My Fun Job

I'm teaching 12 piano students a week now, and there's never a dull moment. I have a couple of new students this fall. I think it's fun to start a little one out on the piano, when they're still excited to play, before that "I hate piano!" phase kicks in. I've certainly heard enough of that. When a kid complains to me during the lesson, I say, "Take it up with your parents later. Right now, we're playing Ode to Joy."

I teach the lessons at the students' houses. One time I was at the piano, waiting for my pupil. She was upstairs throwing a full blown tantrum, complete with screaming, wailing, and crying. "I hate piano! I hate piano!" The happy ending is that she took a little hiatus from lessons, but now she's back and is one of my best students.

Last night I got to the cousins' house, where I teach Ty, Molly, and Abby. I saw Abby playing outside. "Are you ready for piano lessons?" I asked. No answer. I kept walking closer and closer to her and repeating myself. Finally, I was upon her and she couldn't avoid the question.

"Uh, let me go get Ty and Molly, so they can go first," she said. Such enthusiasm!

When it was Molly's turn to come in from playing outside, she walked in the back door and said loudly, "I don't want to do piano lessons."

"I'm in the room!" I retorted.

She really wanted to play outside with her friend. In protest, she would only play Christmas songs during the lesson. Not too shabby on Jingle Bells and Deck the Hall. When Abby's lesson time came, she wanted to talk about snakes. I learned that bull snakes are big, but rattlesnakes are bigger. They're nothing to be afraid of if you have a gun or a knife. Oh my.

I've had a couple of kids bring clocks and watches in for the lesson, so that they could make sure that the lesson doesn't go one second past thirty minutes. Today I had a student come and say he couldn't do his lesson, because he just got a wart removed today. He held up a bandaged finger proudly. I found out later that he then went outside to play football. He was forced to come back in and play some scales, left hand only. Hopefully all will be mended next week.