A Good Day on the Job...

One thing I love about my job is that I get to have personal relationships with the people who have hired me. I could try to be strictly professional, only talking about music lessons and payment and scheduling, but when your job consists of going into people's homes, of stepping into their daily lives, it's impossible not to engage in a more personal relationship.

I never know what I am going to walk into. Sometimes I walk into a quiet piano room and am offered hot genmai cha and a homemade cookie. Sometimes I walk into a roomful of guests and apologetic parents--oh, we forgot you were coming, would you mind if the extended family watches you teach Little One piano? Sometimes people start their fireplaces just for me. Sometimes no one is home when I arrive. Sometimes people set out a rocking chair for me. Sometimes I walk into the heavy, uncomfortable remnants of a recent argument. Sometimes I get my own pair of slippers at someone's house. Sometimes the lesson is interrupted by the smoke alarm because dinner was left in the oven too long. Sometimes I am greeted with drawings from younger siblings, hot chocolate, high-fives, or the last of the Greek Salad that was for dinner. Sometimes the dog is happier to see me than the student.

Once I saw a parent pulling out of the driveway with her kids in the van (clearly forgetting the piano lesson), and when she saw me driving up to her house, she slammed on the brakes, swerved the car around, pulled back up to the house, put the car in park, ushered her son right back out of the van and turned to me and all she said was, "I am a dork."

I suppose one has to have a certain amount of flexibility in terms of practical skills while doing this sort of job. While my primary purpose in visiting my students' homes is to teach music, at times I find myself doing other things.

Like the time a six-year-old was having a really hard day and couldn't play more than a measure or two without crying. We wound up showing each other magic tricks and laughing until he felt better. Or the time an adult piano student was so melancholy she couldn't concentrate on the music. My job as a music teacher is to listen, but sometimes I have to do a different kind of listening.

I don't know if this is a job I will do forever. It can be exhausting (pun intended) driving everywhere. It can be boring and stressful keeping up with bookkeeping. It can be frustrating getting lesson cancellation phone calls.

But getting to watch a twelve-year-old sightread a Bach Minuet? Getting to hear an aspiring Broadway star confidently sing notes she didn't think she could? Getting to answer the same questions I used to ask? Getting to hear an eight-year old nail interval training? Getting to watch a nine-year-old learn how to write a song? Getting to hang out after the lesson and talk about spirituality and interconnectedness? Getting recipes from the anti-wheat suburban mom?

Some days it's worth the gas mileage. And some days, it feels like it's about more than the music.