Ambitious music students always have a “dream” song that they want to learn to play.

There’s usually a piece of it that the teacher can introduce early on, but mastery is sometimes a long way off. The student could spend the next six months practicing that piece of music every day and working on it at every lesson, and it would still sound awkward and amateurish.

As the teacher in such a situation, I guide the student to spend those six months playing a bunch of other, easier songs. Instead of putting all of our effort into one song that won’t showcase the student’s growing ability very well, we play dozens, refining some to a high level of polish and allowing others to stay works-in-progress.

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It’s a weird time to run an online business.

On the one hand, I feel as though I have a lot to contribute that could be helpful right now. My experience with online education and remote work is suddenly relevant to many, and my broader experience as an educator could be helpful to families and teachers looking for stuff to do to keep their kids learning and engaged in meaningful ways.

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I was hanging out in a bus station (as one does), eavesdropping (as one does) as an an older man made conversation with the slightly younger one behind the counter.

“So…do you get free travel?”

“Yes.”

“Year round, or just two weeks a year?”

“Year round.”

“Ahhh…but you don’t have year round vacation,” said the older man with a note of regret in his voice.

“I’m working on that,” said the man behind the counter.

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I was working with a thirteen-year-old the other day on a simple rhythm.

When you break it down, you find that any rhythm is just a series of events that occur at specific intervals.

The “one and two and three and four and” occur at precise, even intervals. The X’s represent the places where you would clap or tap or hit a drum or play a note. It’s as simple as that. If you have trouble keeping a steady beat, you can use a device called a metronome to do it for you.

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This was a sentiment I had heard many times from adult students. Coming from a fifty-year-old with a demanding job and family obligations, it had a veneer of validity. I had often had a similar thought myself, as I compared my career to those of the people I aspired to be like.

However, hearing the same exact words from a small child caused me to question my beliefs. His words confirmed for me that the concern about running out of time and falling behind is driven by fear, not reality.

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