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Life & Learning

For International Girl’s day: the daughter who stood up to the sea god

I didn’t know there was an international girl’s day until today, and it is perfect for this post. It is dedicated to all the girls out there. Clearing out a cupboard under the stairs, we found some old school work from a long time ago when my daughter was 8. I handed the pile to her and asked if it was to keep or to recycle. She brought me one of the pieces over the weekend and showed me a spiral bound story that she had written. It had a picture of a winged girl on the front, and she said she thought it would be a sweet fairy tale, (the school brief inside the cover was to invent and write a creation type story about the ‘Sea God’) but instead she made her story about a child calling out racism! GO GIRL! It gives me great hope to know this is what she was thinking back then. img_7288

In light of the world, the seen and unseen pressures that people face, the troubles people are unwillingly born into because of their race, creed, or physical place in the world – I often feel the need to share some good things. It is what I can do. So this is one of them. It was my daughter’s invented story. The themes are ever important today-

Children matter. Black lives matter. Women matter.

I am so pleased she wrote it, and am so pleased that her wise school encouraged her to get ideas onto paper and let them flow. Read More »For International Girl’s day: the daughter who stood up to the sea god

I hear what you’re saying…

This morning I woke to a conversation on twitter that caught my eye, perplexed me, and concerned me all at once. It was about how someone was treated rudely on the phone. One person didn’t understand the other, and attributed it to an accent, but this wasn’t very tactful or helpful, and came across as downright rude. Now the thing is, I wasn’t there. I didn’t hear the conversation, but I heard the aftershock. What happened left a mark and caused upset (* see note below). This post is not about the actual conversation, but about the nature of learning and listening. It made me think of the curiosity of communication and teaching. Image CC BY by Double-M

If we only know by shadows, then what truth is there?

The conversation reminded me of the importance of perception, empathy, and a willingness to learn to understand.

In my classes I often talk about communication, as I work with people aiming to perform and teach music in various settings, including 1-to-1. It is a bit heavy going, but I start one class with this quote:Read More »I hear what you’re saying…

Remember and celebrate

The repetition of experience re-minds us that “I”, more often than not, forget. We won’t remember unless we participate in some regular repetitive form of remembering, what is often referred to as a discipline, a practice, or a ritual. Daniel Budd

-from The Daily Stillness. (2 min read) I know this is the second post inspired by that website, and that’s ok. These few lines, combined with reading Kate Bowles post and all the comments, and getting ready for a run all made me think. Her post is completely beautifully written and the comments reflect on
reflecting (verging on metacognition, I love that) – about being left-handed. I am left handed so it is curious when people who aren’t take the time to consider it. This is not about left-handedness, but about taking the time to consider.Read More »Remember and celebrate

Learning in Public: Part 3

This is a critical post about performing. I take you inside my mind to illustrate the good and the challenges of performance. Going from the practice room to the public platform is something that all musicians do. In school, at university, or with a teacher this is something that is trained into you and facilitated. There is performance class, there are opportunities to ‘air’ the music first, but what happens when you leave that environment and are on your own? Do you keep it going? Do you still push yourself? Few graduating musicians are likely to play the same concerti they prepared for their final recitals as recital material and certainly not as regular ‘gig’ material. And what of the learning opportunities? When you leave your teacher’s studio, there are no more regular performance classes, and depending on what you do there may not be any peers to play for….unless you create the opportunities. This is the story of the opportunity I created, my thought processes, and the results. I’m learning in public. (Featured image CC-BY-NC by C Steele)Read More »Learning in Public: Part 3