Teaching Music without Squashing Your Own Creativity

Can you be both a great teacher and an active musician? Dewey Finn once said "those who can't do, teach." We don't believe that's true. 

In Episode 3, Adam sits down with fellow instructor Jeremy to talk about the balance between teaching and staying creative. They dive into the challenges of pouring into students while still making time for your own growth, and how teaching can either fuel or drain your creativity depending on how you approach it.

Whether you’re a teacher, student, or somewhere in between, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on staying inspired while helping others grow.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Daily Musician Podcast. This is a podcast for musicians talking to musicians about becoming better at music. So whether you're a teacher or a gigging musician, or you're just getting started, or you love to write songs, this podcast is for you. In this episode, we are going to talk about teaching music without squashing your own creativity. So today we're going to debunk that School of Rock philosophy proposed by Dewey Finn that says, "those who can't do, teach." Teaching is rewarding, but it often feels like it pulls you away from your own music. So that's the topic that we're going to dive into today. But before we do, I want to reintroduce myself. My name's Adam Wilson. I'm the owner of Learn Music in Cornelius. We have the privilege of teaching music to over 480 students each week. I'm going to be one of your hosts today. I'm also a songwriter. I also play in a band, and music is my life. When I'm not teaching music, I'm playing music, and it's the thing that I'm most passionate about in this world. So I've got someone else with me today. Jeremy, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Speaker 2 1:25

Hello, my name is Jeremy Macha. I'm a lifelong musician, mostly a bass player. I started with guitar when I was around five, and I've just been playing my whole life. It's been my my life's goal.

Speaker 1 1:36

So, Jeremy, how long have you been teaching music for?

Speaker 2 1:39

Four years now, just about.

Speaker 1 1:42

Ok awesome! And I've been teaching music, I started teaching when I was about 18, and I'm actually gonna be 40 tomorrow. So this podcast is happening on the last day of my 30s. But yeah, I've been teaching since I was about 18 and started Learn Music about 12 years ago. And I think that this podcast topic is one that's really relevant because I know for me when I started teaching and started a school, started to learn music, like it it was a lot of work, you know, and I was teaching 40 students a week, sometimes more. And it's really hard to I I joke around with people. I say, you know, I'm so busy running a music school that I don't have any time to play music. And that's a a challenge. And when you love to play, you know, I got into teaching because I love to play. I wanted to teach other people how to play. When you love to play and and you can't because you're so tired from playing, essentially, and teaching other people how to play, it's a tough spot to be in. So this is gonna be a really, a really great episode today for anyone who's a teacher or anyone who's thinking about becoming a music teacher. So the fear is that if I teach, I'll stop creating. So is that Jeremy? When I say that, like is that something you can relate to?

Speaker 2 2:58

Oh yeah, that weighs heavy on my heart. It's something I think about kind of like every week almost.

Speaker 1 3:03

Yeah. Yeah, and I I think same with me, you know, it's like I'm always having to try and manage my time in a way that I can still have pockets where I can be creative. I do love to teach, but it's like, you know, like teaching and not playing is sort of like eating food but not drinking water. You you kind of you kind of have to have both, right? And so I think in order for us to stay fulfilled as teachers, we need to be out there playing as well. And not only to stay fulfilled, but I think to stay relevant and to stay sharp, we have to be out there playing as well. And that's one thing I love about our team at Learn Music is that we have so many teachers that play out a lot and that'll even go on tour with their bands. And so a lot of really good teachers at Learn Music who are managing that that tension well. But some common beliefs that people have when they think about teaching music is that teaching equals having less time and less energy for your own music, and that you'll give all your creativity to your students, and that you'll become more of a coach than an artist. What about that? Can you relate to any of that?

Speaker 2 4:19

Yeah, I feel like give it doesn't really give all of your creativity to your students. I feel like your students are kind of a launching pad for your creativity. Yeah. I find some of my most creative moments are when I'm trying to teach a concept to a student. Yeah. And I can totally channel that later on after I after I leave the teaching realm. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 4:36

