Oclef Podcast

About 2 or 3 times a year, I help out friends who need a substitute and I always learn sometime from the experience. Usually, one problem or issue is the root cause of many of the mistakes we make.

As piano teachers and music educators, I'm continuously realizing how important we are to the students that we teach and their development. Learning happens through strong relationships and trust built over time.

Really enjoyed the chance to catch up with a friend from college, David Asher Brown. He's improving a variety of music education challenges at the moment, including online music education videos and curriculum with his company - www.PianoCub.com. Listen to this interview episode. 

Parents, please watch out if you're starting with a new teacher. This is not uncommon. I met with a student yesterday, 8 years old, he's taken piano lessons for a year, they don't know what a bass clef is and have no idea of any of those notes. They learned treble clef only. What is going on?

It's been an amazing time for music education and over the next few years, I'm so excited to see how the explosion of music education growth in the Bay area and in China continue to lead the market's pattern of personalized education through music. Soft skills like problem-solving and pattern-recognition are becoming are everything.

I just got a call today asking about lessons for a 2-year-old. My response, "You mean the number after 1?"  Does anyone out there actually teach 2-year-olds music or is it more about play and discovery?

The lessons learned from music are more important than the music itself. Patience, persistence, pattern-recognition, empathy, problem-solving, communication, details, big-picture, creativity, hard work, focus - those are the real gems of music education. Not playing a piece perfectly. My job is to make those lessons the true takeaway.

I am obsessed with the ideas and skills learned from music and want those to be acquired by students. The details matter, the big picture matters, patience and persistence matters, communication matters, creativity matters, empathy matters - All of that matters more than playing piano pieces perfectly.

Getting better at something doesn't mean mistakes disappear. So the real trick is to fall in love with the struggle, mistakes, and frustration. Learn to love the pain of learning, it's the best thing I've learned from music.

Why does sight-reading account for such a small amount of practice and lesson time? What if sight-reading was more than 50% of the time early on for piano education? Growth and development would be slow in the beginning, but it could be 100x the rate of development in later years simply because the students could be more efficient, learn faster and expose their minds to more music. 

Can creativity be learned? How important is music in helping students to develop their creative skills? This is a follow up after talking with creative composer Christopher Norton.

This is a big episode to kick-off season 4 of the Oclef Podcast. We are so excited to bring this episode to listeners. I hope you enjoy listening to this interview with the world's top Jazz and R&B composer for music education. I'm so grateful to have the chance to talk with Christopher Norton.

This is most likely the last episode of Season 3. We are so excited to announce the new season of the Oclef Podcast which will feature interviews with Christopher Norton, Adriana Linares, David Brown, Lisa Bastien and Phong Le (Oclef co-founder). Stay tuned for an interesting season full of interviews with the top music educators on the planet and daily music education podcasts. We love our MusicEd community! Thanks for all your support, listening and for sharing our content. 

As most teachers do, I take my role as a mentor and role model very seriously. I think children see our actions and learn from how we do things. 

After questions on practicing and pieces, this is the most common parent question. "Is it too late for me to learn piano?"