New Year Issue 117: New Year Resolutions

How are yours going?

My non-musical ones are doing just fine;

take at least one bag of stuff to the charity shop every month (size of bag and quantity of contents unspecified, could be just one book!) in order to incrementally reduce the amount of clutter in this house.

eat chocolate at least once a week, (because I am going to do that anyway, so I might as well feel virtuous at the same time)

do some extra physical exercise every day (and that could just be taking the stairs instead of the lift – as you can see I like my targets to be very easy to achieve)

keep a diary and make entries several times a week  (I’ve done that for three days in a row – whoo-hoo!)

If you want some musical resolutions, have a look here at the www.teachpianotoday.com website. The idea is that you persuade your (piano) pupils to take on just one of these three resolutions; follow the links for more details.

  • Resolution #1:  Play With Passion
  • Resolution #2:  Play With Perfect Hands
  • Resolution #3:  Banish “I Can’t” For Good

I’m mulling over which I might choose for myself.

I think that an important thing that every teacher should do, is to take time during the day to reflect on the lessons that they have taught. Otherwise every experience is immediately overlaid by the next, and forgotten. So my resolution to keep a diary, something that I have done off and on in the past, is really a resolution to take time to reflect on ALL the events of the day, including the lessons that I have taught. I want to take plenty of time to celebrate and enjoy what went well, and to spend just a few moments thinking through how I could have improved things that maybe didn’t go so well.

That’s about as serious as I am going to get regarding New Year’s Resolutions. What I will say, is that when I DO practise my instrument – piano, cello, guitar, ukulele, saxophone or djembe – I am SO spoiled for choice! I will do so mindfully, with concentration, making every moment worthwhile. Maybe Resolution #1 above is the one for me!

Noisy monkey

 

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