And I think that that's a really healthy way to look at this. I think, you know, one thing, we're not in control of what happens to us on some level, but we are in control of how we respond. I mean, we are in control of whether we teach or not, you know, but now that we are teachers, that's not really something that we can control day to day. We wake up and you know, we make our living teaching other people to play. And I have I have seen people who they kind of the fact that they have to teach so much, they kind of hang their head low. But I think what you just said is is really important. Like for me, there's something really special about teaching where I think one thing is that it takes me back. So I I have this vivid memory. I actually just went to go see MXPX with my boys this weekend. They're like an old tooth and nail pop punk band, and it was really special for a few reasons. One of them is my eight-year-old crowd surfed, which was pretty awesome. I have it on video, but also they I have this vivid memory of like being in my room when I was a kid. I had this giant like Target CD player, and you know the ones with like the light up speakers and stuff like that, like five disc changer thing, like one of those deals. And so I have this memory of like popping an MXPX CD into the CD player. I think it was life in general, and just closing my eyes and laying on my bed and just being taken away. It was like the first time I'd ever heard pop punk music like that, and I was just kind of taken away to another planet. And and the longer you play, the less you experience moments like that. But in the spirit of what you said, one thing that I love about teaching is that sometimes I'll teach a student a song that will remind me of a musical moment I had 20 years ago, and it's like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you reminded me of that. And I'll go and I'll listen to all these records, and then you know, I'll I'll be like, I have to write something like in this in the genre. And so yeah, you can really use your students or your your ability or your the opportunity that you have to teach students as as a springboard for your own creativity. And I think that that that's a really, a really, really healthy way of looking at that. But I think you know, it's really easy to when you're a music teacher to fall into a trap where you don't look at it like that. You you might be scared that you're gonna burn out because you're teaching so much or that you're overscheduling yourself, you know, like you're doing so much teaching that you're not gonna have time to make music at home, or even that you're you're losing your identity as a creator. I think that there's this common myth that like we have to hang up our musician, our rock and roller hat, or our you know, our gigging musician hat, and it's like it's like a retirement of sorts. Yeah. And I I don't think that's true at all. What about you? How do you how do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 7:32

Well, it makes me think what's the 401k for musicians? You said about retiring. But uh no, it's uh you can totally put on a jacket of I am teacher and I'm just a teacher. That's what I am. I'm I'm a music teacher. So yeah, I think it's I think that I think you do have to hang up your hat a little bit actually. In in life and in music, when you do many different things, you do wear different hats. Yeah, you do have to take them off mindfully, I believe. There is a little bit of a disconnection. You have to kind of disconnect from your from your teaching day and become the creator at night. Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:07

Is there anything that you've found that helps you do that?

Speaker 2 8:11

Not to sound too like guru-y, but sitting and being mindful, sitting in complete silence for just a moment when I get home. You know, you take your shoes off, you take your belt off, you just breathe for a minute, yeah. Think about your day, and then that actually is another springboard to the creativity.

Speaker 1 8:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:27

You know, you unpack your you unpack that and that mental side of it, and then you can put that into your music.

Speaker 1 8:32

That's so great. I had this student named Carlos that I I love to teach for a long time. And Jeremy and I are both dads, and raising kids is the best thing in the world, but it's hard to, you know, and for so honestly, some of the same reasons we're talking about, it's like, you know, you you don't lose you don't lose your in you don't have to lose your indiv individuality when you have a kid. But like to your to your point, you do like sometimes you have to you're like I have to hang up my hat of what I want to do and take care of my kid, yeah, or take care of my wife, or you know, take care of the other people that live with me, my pet, my chickens, I don't know. But for all you chicken people. There my back to my student Carlos, he told me he he's a dad, and he's like, hey, when you come home, it's like before you walk in the house, just sit in your car by yourself for like five minutes and just take like take a couple deep breaths. And you can even say something like in your mind or out loud, like I'm breathing, I'm breathing in creativity and I'm letting out the stress of the day. Beautiful or I'm breathing in space, I'm breathing in creativity, and I'm breathing out the commitment that I have to teach other people in this moment, and I'm gonna focus on myself. Beautiful. And I think that yeah, it you're right, like you do have to hang up that hat for part of your day. And so I I wonder, like we would probably all benefit from having some sort of ritual when we want to transition. Totally. Uh but I I really like that.

Speaker 2 10:06

So I also light a candle. That's uh that's one of my things. It's like I'm about to go sit down. This is the candle of creativity. Yeah, I'm lighting this and I'm going.

