Episode Summary
Amy chats with piano teachers Abby Maser and Nicole Douglas during the first-ever Piano Pantry Retreat.
Items Mentioned
Transcript
Amy: Hey, here we are already on episode number 25 of the Piano Pantry Podcast and the fifth. Teacher talk episode. If you’re new around here, while this podcast is primarily a solo podcast, every five episodes, I have a low-key, rejuvenating chat with teachers. Just like you I’ve been tickled to death to hear your enthusiastic feedback for these episodes.
It makes me really happy that they make you happy. If you miss any others, jump back to number five with Ben Kapilow, creator of the All Keyed Up Podcast; Number 10 with Karen Thickstun, current president of Music Teachers National Association; Number 15 with my good friends Joy Morin, Janna Williamson, and Christina Whitlock.
And number 20 with Jonathan Roberts, director of South Shore Piano School in Boston. Generally, our chats are get-to-know-you style, although with number 20, Jonathan and I did discuss the Royal Conservatory Certificate Programs. Music Lights the Way campaign.
This week, I’m bringing you a lovely conversation with two teachers, Abby Maser and Nicole Douglas, who attended the first-ever piano pantry retreat at my home here in Northeast Indiana, which was held the first weekend of June.
The goal of these new retreats is downtime to rest a bit, time to grow and glean alongside other teachers and to work together on getting our digital landscapes in order. Through eight 75-minute power hour sessions. We were blessed to have gorgeous weather the entire time, so most of our time was spent on the back porch overlooking miles of beautiful, flat Indiana farmland. And I’m not being sarcastic, it really is a thing of beauty to be able to see for miles and miles. Without further ado, Let’s kick things off.
Welcome to the Piano Pantry Podcast, where together we live life as independent music teachers. I’m your host, Amy Chaplin. In this space, we talk about all things teacher life-related, from organizing our studios to getting dinner on the table and all that comes between. You’ll get loads of easily actionable tips on organizing and managing your studio while balancing life and home.
Welcome ladies. Why don’t we kick off by you introducing yourself, tell the listeners where you’re from, and maybe just give us a brief picture of your current teaching setup and day to day schedule. My name is Abigail Masur. Most of the time I go by Abby, as Amy said in the intro. I am from northwest Ohio.
Abby: I live just west of Toledo. I represent the young professionals here at The Retreat. I graduated in 2020 May of 2020 from Bowling Green State University with my bachelor’s in music. performance in piano. So I was privileged enough to live locally and commute and also start teaching just before I started college.
So, actually, some of the students that I teach now, just a couple, are from those, that first year, which is awesome. So that would have been 2016 when I started teaching. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher of some capacity in high school. Really decided on that. I’m currently teaching 30 students weekly, and that’s not 30 individuals; I do teach a few partner and trio lessons in there.
As far as my studio setup goes, I hope that some people out there can probably relate to a less-than-ideal situation. I, it’s fun, I like the variety of it. But I teach most of my students, maybe not most, a good chunk. I travel to their homes. I have a few online and in my own home that come to me.
But a couple of years ago, some dear friends of mine were looking for a piano and a piano teacher. And I also at the same time was shopping on Facebook marketplace. I had seen a beautiful baby grand Essex piano. For sale locally, and I said hey, if I go check this out, and I think it’s worth buying it’s at a really good price would you guys be interested in buying it because you have the home for it, an office space for it, or if I like it well enough, could I just keep it at your house indefinitely and teach your kids?
So they took the latter option. I purchased the piano. It was, I feel like it was the deal of the century. It’s really beautiful. And so in addition to teaching their two children they’ve been so generous to me in letting me teach just incrementally more and more students. I teach about 11 students out of their homes.
And yeah so it’s a funny setup, inviting students to not my home. But it’s been a fun time.
Amy: So neat to hear. There’s not just one way of doing things. There are multiple ways that teachers can make their lesson structures happen. And sometimes, maybe, if they don’t have an ideal situation, you can get creative. And to me, that is like an incredibly creative solution. Yeah. You little entrepreneur, you look at me.
Nicole: I would have never thought to ask somebody, can I buy a piano? That means. You’ve got a really special relationship with that family and that’s so awesome.
