Playing Piano and Stepping Forward

I've been taking piano lessons for about a year. My husband is my teacher. It is going well; we have power issues every now and again, but mostly we work well together. Part of the reason our lessons go so well is because of the method he teaches. It is a playing-based approach called Simply Music. I haven't taken piano lessons before, so I don't have the negative experience with it that many people have, nor can I speak about the difference between this method and the usual approach; but I can say that Matt's students have fun, enjoy their lessons, get satisfaction out of their rapid progress, and hear comments from their friends and family about how astounding it is that they play so well in such a short time. I like learning to play: It is relaxing and focusing, I think it improves my intelligence, it is empowering to be able to play this instrument that used to be so intimidating, and I get to write my own beautiful songs.

We've been through a lot of changes over the last 3 years since having our first child. Before we had kids, we floated around working jobs to pay the bills without really knowing what we wanted or why. Then, after we had our unexpected baby, over time we've been getting more and more in touch with our life purposes. I went from college student, to AmeriCorps member, to waitress, to realizing I wanted to stay home with my child. By being a stay-at-home mom I've been more challenged and fulfilled than ever before. Matt went from college student playing in different bands, to bread baker, to carpenter, and over the past year has been realizing that piano is the only thing he wants to do.

When we decided I would stay home, he became our sole breadwinner, which pushed him to be creative about how to make enough money (preferring to make the most money he could in the least amount of time). He started putting himself out into the community by joining several bands and advertising himself as a wedding/event pianist. Then a friend told him about teaching Simply Music, so he took the at-home training course and started getting students. A year later Matt has his own successful band, is often invited to join other bands, has a booked summer, and has around 20 piano students.

To make up the rest of what we need for our bills, he's also been doing carpentry, a job he generally finds unfulfilling. Lately Matt has been realizing that in order to truly succeed at his music career, he needs to take his foot out of the carpentry door. It is a safety net that holds him from putting himself fully forward into music. We knew that sometime there would be a transition from carpentry to full-time music, and we've been nervous about it. Life has led us, sooner than we anticipated, to the turning point of taking that step and trusting we will succeed. Matt is in the process of deciding to let go of his carpentry job and go for getting more students and more gigs. We are afraid-- what if he doesn't get students? What if we don't have enough money? What will happen to us without the fall-back job? What about the debt we had committed to paying off this year?

Scary and exciting. Stepping into the unknown is so scary, but we know it is the only way to succeed. Please wish us well over the next months as Matt tries to recruit piano students. Because of his summer gigs, we can afford for him not to do carpentry for the next 2 months, but after that he will need to have enough students to get us by.

Check out this review of Simply Music in The Old Schoolhouse homeschooling magazine.


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