Igniting Passion

“The greatest deal that a teacher can offer, is passion,” a valuable piece of advice given by my own piano teacher which I would always treasure at heart.

I was a fresh graduate from high school. Receiving the offer to work as a part-time piano teacher, I accepted the responsibility with honour. My classes commenced every Saturday morning, teaching five young children the art of playing the piano with proper techniques. Other than helping them to familiarise themselves with the keyboard, learning to count beats and to read music notes, I taught them to play simple tunes and prepared them for a concert happening in the December 2019 holidays.

I really loved my job because I could share knowledge about something that I was passionate about. Besides, I enjoyed the flexibility of the teaching-style according to the personalities of my students. Every class was tailor-suited to each child I taught. Waves of satisfactory would wash over me when my students finally understood a new technique or execute the pieces that they had been practising for a long time without mistakes.

On the other hand, one of my students lack interest in playing the piano. The young child felt weary that she was forced by her parents to attend piano classes because they see the

potential within her, but it wasn’t her interest anyway. As her piano teacher, I was determined to sow the seeds of passion inside her by engaging her with beautiful melodies, playing alongside with her, and be very patient in teaching her to play some pop music that she randomly had in mind. Eventually, before I left the music centre to study at college, she finally told me that she liked playing the piano. I was overjoyed at a simple statement as that, as if obtaining victory after a life-long battle.

Another challenge throughout my time as a piano teacher was my students’ lack of motivation to practice the piano at home. To overcome this, I kept tracked of their progress in a small notebook for each of them, and gave a small note to their parents at the end of each class as a reminder to encourage their children to practice at home. In the long run, I was glad to see my students becoming more consistent to practice at home and made huge progress in their following classes.

At the evening of the concert, the sense of pride warmed my heart when I saw my young students gathered their courage to go on stage and performed the pieces they had been practicing for ages. Even though there were minor flaws, what touched me was their bravery to perform in front of a wide audience to showcase their love towards music.

My journey of transformation from a student to a piano teacher taught me many lessons, especially about teaching kids. I would constantly remind myself to be patient, cheerful and forgiving with certain boundaries to earn their respect as a teacher and their companion.

Moreover, instead of spoon-feeding them with information, I trained them to think independently by asking questions and encouraged them to seek the answer themselves with certain guidelines. In this way, I believe that by enhancing their music creativity and critical thinking skills, it would be beneficial to their well-being which will positively influence their daily lives.

Music has the power to change lives, just like how it has changed mine. If I never persevered

down the pathway of obtaining my Grade 8 cert, I would never have the golden opportunity to work as a part-time piano teacher.

In a nutshell, the greatest harvest from this work experience was my success in igniting passion in my young students, because they would not only be capable of listening to music, but to produce beautiful melodies to heal souls in the future.

This article has been published in The Star Newspaper's NiE section written by the same author.