Abby: For sure. Shout out to the Smiths.
Nicole: All right, I guess I’ll go. I’m Nicole Douglas. I’m from Chicagoland, about an hour northwest of Chicago. My journey is a little bit different from what I would think of as a traditional piano teacher. Cause I first majored in business and worked in corporate for a little while. And then I had kids and was supporting my husband through his graduate degree.
We moved to Chicago so he could start his PhD, and we thought we’d only be here for five or six years. So when it kept going, we ended up staying a lot longer, and we’re still in that same house. So I ended up, and I’ve always played piano my whole life, but I never thought I’d be a teacher. And I had some friends who asked me please, will you teach?
And I’m like, oh, I, no thanks. And she’s pleaded and so I finally tried it and I fell in love with it. And I thought, okay if I love this, I want to do something with it. So I went back to school and I’ve got associates in music so far and I’m working, I’ve done a a graduate certificate with Dr. Lister-Sink program with injury prevention technique and just been a really cool setup. So, with my business experience married with all this other learning I’ve been doing lately, my studio probably looks different than the traditional piano teacher. Because I live in a smaller house we, I just have to use my living room and I end up we’re right across the street from the elementary school. So that means the kids can come right after school. The mom picks, several of the moms will pick them up and then drop them off right at my house, which is a whole nother can of worms to talk about. But it just makes it convenient because so that was a good reason to pick that house.
Anyway so I, because I’ve got the business experience I just really enjoy helping with marketing and copywriting and editing. And so I end up. Working for different places that I find need help. And so right now I work about 15 to 20 hours a week for Top Music and doing a whole lot of different things for them. That’s really fun to get to work with teachers because I feel like when I’m helping teachers, I get to help more students that way. And so that’s been really good to not only have the interaction with more teachers, but also. Just get to talk to more adults because when you’re teaching children all day.
Yeah. So my studio space is rather small. I do have two pianos in my living room, which my family will never stop making fun of me for. But let’s see, as far as what my day-to-day schedule looks like, I mentioned I work for top music. In the afternoon and evenings, I have a few morning lessons, but mostly after school, about four or five days I’m teaching, so I have about 15 students of all ages, and I just have really enjoyed getting to help figure out students.
I’ve ended up attracting a lot of students who otherwise wouldn’t be taking piano because of usually like special needs issues or just they’re really bouncing off the walls and they just, so I feel like I’ve ended up being more of a teacher that kind of helps them feel good about themselves and gives them what I hope is a good foundation in technique as a beginner, different It’s methods I’ve studied and then once I feel like they’ve been truly inspired and are willing to practice and show a lot of talent, then, I’ll send them off to a teacher who can you know, cause I, I’ll teach up through intermediate and yeah, so anyway, but I’ve just, I’m so excited to not only be a piano teacher but to be here with you guys, I just, this is this is how I recharge, getting to talk to other piano teachers. It’s like talking nerd talk or geek talk, and my family, I can’t talk about it with them. So this is this, and I really felt that loss during the pandemic is that I just realized that this is what keeps me going as a teacher. I’m more engaged with my students and have such, I’m just more. I’m more available; I’m a better teacher for them when I’ve taken time to get to know other teachers and talk, teacher talk,
Amy: That’s why I think it’s really important, like you said, to take as many opportunities as you can to be with other teachers because we are such an isolated profession. And I think it’s interesting because when you guys both arrived, we were talking about how the piano teacher world is actually a small world in the world of professions, excuse me. Start getting out there and like attending conferences and just being a part of teacher groups and even just being like on social media and getting to know teachers through social media, it almost gets to the point sometimes where you’re like, have we met in person because I feel like I know you, so I think that leads us really well into our next question of, I thought it would be fun to share, like, how have we met and gotten to know each other? Sometimes it takes you a while to think back and go like, how, I don’t remember the first moment that we met, actually. You just feel like I’ve always known you, and I think that goes for Nicole, especially. I just can’t even pinpoint. When’s the first time? We were reflecting, and I think we, was it one of Joy’s retreats we said, or?
Nicole: I think it may have been NCKP.
Amy: Okay, yeah, we did say that.
