Personal Narrative: Ms. Bear As My Piano Teacher

I felt very fortunate to have Ms. Bear as my piano teacher. When I heard my friends talk about their piano teacher, they complained how strict she was. Although I thought some of them were better piano players than me at the time, I did not relate to the pressure they felt when they had to do recitals or when they told stories of their piano teacher yelling at them when they did not play right. Ironically, those friends are the ones that ended up quitting earlier or to my knowledge no longer played. I never lost my love for playing the piano and I credit Ms. Bear for being influential in playing a big part in that. She helped me to appreciate the magnificent instrument of ebony and ivory keys, the sound that it produced, the classical …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, if I would have had the same Russian piano teacher that my friends had, I may not have enjoyed playing piano the way that I did or have found the intrinsic motivation to practice on a weekly basis. I felt like the qualities of being an effective teacher who works with young kids has to go beyond your passion for the subject that you are teaching. Evidently, my friends’ teacher and my teacher were both passionate about teaching their students how to play the piano. However, what differentiated their teaching styles was the way they related to children. Ms. Bear not only loved teaching about her favorite musical instrument, she also seemed to love and relate well with children. Being a child, it was easy for me to see an individual’s true authentic state, I either liked you or disliked you. If I did not like you, then it would be difficult for me to learn from you. Ms. Bear had many things that a child would be delighted about: a big dog, an inviting home, stickers, gum/candy, and an encouraging personality. This combination was the right formula that always made me receptive and eager to …show more content…
Another one of my biggest barriers is fear. I do not regret many decisions in my life but in hindsight, I do wish that I stuck with piano longer than I had. Maybe I do not want to fully acknowledge that my piano lessons stopped not because my parents could no longer afford it but because I found myself distracted and attracted to other extracurricular activities like hip hop dancing, singing, or team sports. Once I found myself attracted to another activity, I often lost my commitment and focus to the current activity that I had already invested so much time and energy to. I let my piano lessons go, in an effort to chase something else. In my attempt of always striving to be a perfectionist at whatever I am doing, I find myself feeling stressed by the extra pressure that I place on myself and forget to enjoy the moment. There were many nights that I practiced and would find myself feeling frustrated by the many mistakes I made while learning a piece. Instead of using that as a driving force for me to continue practicing repeatedly, I reached a point where I would just stop playing the piano altogether and do something else because I could not perfect it. Lastly, there is the strongest inhibitor,