So I work full time, 5 days a week in a job I enjoy and I like to think am pretty good at. I sell shoes and take care of the day to day running of a store. I enjoy the contact with people I LOVE the product I sell and fashion so it is a great mix of these things.
My biggest love in life however, is music. Playing, teaching, conducting, listening. I have played piano since age 7, sung since I could talk and played Clarinet since I was 10. I have been in bands, orchestras, choirs, barbershop quartets, choral groups and too many theatre productions to count. There is no better feeling than having your whole being moved and every emotion felt when listening to, or even better playing a piece of music. For me there is a massive sense of pride and achievement when I learn a piece and can perform it to have some of the emotion I feel when playing come through for others. I have been bought to tears by countless songs and pieces through many genres, I have been taken to the highest of highs, been given hope and joy and felt great despair all through a bunch of notes clustered in a particular way on a page.
I started teaching piano later in high school as a means of imparting my knowledge to others and help them come to love music as much as I do. I loved this, seeing something click in a persons brain and have the penny drop is a great feeling. Tailoring approach and direction to cater for different learning styles was something that drove me, having someone discover a real passion and love for music with my help just made my day. I had every intention of completing my music degree and becoming a music teacher but University and I did not mix. I was too lazy, discovered partying and other things and was such a small fish in a big pond with these amazingly talented performers and composers that I felt I could not live up to. I should have stuck it out and worked harder but I didn't and moved home and fell into my current career in retail.
The music love has never left me. I dabbled in teaching the odd student over the years and kept performing, battling through the hideous nerves to start with,to keep my skill set relatively sharp. In 2014 I met a young girl who was taking group lessons in voice. She had not learned an instrument before but loved singing, struggled with confidence issues and this was her outlet. Her mum (my friend) asked me to have a practice session with her to see what I thought and holy hell this kid can sing! She needed honing and some more skills around breathing and diction but that raw talent was there. The fact that she was shy and not particularly confident meant that she may have been slipping through the cracks in this group. I spoke to her about keeping her passion for performance and love of singing as I didn't want her to become disillusioned and to keep her love of music for herself not for others and recognition, I gained my first student.
Things kind of started moving from there. something had clicked in my brain that yes I could in fact do this and that I have a skill set to offer, I put some feelers out and gained 3 more students. I remember talking to my parents and my Nana about it as they spent so many years supporting me with lessons, ferrying me around to activities and spending a ludicrous amount of money on trips, camps, instruments and music, I know that they were excited for me. As I have said before my track record with follow through with things is not great so I know my parents especially were hesitant in case it was another of my fast finishing schemes. I want to have them be proud of me and know that the hours of waiting and watching and that the money spent has not been wasted.
Six months later and I am sorting out my schedule to fit in 3 more students in mid Jan and a couple of one off lessons also starting rehearsals with a talented bunch of people at my local theatre as their Musical Director. I am more balanced, less moody and able to cope with things that are thrown at me now that music is a big part of my life again. I am busy and I love it! I have plans to try and advertise and gain more students and sort myself out with flyers and business cards (maybe even a logo) approach some schools and expand until this becomes my full time career.
Slow and steady wins the race and hey Mum and Dad I am sticking to it! Thanks for believing in me and telling me I can do it!
Stay tuned and I am sure I will write more about my teaching experiences as it goes along!
Michaela x
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