Always Learning

It has been so much fun recording the students for our upcoming CD project. I'm always amazed at how much I've forgotten about learning. One thing about teaching is that your students will always keep you in touch. They share their thoughts and questions about everything, and it makes me such a better teacher. I thought I'd share some of the things that have happened since we started this project:

1. I was explaining "public domain" to Nathan, who is 9 years old. Nathan listened while I gave my best explanation, he thought about it for a few seconds, and then he stated, "So we have to pick a song that was written by a dead person so that we can afford to put it on the CD." (Keep in mind, I never said anything about the writer being deceased!)

2. When you are recording more than one beginner at the same time, it is almost impossible to get them to do the same thing at the same time. We had decided at the end of one particular song that the "band members" would strum four times at the end of the song and that they would stop the last strum immediately afterwards. I think we practiced this about 20 times to no avail! This is one of those times when I realized that it is really hard for a beginner to have the timing to perform this consistently.

3. It's very hard to "punch in" a beginner. I've never given it a second thought when I've been in the recording studio about punching in to correct small mistakes. Well, if you think it's hard for a beginner to keep going when they make a mistake, just try to have a beginner start in the middle of the song, match what is currently playing through the headphones, and play at the correct tempo!

4. Children under the age of 10 are very happy with anything they record, even if you happen to know that they generally play better than the recording they just made.

Probably one of the most surprising things to me is how willing everyone has been to try this. I'm very pleased with everyone's hard work! There's been a lot of practicing going on around here!