Three of the most important lessons I want my students to carry away from our time together:
- Personal responsibility/ownership of success.
- Cooperative mindset.
- Faith in their ability to grow and improve.
Please note, none of these three have anything specifically to do with music. You can learn these lessons on the basketball court, acting in a play, in a creative writing class, in youth scouting. I happen to believe that many of these lessons are best learned in a vocal ensemble, but they are not exclusive to music.
There are certainly many musical lessons I hope my students take away with them, but more important than vowel modification, head voice mastery, theoretical knowledge, discriminating musical taste, or any other musical lesson, I want to teach life through music.
I remind myself every day that I’m teaching far more than just music. Every day.