Nicole: Because the first NCKP I went to, I think, was in 2017. And I don’t know if we met that time. . We may have.
Amy: Was it 2017?
Nicole: Because I knew about your blog
Amy: No – it was 2015 because I started my blog in 2016. Okay, so so yeah, I remember.
Nicole: Either it was in 2017 or 2019 that I remember thinking, Oh, you run the piano pantry blog, and you’re friends with Joy because I had met Joy at a conference. I think yeah, and So anyway, so it’s been so fun to come to your house. It’s really cool to get to spend time in person and in your own personal environment, not even at a conference, but just to see your studio.
Amy: This is like my space. This is where it all happens, you know? And then Abby was like the one that I was like, have we ever met in person? Again, I feel like I’ve known you, but a lot of it’s been just online through social media. Then she told a funny story about the first time.
Abby: Oh, yeah. I also knew of Amy through Joy Morin. Shout out to Joy Morin.
Amy: She’s connecting us all together.
Abby: Yes. When Joy lived in Bowling Green, I just did some small projects for her here and there. So I heard about Joy and the fun trips they took, and so then in NCKP 2019, I think, you were about to give a presentation, a lightning talk, I think, on Evernote, and we happened to be washing our hands in the bathroom, and they said, oh, you’re Amy Chaplin, I know you, through Joy, and yeah.
Amy: And I did I look at you funny?
Abby: #regrets. LOL
Amy: LOL OK, so then I think the next time we would have met was when you came to my district for a Northwest OMTA. And you gave a presentation before I gave a presentation. That’s right. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. So, one of the episodes of this podcast, I’ll have to look it up, but I think it’s episode number 13 or something like that, which is about making music teacher friends.
And, one of the biggest things is just like getting involved and going to things and like meeting people there, and sometimes you might meet someone like I met Joy years and years ago, but it wasn’t until years later that, that friendship developed and then, more connections get made and if you’re not involved, then it’s hard to make those connections.
Nicole: So I remember when I was first starting out, I thought, I don’t know how in the world I’m going to afford going to any conferences and little like the first one I went to was because I had become acquainted with friends that were running Joy Tunes, and I was living local at the time, so they asked me to come help run the booth. Because of that experience of being able to at least have the conference registration fee covered, I started to see how beneficial they are, and now I’m hooked.
Amy: Yeah, you do. You get hooked. Because then you’re also like, I need to see my friends. The next question goes a little bit deep, I guess you could say. Could you guys maybe describe a particularly meaningful moment that you’ve had with a student over your past teaching year? Something that you can reflect on. Maybe it’s been a difficult experience, but now, looking back, you’ve come through it and have just learned something special from it.
Nicole: One of the students that I have the joy of teaching is autistic, and I taught his older brothers, and when it was his turn for lessons, we started with my first Piano Adventures, and he was doing pretty great with the pre-reading, but then when we hit reading it just was He was really struggling and I have since learned from taking different special needs courses and learning how the brain works and stuff that with that type of personality, you need to teach it the way it’s going to be forever. Like you need to, if the change is really hard for him. We did have a period of time when we took a break, and I remember thinking his his technique was never going to get any better. He had very awkward hand movements, and fast forward to today, he’s 16, I think, and he is playing by ear and memorizing, and He’s reading at level 2B ish in Faber. We just use the sight reading book cause that’s really, it’s prescriptive. Like it’s very pattern based and cause there was a while where we just played by rote and just got him comfortable with seeing that he could be a good pianist and one particular lesson. I remember he was really frustrated with himself that he made a mistake and he would always go back to the beginning and I’d try to say it’s okay to make mistakes; that’s part of the learning process and it just never clicked with him even though I said it a million times.
And so I just thought, how could I relate this to something else that he’s not perfect at? And I had the idea to say okay, how many notes are in this song? And we estimated maybe like a hundred. Okay, how many did you get wrong? Three? Okay, that is an A! So if you could focus on how many you got right instead of how many you got wrong.
You do not have to play perfectly, and we talked a lot about I don’t want you to be a robot. Focusing on successes. Yes, and that every minute of the day you’re just a little bit older. So there isn’t one right way to play it every single time, or you would be a robot. For him, he needed to give himself more latitude and a different concept of what it meant to be a good pianist.
