Joanna García - Piano

What a beautiful day!

Out before it gets too hot… I don’t see it cooling down any time soon.

Had such a lovely teaching day yesterday - in particular, one of my online diploma students, who’s just at the point of starting to record her diploma after almost two years since we embarked upon her journey of preparation. Yesterday, she was playing with class, clearly excellent preparation and beautiful musicality.

It honestly brought tears to my eyes. I told her so.

It this is why we do it, isn’t it?

Feeling happy with life right now.

Having spent some time travelling with the superb Dr Sally Cathcart, I was reminded that I really should spend more time reading. So I stole this book from Roberto and spent a very enjoyable hour diving in.

It’s somewhat ironic that I’m sharing my thoughts here, in the “disembodied”, “asynchronous”, “one-to-many” and “low bar for entry and exit” virtual world here on FB, but this is my way of assimilating and sharing my thoughts so far.

I’m finding it fascinating, especially as the parent of a Gen Z young person.

I’ve been reading about the surge in college students in the U.S. reporting various diagnoses from a professional. For example, studies show notable rises in anxiety, depression, AHDH, anorexia and substance misuse/ addition amongst undergraduates since around 2010.

The author puts this down to two factors:

- overprotection in the real world (the surge of overprotective parenting since the 1980s)
- underprotection in the virtual world (the inherent dangers of the “phone-based childhood”, which encompasses all manner of devices, including gaming consoles) as young people inevitably seek to discover their “online brand”.

Only the introduction and first chapter in, but it’s fascinating, and disturbing, and provoked the most glorious discussion with my son over dinner, segueing fabulously into just the good old meaning of life, Buddhism, Catholicism and a myriad of other things.

I can’t wait to continue reading.

I read interesting texts at the start of the academic year and then fell off somewhat. Hopefully this will be reinstated.

Anyone read it too?

My lovely tutor group!

Feels like coming home. 😍

Final PTC day of the year.

With the Sally Cathcart legend drinking lemonade on the M6 toll road services!

PTC, here we come!

Off we go again….

Today I travel down to Watford ready for tomorrow’s final day of the year of the Piano Teachers’ Course.

It feels crazy to have completed my first year as Principal Tutor there. But what a huge privilege (and responsibility, it must be said!).

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learnt, both from the stunningly amazing team I get to work with, and the students themselves. And that learning will just continue.

I’m not going to pretend it’s been easy. It’s been a huge change to my professional life, and taken a lot of time in preparation, assignment marking, etc. But anything good is worth working for.

One of the lovely things is that this atmosphere of learning permeates everything. The tutors demonstrate it so clearly. We have an attitude of utter respect for other tutors: their expertise, their knowledge, and we are all hungry to learn from each other. And when the team is so fantastic, that’s a wonderfully humbling approach.

We learn, too, from the students. The Foundation students, those on the main Cert PTC, the Fast Track to Diploma course, and Advanced and visiting students.

Just like in any learning environment, there are some who immerse themselves, and take every morsel of learning and run with it. Some perhaps are less willing to make adjustments to their overall practice. But, surely enough, we have all been changed by what we’ve experienced this academic year, and countless students will have been impacted as a result.

What an honour.

But mostly, I treasure the laughs. Whether this is Ilga’s “healthy crisps”, or Ceri and Rhiana’s makeshift fridge, I have truly laughed until tears were streaming down my face.

I can’t wait to see the current cohort in their final concert and discussions tomorrow.

And I absolutely can’t wait for next year.

This amuses me more than it should.

What a very interesting topic of conversation.

It's taken years of campaigning to get Government to ban NDAs. Now it's time to ensure the ban protects everyone in music.

Let's stop victims of harassment from being silenced - Use the ISM's guidance to respond to Government's consultation ⬇️
https://www.ism.org/news/non-disclosure-agreements-consultation-have-your-say/

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