Back into it

Today was a teaching day for me, the first in nearly three weeks. As usual, I was in a panic before my first lesson, trying to make sure the house was presentable. But, as I so often find, once I actually started teaching, I remembered why I teach. It's really fun.

I started three piano beginners today. Two of them are siblings of current students, and the third was a child whose mom had contacted me months ago. Beginners are such fun. All three kids were enthusiastic and patient with the rudimentary material we needed to cover. I think they're going to be good students.

And a pleasant surprise from a voice student tonight, who wanted to revisit a Handel aria we had worked on a few years ago. At that time, the music was really out of reach for him technically. With a few years of work and growth in the meantime, however, his voice has really come into its own on this aria. There are still some things to polish, but I'm very pleased at the improvement -- much of which took place without active work on this specific aria.

It just proves what dear Mrs. Meyers, my college voice teacher, used to say: repertoire learned and put away is like money in the bank. When you go back and revisit it, it has accumulated interest, and is better than when you left it.