Yeah it’s, and his technique is so much better. Like I, I looking back, I think, okay, so the next time I get a student and that this has happened, the next time I see a brand new student and think, wow, their hands are tight and awkward that, is this ever going to get better? And I’m going to think it worked.
Yeah. Like it just, the consistency of continuing and patiently addressing it. And not making them feel bad about it, just redirecting and over time it does get better.
Amy: I think that’s a good even just guiding principle for our students in general. I a lot of times tell my students, especially at recital time, I look at them and say, The goal is not for you to play every single note absolutely correct. The goal is for you to play a beautiful piece of music and share this piece of music that you’ve been working so hard on and enjoy it. And to get out of that, their minds Oh my gosh, I missed a wrong note. And most of the time we talk so much about Who cares? Most of the time, the audience doesn’t even know that you missed a note, anyway, so that’s, yeah, really great. Great story, thank you.
Abby: Yeah, so I had a I teach a family, currently I’m teaching three of their sons. And I started their oldest, I was teaching him for a couple of years. Nicole, hold it, her this whole story. I’ll try to make it shorter. But, they wanted to add this second sign, and I think he was around four at the time. Because I remember it being on the younger side, and it was like, let’s just give this a shot, he wants to try it. And so we did, and we went for a few months, and it just became clear he was too young for this. And, they were just, I was like, he’s not getting it, and it’s just making it difficult. We’ll take a break, and it was fine.
And then, I think, the following year, I decided to try it again. He was asking for lessons again. And so we gave that a good go, and at the time, I was teaching a reading-based method with some rote in there, and he was doing fine with, mostly with, playing by rote. I really struggled with reading, though, and I just didn’t know I didn’t have the equipment or the training to know how to deal with a student like that.
I just felt like his behavior was really bad for me. Very manipulative in lessons, and it just took the wind out of my sails. I was very burnt out every time I left the lesson, and it got to a point where I just had to say I can’t do this anymore. And I really thought I had burned the bridge with that student and almost with the parent as well. I know that the mom was hurt by that understandably, so then, a few months later, I started getting into learning about music learning theory, and I know this podcast, that’s not the focus, so music learning theory, go research it on your own. And started using Marilyn Lowe’s Music Moves for Piano and Keyboard Games. So I was incorporating some of those activities into the oldest lessons. And the mom asked for the third student, the third son to start lessons. And I just had him jump into keyboard games which, if you don’t know, is like, there’s no, very little reading involved. No reading. No reading.
Sometimes, we make notation observations. Yes, observations. Yeah, it happens naturally. Yes, and lots of movement away from the piano and singing. So, it was just a very different approach than I had given the older boys. And I think the mom started to recognize hey, this could work for number two.
And she approached me and was like, hey, could we, I know you might not want to try that experience again. Just wanted you to know he was diagnosed with dyslexia, and when she said that, I thought, Oh, of course! That’s why, because I knew outside of piano, he was a good kid. I just didn’t understand. He was just, as you were struggling, trying to distract attention from his own inability to read. We had him join his younger brother in keyboard games, and they just finished Keyboard Games A – acouple of weeks ago, and I’ve just been blown away at how much joy I get out of teaching them and how much joy they have in singing a new song and playing a new piece, and they’re singing it in tune and just huge progress that I’m seeing with that and honestly was floored by the mom recognizing the effort that I was putting into what I was, investing in my students by learning about how we learn music, sometimes you don’t see, you don’t feel like your parents see what you’re doing behind the scenes, you don’t always feel appreciated. So I was just very humbled by that. And
Amy: I think there’s two really good lessons in that. Like the first lesson, I think sometimes it’s okay. Like you have to recognize. Like when, like you, you had to say I can’t do this anymore, and that’s okay. It’s okay to say, I can’t do this anymore. But then there was also redemption in that. You it came back around and then, this new way. And it was exactly what that student needed. Yeah. Super cool. Yeah.
Nicole: And didn’t you say, he even said I love this. Yeah. I love piano.
Abby: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And it’s very cute. His observations, he’ll be like. Back when we used to take piano lessons, and I was learning how to read. I was like, yeah, remember when we did that? And you would get very angry. He was like, yeah. Let’s not do that again.
