Do you have any heart warming stories about music teaching? If the answer is yes, then we want to hear from you NOW!

Share YOUR interesting music teaching story NOW

Help us build a lasting resource that will advocate for music education

Teacher with students

When we create new products and resources, one of our favourite things to do is to turn to our music teaching community for help: and now is one of those times!

Right now we’re developing a set of music teaching stories. We don’t know how this project will end up looking yet. It will probably start as a simple e-book and later turn into a printed book. Whatever it becomes doesn’t really matter, it’s the content that counts!

What we’re looking for is interesting stories about how music lessons have benefited one or many students. What we’re interested in is little ‘gem’ stories that you might tell at the dinner table when you’re out with friends, or the sort of good story you might share with other colleagues to let them know how your music lessons have helped a particular student or class.

Particularly we’d be interested in an inspiring story that beats all odds. A story that has changed a student’s life for the better in one or more years. That “light bulb” moment where you saw that instant of change. That moment a student looked at you and said – No More! I’m through with that and I’m changing for the better. That moment of decision in a student in one of your music classes which sparked a change which shaped their future life. Whatever your story, (and we know there are so many of them out there) We want to capture and publish them.

Now I know you’re probably thinking – “that’s great, but I don’t have any stories from my day to day teaching, so I’m not doing that”.

Stop That!!

We all have a story, whether we know it or not!

Here is one example:

It wasn’t that long ago that a tubby, pimply, nervous, quiet, but studious kid walked through the front door of her first teachers house. She wasn’t sure what she was even doing there, she had never done any exams before, could hardly play a note compared to most other talent out there, and she was way older than most kids who had already done all of this. But This girl was was searching for a future, for a way forward and she was keen to learn. And then the magic happened… this teacher believed that anyone could do anything if they just practiced and enjoyed what they were playing. She was a special caring lady who just believed for some reason in this girl, she made her think she was worth something, didn’t make it all seem like hard work and this girl wanted to be like her. The teacher believed that she could do it and she encouraged this girl to go for competitions, exams and auditions. She was felt more like a friend to this girl than a teacher, but yet she was both. Before long, this girl who initially thought she was destined for a lonely career sitting in a science laboratory or an office, practiced music before anything else in the day. It became her whole life; and she never missed a lesson, a practice or rehearsal. All because someone cared and made her feel important.

That teacher was my first ever private music teacher and that pimply fat, girl was me! That one kind teacher empowered me to be a music teacher and for that I’m forever grateful!

But the truth is that this simple story in not uncommon. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do and why they do it. If you’re not sure about the power of a written story about music teaching, just check out this one I found on the internet and and have your tissues ready! Here’s another one that’s not about music teaching, but it’s still very impactful.

So here’s how it works:

All you need to do to participate is to send me an email with your story. Remember it doesn’t have to be long, but it does need to be impactful to be chosen.

Please remember:

  • Please don’t submit anything that violates any persons or companies copyright
  • Feel free to change names & places, particularly of children involved (we would do this anyway)

If your story gets selected, you’ll be giving us a perpetual, non-exclusive license to use your story in our music education products.

This means that:

  • We can use the story in our products as long as necessary with no royalty payable
  • This is a non- exclusive license, so you can still publish or re-use the story in any of your own publications if you wish, as long as you don’t enter into an agreement which makes our use of the story invalid.

Although we will probably charge a nominal fee for the purchase of this publication when it released, its intention is not to make money. In fact, we intend to donate proceeds from this back into music education via projects like on donorschoose.org.

So while you won’t make money from contributing to this, you WILL make a huge difference to the music education community, and as a contributor, you will of course get your own free copy. If you’re not happy with those terms of your involvement, then please don’t send in your story.

You can choose to include your first name and city location if you wish, alternatively you can be totally anonymous. All children and students identified in the stories should of course have their names changed for privacy, and we will do that anyway on all stories submitted.

Everyone who contributes will get a copy of the electronic document when it’s compiled, and everyone who’s story is chosen will get a physical book IF one is eventually published. So if you think about it, you’ll be getting the collective wisdom and stories of everyone who contributes, and you’ll be doing a good thing for our industry in helping create this lasting resource.

How To Enter

So now it’s your turn: if you can think of any stories please fill in the form below, or alternatively you can directly email me at janice@funmusicco.com

Remember that anything is welcome – and most worthwhile! You might think that your story isn’t that special, but it might well be most interesting to others. We don’t give any guarantees that we will include your story, but I certainly will take the time to review each one personally and write back to thank you.

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your Story

    Upload a file: a word processor document, a picture, or anything else you need to help explain your idea (optional)