In Memory of my First Piano Teacher

I spent some time this past week thinking about the legacy of my piano teachers, and how what they began in me is continuing as I teach my own students. These reflections began because my first piano teacher, who was also a close family friend, passed away a couple weeks ago. I wanted to spend some time in this week's blog post remembering her impact, and how that is continuing to show up in my own teaching. 

Her name was Jackie Wickstrom. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and a knack for saying things in a way that made you really hear her without ever having to be severe or firm. She was also my mom's best friend, I called her Aunt Jackie. This picture below was taken after one of my first piano recitals as a teacher, which Jackie attended. She is on the right, and is offering me some lovely words of encouragement couched in her usual trademark humor. 

In her piano teaching, she found simple incentives that worked to motivate her students. One I remember best was the jar of chocolate she kept next to the piano (most often it was Hershey kisses), and at the end of lesson she'd give you one piece for every song you passed that week. Suffice it to say I was very motivated to master my songs so I could get more candy. 

Jackie also made her own games and resources. In a pre-internet era where home computers were just starting to become a thing, you couldn't just download and print a ready-made resource, so she created simple games and theory exercises that broke up the lesson. She also hand-wrote music for us - I can remember at least one arrangement that I played in church as a kid that she had written out herself. 

But most importantly beyond the incentives and the creative teaching, she had a way of finding wonder in things that made her an excellent teacher, because she genuinely shared the joy of a new discovery or milestone with her students, and that became part of the intrinsic motivation that pushed us forward. 

A lot of these things I'm remembering are arguably traits of any good teacher - using positive incentives, finding good resources, partnering with students in their learning process - and I'm grateful that not only did Jackie do these in a way that motivated me as a student, but in a way that I was able to model my early teaching on as I found my own voice and style as a young piano teacher. And even 16 years into my own teaching journey, the incentives, the theory games and the idea of partnering with students in their journey are still core parts of my own teaching. 

I know how much Jackie loved teaching piano, because I felt it. And I like to think the music she started in me is continuing into the journeys of my own students.