A few choice words from my students…. Feel free to add some of your own!
Me: “So did you learn any goofy songs at summer camp?”
Student: “No, mostly they had sailboats in them. My mom knows the words.”
Me: “So, what’s new and interesting this week?”
Student: “Grandma has spiders on her legs and crinkly elbows.”
Me: “So what’s new this week?”
Student: “Mom got a new pooper scooper.”
Me: “That was interesting…. You had some creative rhythms in there that I don’t think the composer ever considered.”
Student: “You mean it was a train wreck.”
Me: “That was pretty stinky.” (said to a student with whom I have a long-standing relationship that can handle this!)
Student: “I thought it sounded pretty good…. until it didn’t.”
Me: “So, how do you think that went?”
Student: “Pretty good.”
Me: “Yeah? It’s written in 3/4 time, but you played it in 4/4. And you forgot all the sharps in the key of A major. And you skipped these three lines entirely.”
Student: “But it was still pretty good, right?”
Me: “So, what’s new?”
Student: “After piano, I’m going over to my uncle’s house to play with my band.”
Me: “Really? Who’s in your band?”
Student: “Me and my uncle.”
Me: “That was great. Your finger position was so good that even if I were standing all the way over there in the kitchen, I would be able to tell how good your hand position was just by listening to you.”
Student: “I think piano teachers are a different kind of human.”
Me: And the horns went toot…toot…toot,toot,toot
5 yr. old student: “Ms.M,” That’s obnoxious!
A student to me when she jumped into one of her pieces without my go-ahead…
“I’m going to tune it and make sure it is in the right position”.
Me: Anything exciting happening this week?
Student: “Well, we’re going cosmetic bowling on Saturday.” 🙂
7 year old Student: You should be a music teacher.
Me: Well, I AM a music teacher, I teach piano…or do you mean at a school?
Student: Yes
Me: Why?
Student: Cuz you’re good at music. 🙂
Me to 7 year old boy: Your wrists are drooping.
Student: Oh, you man I shouldn’t let my wrists drop down into the hot molten lava. )
Sorry!! That should have said “mean” not “man.”
(I had just purchased school themed stickers with sayings like, “A+” and “You Rule” with a picture of a ruler, instead of my usual music themed stickers).
Student: Wow, you have teacher stickers!
Me: Aren’t I a teacher?
When teaching a rambunctious 7-year-old about staccato and legato, I turned the page to his first song using the articulations. I pointed to the dots on the notes and asked him what they meant, and he said, “Oh, yeah! Colorado!”
At the next lesson, I quizzed the same child over the same markings, and he replied with a slight lisp, “I remember that – it’s sta-taco!” (You probably had to be there…)