Not A Bad Afternoon At All

As some of you probably know, I teach mountain dulcimer lessons at The Folk School of St. Louis. Sometimes teaching can be just awful. Students don’t show up; you don’t get paid on time; students don’t practice or their minds are elsewhere during the lesson and sitting there listening to them fumble through a tune is just painful.

Then there are days like yesterday, when I had three students who were so much fun I didn’t want the lessons to end.

My first student of the day came back to lessons after about a month off full of energy and wanting to learn. It was great. Then my second student of the day was even better. She’s been struggling since she started coming in a few months ago. But something seems to have happened recently and she’s now really “getting it”. She’s picking up the tunes faster and seems to have a much more responsive attitude to learning how to play.

Last student of the day was a new one. And what fun! She really seemed happy to be there and we both laughed a lot and had a real good time. I think she’s going to be a good one.

After my regular lessons, I got some time before packing up to sit with a student who’s taking one of the school’s ensemble classes and go over a tune (“Possum On A Rail”) she’s learning on the fiddle with her. Jill’s fairly new to fiddling and was feeling a little unsure of her playing on the tune. I was able to sit and play it for her a couple of times so she could hear that she is remembering/playing it correctly and that it’s not really a hard tune at all. She beamed when she realized that she can play it for the class.

Quite a day. Three good teaching experiences in one afternoon. It makes the more difficult ones all worth doing.