Amy: Aw, that’s awesome. That’s very sweet. That is very sweet. Oh my goodness. So that really brings us into the next question perfectly. Can you guys maybe describe your guiding principles or mantras that impact either your life in general or your teaching philosophy and how you approach your students in your studio a little bit?
Nicole: It’s been a journey. I feel every couple of years, it changes, and the last couple of years with COVID and everything I have, I have another area I was learning about was trauma-informed teaching, and I learned about that about a year before the pandemic started, and started taking a few of the free online courses that were available at the beginning of COVID through the Kieran Purvis Institute, and I started to recognize this pandemic is probably going to result in some delays happening not because we, we didn’t stop having piano lessons, but the brain capacity to process was going to be less because of being worried about life and worried about what was going to happen And not, and being online as well. I feel like the last two years I’ve learned to just try to step back and be present more with my students and to, we’ve had a lot more conversations about being okay with who we are and being okay with where our brain is at that day, at the lesson. Because you hear the comments, I don’t understand why I didn’t play, why I played so well at home, and I’m not here, and I, I should be doing better. And just continuing to have conversations with them, you’ve had a long day at school, you just came from soccer, or whatever your brain is probably hungry or tired, or and that if we can work with the brain and I’ve said this in a few other interviews, but I like to talk about the brain as if it’s a different entity because it helps us disassociate who we value from what is happening in our body.
And so that’s been a huge like journey for me in the last few years as I was processing my own trauma. That I went through as a child and realizing how it was affecting my ability to be a parent and a teacher as I went on this journey to forgive myself and to disassociate, the worth of my body from the worth of me as a person a soul, a spirit that’s given me a whole lot more understanding of how to show appreciation for my students and so we’ve had conversations like you do know that I’m never going to be mad at you if you come here and you didn’t practice.
And I want you, that happens. Yeah. That’s, you just do the very best you can, and we’ll work with where you’re at. And we just had a recital and some of the students were like, I’m so nervous. I don’t want to, I’m like, wait, let’s talk this through. Why are you nervous? I think they’re going to think I’m a bad pianist. And I said what do you think that means? What makes a bad pianist? What makes a good pianist? And there are times when they’ll make a mistake and get frustrated in a lesson, and I just stop and say, I just need you to know that you making mistakes is never going to mean that I’m going to care about you less. It has nothing to do with how I feel about you as a person. And that can get pretty emotional for some people. So I only use it when the time is right, but there are some students that, whether it’s the pandemic brought it out or whatever, they just really need to know that I’m on their side and we’re a team and that their value is not tied to how they play.
Amy: I think going into the lessons with just the mindset of we’re here to make music Like you said if they have a day and you can tell that they’re just sometimes, I have you kids come in And say I’m just so tired or I just came from this like you were, you know saying and okay why don’t we you know, play game to start first and change it up. We’re here to learn, but it doesn’t have to be like this regimented thing where they have to feel like I didn’t get to play it enough this week. Okay, we’ll just work on some more this week and we’ll tackle that song next week. Yeah, there’s not that, always that constant pressure that we’re here to make music first and foremost.
Nicole: And the more I teach, the more I’m okay with that because I know consistently over the years, the progress will show up. Yeah. Long term. Yes. Yes.
Abby: What about you, Abby? I think Probably not quite as going as deep, but in a similar, no, a similar line is just like learning to, and this is almost cliche, but control what you can control and not try to control the things you can’t control. And adjust my expectations accordingly. So I think probably the biggest thing in this is I don’t care if Or how much my students practice. At all. It is not even a question I ask. And I actually remember Tim Topham giving mentioning this in a presentation at NCKP when I went and that’s probably when that seed was planted in my mind of what if your students just, with we stopped expecting that from them. And I just love that unconditional aspect of it. Of course, the Music Moves for Piano curriculum lends very well to that because the teacher has a lesson plan that they’re going through. It really doesn’t matter what the students accomplished throughout the week. And as I’ve let go of that, I’ve just seen my students flourish and grow in their audition and their creativity.
