There is a widespread affliction among music teachers. It is highly contagious, quickly spreading to students and even their parents. If you have ever studied an instrument, you will recognize the symptoms immediately: the obsession with “doing the time.”
“Do the time, not the task.” This mindset dictates that you must sit down and practice for exactly thirty minutes every single day. It doesn’t ask you to produce an exercise or a piece of music that makes you proud—and those two approaches are entirely different. To the untrained eye, a mandatory half-hour routine implies that a student is diligently solving problems and polishing their assignments. In reality, it does no such thing. More often than not, through no fault of their own, students will do just about anything except find ways to improve their craft. Why? Simply because they don’t know how.
A music teacher has several core duties, and perhaps the most vital is helping pupils understand and conquer whatever they set out to achieve. Ultimately, this problem-solving mindset should spill over into real life, offering guidance when they encounter outside difficulties. Yes, a music teacher can be that impactful. This isn’t just true for kids, either; everyone can benefit from a great mentor. Whether you are struggling with your job, your parents, your relationships, or your finances, music provides the tools to navigate those challenges.
I am incredibly proud to be a drum and piano teacher here in Chicago. My work allows me to meet a wonderful, diverse mix of people, and as luck would have it, they are truly fantastic. Every day, I try to guide them toward accomplishing a specific task rather than just clocking hours on the instrument. Over the years, I have developed quite an arsenal of techniques to do just that. I never ask my students how long they practiced—I couldn’t care less. Instead, I am entirely focused on the results. Because at its core, music is about one thing: can you play the piece? The audience doesn’t care whether you rehearsed it for five minutes or five years; they only care about the music.
