Topic: music
It's beyond me. I don't know how to explain to you what I want to say today, about the lightbulb that turned on in my head late last night and again this morning. It's related to music. It's also very MUCH related to the idea of collective memory, our subconscious, evolving thought, all of that ying-yang.
Last night in the middle of a lesson, using a book I've only used with this one rather advanced student, I saw something another student had been trying to TEACH me a few years ago. Problem was, he half knew what he was talking about. And like most of us as students, he believed that I, as his teacher would surely know more about it than he did. He wanted me to help him understand the part he didn't understand. I couldn't even grasp what he was asking me to do. So I did what was safe, but not good teaching technique--I took him back to my own familiar territory.
The former student is now 88 years old and in a nursing home. I'm going to see him today, partly because I want and need to see him and partly because I can't wait to tell him what happened last night. I'm hoping he's up to getting up to the piano today. Maybe we can learn together!
Somehow, I think this is very much the way we sometimes wander through life, picking up pieces that later fit into the puzzle that we weren't even able to grasp earlier--back when we didn't even understand the question, much less the solution.
This morning, bright and early, I sat down at the keyboard and began playing familiar, rather simple tunes in new ways. Because that's what my student from years earlier, the one I was supposed to be teaching, the one who had never had more than 2-3 lessons when he came to me, was trying to teach me.
Isn't it amazing how life comes full circle?
