Piano Teaching or Walking on Water?

By Isabel Marcheselli, NCTM

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing from an alumnus who had studied piano with me for years since he was an absolute beginner. Now 17, he shared with me the wondrous news that he had been hired to teach piano at his local community center. I am sure that he delighted his future supervisors during his audition, since he possessed many fine qualities and was a dazzling, improvisational player, in addition to being a classically trained student.

He was one of the earliest students that I taught, after moving to Western Massachusetts from New York. I remember encountering a young boy with glasses and a background in recorder-playing whose father asked me to teach him piano. This conscientious student went on to never miss a lesson and was always ready to put in the work that it took to perform well in concert.

I fondly recall that, early in his studies, he showed such gusto for his repertoire that he recorded his own CD of himself playing his favorite piano pieces with an album cover of his artwork and gave it to me. Today, he has his original music up on Spotify for the listening pleasure of others.

At times, when I ponder his progression from playing “Hot Cross Buns” to playing music by Debussy, piano teaching seems to me a miracle akin to walking on water. In reality, many hours of work and play have gone into motivating a student enough for the arduous journey toward artistry. I look forward to hearing about the positive impact that he will surely make in the world.

Isabel Marcheselli, NCTM