But yeah, that goes for a lot of things, even down to, oh, this is a fun, practical tip. This is my tip. Every recital or performance that my students have, I just bring my copies of their books. And it has been a lifesaver for my students. Definitely saved some kids from getting in trouble with their parents. Not that happens all the time, but yeah, just that kind of a thing. What can I do to make this easier for my students, make it more joyful for everyone?
Yeah, and I think another thing in terms of a work-life balance thing is like you just have to take time, and you alluded to this earlier, Nicole, like sometimes you, you notice a problem in how you work or just the nature of being self-employed or like running a studio.
And it just takes a year or two or a few months, okay, here’s a solution, but I can’t get to that right now. And over time, it’s just going to work itself out. I remember having conversations with people, as I would just talk about the nature of my job. Yeah, sometimes I’m working until 10 o’clock at night, because I went to the zoo in the morning with my nieces. Because I can, and I’m not teaching at that time. But. And that’s, that can be really frustrating. And so then, nice friends and acquaintances will be like why don’t you just say you’re not going to work past 5 PM? And I’m like, that’s not helpful because I really can’t do that. I’m sure y’all know most of the time I’m teaching through 5 PM.
But as I’ve looked back in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been like, wow, I am wrapping that up. Around dinner time I’m wrapping up my work and finish that lesson and just going on with my evening activities and I just had to let some time pass to get into a groove, and I guess maybe that’s more of a young professional lesson to learn but I’m sure it’s one that I’ll keep learning throughout life.
Amy: And I think that this profession, like being an independent music teacher. The way that you structure your studio can give you freedom. Yeah. And, like, the neat thing is like the way I do it every year, depending on what happens in life, yeah. I can do it a little bit differently if I need to, like the way like I structure my policies, sometimes I start the first week of August, sometimes I start the first week of September. And sometimes I do six lessons in the summer, and sometimes they do seven. It can lend itself to flexibility with your life as well.
Okay, ladies, why don’t you tell the teachers a little bit about your nonteacher side? Do you have any hobbies or just anything that you like to do in your spare time, in all of your free time??
Nicole: Oh. I have two kids, and so I spend a lot of time hanging out with them. My daughter is super into movies, so we watch a lot of movies and talk about movies, and my son is super into airplanes and World War II, so I end up reading a lot about that and going to different conventions or museums with him. And between that and reading books or listening to books and podcasts, that’s usually how I end up spending my free time.
Abby: Yeah, I have. A lot of hobbies and interests, but not many that I can get around to in all of my spare time. But probably one thing I do pretty regularly is I just have a lot of houseplants. I worked at a garden center for a few years I enjoy taking care of those. That sounds like they’re my children. They’re definitely not. I need your help. They’re not that important to me. I don’t need Abby’s help. I just find a lot of joy in that, and it’s just a nice activity to decompress. But when I do have extended time, my mom is very into textile hobbies. And so I, because of her, so like knitting and quilting, sewing, that kind of thing.
Amy: As we said at the beginning, you ladies are here in my home because you are attending the first-ever Piano Pantry Retreat. And I wondered if you guys could share with the teachers out there who are listening, maybe one particular thing that you have found from your time the last day and a half, and we have another half a day to go still that has helped you unwind, get organized, just anything that you’ve enjoyed the most and taken from it so far.
Nicole: Amy sent us a list of things that we would cover a little bit while we were here. And I knew it was going to be a lot of help with organizing and learning about digital processes. And I’ve always wanted to get that more together. But being married to a tech husband means he usually ends up doing stuff. Or if I try to be autonomous and do it myself, then I get stuck, and he’s either making fun of me or not really, but then I just feel like, why isn’t this working? And by the time you’ve spent a couple of hours going through file organization and, you’re just like, why am I doing this? Is this ever going to end?
So being here is. It’s just a treat because even though it’s like a work retreat, we get to sit outside on the back porch and just watch the deer run by today and feel the breeze. And it’s even though. This is super important to work on. And so the added benefit of being in nature and being with friends doing it has made it like it’s, I can do this. And then, like, randomly during our work sessions, we’ll call out like, oh my gosh, I can’t do this. And we’ll just say, okay, let’s Google that really quick. And so it just has been. It’s a great way to feel, and not only that, the food is amazing. So Amy was commenting earlier that maybe it doesn’t feel quite like a retreat because we’re working and getting so much done, but I think it is because I’m going to go home feeling like I’ve got a better-organized life. So I’m really excited.
