh?

I look back on the ways that I learned music and the reasons why I love it so much. I was not forced to attend private lessons or required to practice daily. Instead I was immersed in it through school and church choirs and watching my mother and father sing and play whatever instruments we had around the house. My music education began with experience and watching others share joy through music. I am so lucky in this, and it is what gives me the vision for where to start with my students. Inspire them, encourage them, challenge them... this is my mission for them, and my mission for myself... take the love for music that God has given you, despite formal training, and share it!