Teaching is fire

The twenty-fourth newsletter is about spreading your enthusiasm

I grew up in a house bursting with music.

Both of my parents are professional (classical) musicians. I remember trying to do homework in my room with ‘live music’ coming from above and below when they were practicing or teaching, one in the living room, and one in the attic.

They are retired now, but they still teach. One-on-one instrument lessons, mentoring younger musicians, and coaching groups. Teaching is very commonplace in the professional music world. Even when you’re a working performer with a job at an orchestra, it’s normal and encouraged to teach alongside your performing job. Professional musicians usually teach up-and-coming professionals and amateurs alike.

Because the job is equal parts art and craft, this master-apprentice model makes a lot of sense. Being further along in your musical career makes you an ideal person to mentor, teach, and help others with their craft.

But having more experience than your student isn’t the only thing you need to be a great teacher.

Teacher types

Being exposed to this musical cornucopia, it was a no-brainer for me to start playing several musical instruments when I was young. Piano, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, drums, even xylophone. Some of them I played seriously for a long time, some of them I tried for a week.

I've been taught by a lot of different music teachers. And indeed, they were all different. Some were inspiring and passionate, others not so much…

In general, I’ve had two types of experiences. One type of teacher was so visibly in love with their instrument, they couldn’t help spreading their enthusiasm effortlessly. The other type was bitter, unnecessarily strict and even intimidating. Spoiler alert: no enthusiasm was spread.

Sadly, this last type of cranky drill instructor is a well-known trope in the music-teaching world that I’ve personally seen and heard about from others way too often.

The difference between them and the ‘enthusiastic kind’ wasn’t simply about their approach to teaching. It was about why they were there in the first place.

And whether they wanted to be there.

Outlook equals impact

I don’t envy professional musicians. It seems pretty tough to make a living with your art. Very few professional musicians go on to become household names and the pressure to make ends meet heavily contributes to the prevalence of ‘unintentional teachers’.

When professionally trained musicians don’t ‘make it’ (i.e. they don’t get the job they want, or they don’t get to make a living from their music at all), they often ‘fall back’ on teaching as a means to earn money.

This makes sense. They’ve spent years honing a skill they could easily teach. But since teaching isn’t the career they dreamed of, they see it as a second-class occupation that ranks below playing.

Which it is not.

Although I get where they’re coming from, this is a misunderstanding about how teaching works.

Teaching might be the most important job in the world. And it’s not about a diploma or position, it’s about what you bring to the table.

In last week’s edition I talked about the fire certain teachers possess. A fire that inspires others by sheer proximity.

I recently heard about a math teacher that was so enamored with teaching that he left a prestigious research position, tenure, and a secure financial future just to teach at a community college across the country. The person telling me this story was lucky enough to sit in one of his classrooms and was so deeply inspired that math became a primary interest for him and informed his whole career.

Talk about impact.

Find your fire

Ideally every teacher should want to be a teacher. Like the math teacher.

I’ve heard countless stories of people who lost all of their enthusiasm for making music because of an uninspired teacher that didn’t want to be there.

The attitude you bring to your students matters, because your teaching will always have an impact, whether positive or negative.

Teaching is a conduit for your energy. You’ll automatically radiate what you are fired up about.

I’m always on my soapbox about listening skills and how the world needs more of them. I’ve recently started teaching because I couldn’t not do it, figuring that I’d make a great teacher because I literally can’t shut up about it.

So when you’re teaching for a living and you're not thrilled about it, teach something else. Don’t drag your students down with you because of your own hang ups.

Maybe you’re obsessed with AI image generation, and you spend all of your free time on it. Go and teach that to some folks. Share your enjoyment.

No doubt you’ll be excellent at it because you’re naturally interested and passionate about it. Not being able to shut up about it almost guarantees great teaching.

Now let's go start some fires.