Abby: For sure. My laptop desktop is clean. There is, there are zero files. And yeah, I think almost all of my documents are organized and that’s just such a relief. I know that I can go back home and get some projects done so that I feel like I don’t have to sift through and wade through all of my ideas.
They’re already organized and ready to go. Nicole already talked about the food and the views, but the views outside we’ve been sitting on the porch, which is great but the views from inside to the outside are beautiful. Amy and her husband have built this beautiful home, and it feels like we’re here in an Airbnb, we range hand frame. Really nice one. Yes. Yeah, and I guess, yeah, there’s no conflict of interest between the work and the refreshing part of it. Yeah, because like I said, there’s just not time least for me, I’m not super tech savvy to, to dive into all these digital management tasks. So it’s nice to have all the daily lesson upkeep, the house chores, I left that at home.
Amy: You’re not at home to be distracted by other things. It’s like time to clean out the brain fuzz and the clutter so that then you can, like you said, focus on other projects, things that you don’t normally get done, because now you can actually have a workspace that you understand and is under control again.
Abby: Yeah, and we’ve also been talking about just like how do we maintain this and keeping a regular maintenance schedule of these things, which I’m super excited to.
Amy: The best thing about being together, too, is it’s not just me. Abby might have had a question about something, and I’m not sure. And Nicole’s like, here’s how you do it. And so you’re with other teachers, and we can cross-help each other in those things.
But at the end of every episode, I like to finish off with one silly or fun fact about myself, as you guys know. So this week’s is all about you. Can you share something amusing or silly about yourself with our listeners?
Nicole: I mentioned earlier that I love of hanging out with my daughter and watching movies. And I would never have suspected that I would be a Twilight fan because actually, my daughter is not, but I I, yeah, through various circumstances, I thought, I’m never going to read that book. Then I read the book, and now I’m a super fan. And so of course I love Robert Pattinson, I’ve seen almost every movie he’s been in. Yeah, that’s a little known fact about me: I love Twilight and Robert Patterson.
Abby: My fun fact is that I don’t like lemons. And I really wish I did. I don’t like lemonade. I can’t stand it. One time I was in the Chick fil A drive thru. And I asked for half-sweet and half unsweet tea. And I ordered it on the app so I could go back and make sure it wasn’t a miscommunication. And they gave me Half lemonade, and I was like, just suck it up, Abbey. Just drink it. I took one sip, and I was like, I can’t do it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had to flag them down. I just, yeah.
Amy: I think they call that an Arnold Palmer, so it’s half lemonade, half, yeah, half iced tea, or whatever.
Abby: It certainly doesn’t advertise it as that, but, yeah.
Amy: I can relate to the non-lemon thing. I told Abbey I’m also not a huge citrus person. More in dislike with proteins I don’t like. Like lemon chicken that much, or cranberry sauce on turkey or things like that. But the lemonade thing, I don’t know, Abbey.
Abby: Like I said, I wish I could enjoy it.
Nicole: Like, maybe put a lot of raspberries and strawberries in it.
Abby: Maybe. I don’t know. Foo lemonade.
Amy: . Thank you so much for being here today, ladies and sharing your time with me and with our listeners and for spending time with me here in my home as well.
I hope you enjoyed my chat with Nicole and Abigail as much as I did. It was such a joy spending time together and they now both hold an extra special place in my world of dear piano teacher friends. If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned for the next one, number 30, which will feature attendees from the July Piano Pantry Retreat.
While this summer’s retreats are both full, if you’re interested in getting notified when next year’s dates become available, visit the link in the show notes to sign up. For those who may not be able or interested in attending in person, I’ve also created an opportunity for you to still get the chance to tackle some of those digital management projects.
Starting on July 6th, I’ll be meeting with a group every Monday and Wednesday to tackle our digital workspace before we kick off the new school year. If you’re interested in getting in on this, visit the link in the show notes for more information. As always, thank you so much for showing up here this week.
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so new episodes will download automatically. Have a great week.
