I love leading the church Youth Band. I count it as a priviledge to work alongside these young musicians. They’re raw, undisciplined and music fashion victims, but my job is to educate, inspire and mentor and that is a very cool job!
I think to be able to pass on what one has learned mostly from experience over the years is an incredibly valuable thing – almost like a higher calling for any mature musician. That’s not taking anything away from these budding musicians either – they are like sponges; soaking it up. That is where I have to be careful that I’m not leaving any one person out but doing my job in the most inclusive way I can. I do this by making sure that I not only remain on task with getting the song learned, but I at least spend a quality few moments with each band member; demonstrating chords, bass lines and rhythms.
I find that I have to walk the line between disciplinarian and ‘big brother’ – teacher and friend. I’m not a music teacher by any stretch – but what I do have is years of experience and creative musical abilities. A lot of this stuff is about being available, humble and being willing to learn oneself.
One Response to “Musical youth”
Enjoyed reading this article as it resonates with what I do enjoying very much. Lucky that you can teach in a group setting. Piano teaching for me is bound to be one-to-one setting but one day hopefully, I could afford to collect enough keyboards to bring in young learners and alike to set off a new way of learning the instrument.