Today, I Confess: I Have a New Obsession....
(and it's spelled P-L-A-Y)
Earlier this week, I presented a session at NCKP online titled, "The Paradox of Play: Taking Fun Seriously".
I've always considered PLAY a priority in the work I do. In fact, it's included on my list of core values that I discussed with Leila Viss at the start of this week's podcast conversation.
Even still, my research for this session sparked a new fire under me, and my purpose as a piano teacher feels renewed on every level.
We take our work seriously, and rightly so. We are experienced, educated, and many of us have spent our lifetimes honing the skills we pass along to our students.
We are in the minority of people who grew up in music lessons and decided to make it our careers.
It's important to note: we chose to make this serious, and, unfortunately, sometimes that causes us to look down on the idea of playing piano “for fun”.
I am more convicted than ever that our work is to help others play. We don't have to be so precious about this thing we do.
We often pat ourselves on the backs for helping students develop grit, discipline, analytical reasoning skills, and the like. Those things are ALL true.
But let’s be clear here: our WORK helping other people find their PLAY is every bit as important as those other skills.
Yes, piano lessons might help our students do better in school, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that we have more important benefits to bring to their lives.
In surveying all the benefits of studying an instrument, *play* is arguably the most impactful element of all.
...all that to say, we should not be so quick to dismiss students (and parents!) who "want piano to be fun".
I can't relay my entire presentation here, but I'll offer a few important points for you to chew on this weekend:
- We've been trained to believe "work" is the opposite of "play". This is not accurate and leads to faulty connotations of each term.
- According to the National Institute for Play, “Playing, being playful, is the healthiest way to spend your time (after feeding and housing yourself).”
- Play is a mindset, not a single activity (I talked more about this in Episode 152)
- True play is an end to itself. In other words, the GOAL of playing the piano should be... playing the piano. We can have additional points of focus, but the mark of "success" is simply sitting at the instrument.
Sigh. This is the tip of the iceberg, my friends! If you are part of a local teacher group and are interested in booking the full session, please check out christinawhitlock.com/speaking/
This is FAR from the last you will hear from me on this subject, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, HIT THAT REPLY BUTTON and tell me something fun you're up to this weekend! Me? I'll be busy turning 43.🥳
🥂 May we embrace our work to help others find their play. 🥂