Speaker 1 10:14

Also, a couple other things that people have shared with me is just like have a guitar in multiple spaces or like make your space conducive. Yeah, yeah, make your space conducive. Like I have a room that I play my guitar in and all my all my gears there, my amps there, my computer's there. And it's like if I do want to write and if I do want to record, it's like what are all the variables that I can remove in order to make this happen? What things can already be set up? And so just making it easy too, but yeah, having making it easy, having an environment that's really conducive to creativity. My friend Grayson was at my house one day, and I he was asking me if I ever work from my guitar room. And I was like, he's I'm like, I do sometimes, but I've kind of been feeling like I don't want to lately. And he's like, Oh, you want this to be a sacred space, and I thought that was really good too. You know, like, yeah, I do. Like, I want this to be the space where like all that exists in this room is music, and you don't need to have like a separate room to do that, it could be a corner in your bedroom, you know, it could be just an intentional space, yeah. So cool. Well, I think the reality is, pardon me, I sound like a lawnmower today because of my allergies, but the only thing I want for my 40th birthday is for there to be 50% less pollen in North Carolina. I've been thinking about the bees must be so happy right now.

Speaker 2 11:41

Oh, they're having the time of their lives.

Speaker 1 11:42

Yeah, like I wonder what it's like to be a bee in North Carolina at the end of March and early. It's like it's like going on a cruise and having an all-you-can-eat buffet. It's like you can just eat whenever you want. Anyway, back to teaching. So teacher can teaching can either drain you or it can fuel you. I think we've already identified that. So path one is that draining path. When teaching drains you, it's it can feel rigid and inflexible. Maybe you're not open to new ideas. These are the things that cause it to drain you. Maybe you're teaching a genre or an age range that you're not suited for. Maybe you're repeating the same material without growth or challenge. Or maybe you're viewing teaching as a backup plan instead of part of your craft. That's a really that's an important one right there. We're gonna come back to that. But but when teaching fuels you fuels you, you're seeing fundamentals from new angles. You're being forced to articulate your craft by explaining a concept, you understand it better, which side note, that's one of my favorite things about teaching. Me three. Yeah, it's so good. You're staying connected to why you started, and you're letting your students' creativity inspire you, which is something that you spoke to. So, what parts of that, you know, the draining path? We don't want to spend too much on that, because I firmly believe teaching doesn't have to be draining. But when you feel like you're in your element as an instructor the most, Jeremy, like what are those kind of some of the things that you're experiencing, or is there anything you would add to that list of bullet points I just read? From the draining one. From the non-draining one.

Speaker 2 13:24

Adding, no, I think that that that really covers it. You really do become such a great musician by teaching. Like I with the band I teach currently, they haven't had a drummer for quite a while, so I've been filling in as the drummer, and I've watched my skill on the drums increase exponentially in the past few times.

Speaker 1 13:41

I've seen that, dude. You've gotten so good.

Speaker 2 13:43

It feels amazing. It's it's it's awesome. You really do have to view it that way. If you view it the draining way, it's it's gonna be over.

Speaker 1 13:50

And in addition to that, I would say, like, and then maybe see how that's useful in your own creative life, right? So you've become a very proficient drummer. So if you write a song, you can 100% track drums on your own song now. Totally. Jeremy also plays bass and piano and guitar, and so you're a one-man band. But that happened through teaching. Absolutely, right? It happened through there being a a drummer need in your band. No one was able, none of our students were able to step in. You were able to learn that skill, and now you're able to apply it to your own creativity.

Speaker 2 14:23

Absolutely. Yeah, with piano, I didn't even I I knew triads, I knew basic chords on the piano for all of my life, basically. But it wasn't until I started teaching that I really understood what I was doing and why it all worked. Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:35

Yeah, I I think the two things that resonate to me on that list of bullet points that I just read is the the first thing I got really excited about when I started teaching was having to think through the things that I've always just done, right? Like strumming or finger picking, having to understand that in a way where I could communicate it to somebody else. And it's a really like teaching is a really great way to understand why you do the things you do that that you do and why I just lost my train of thought there, but it's uh it's a great way to understand how and why you do what you do. So that's one of the first things I noticed. And then another thing that I've experienced this year is I do have we have Learn Music's been around for 12 years, and we have some students who have taken lessons with us for a really long time. So Joey Anders is one of them. He's uh one of our star pupils, one of our funniest pupils, too.

Speaker 2 15:34

Yeah, he came to a live dressed like a dill pickle.

Speaker 1 15:36

Yeah, yeah. I I feel like I've seen him in a banana costume before, too, but he's really, really growing as a guitar player. And so, you know, I've really had to level up my understanding of certain things so that I can continue to serve him. And so my students inspire me to get better because I always want to be two or three steps ahead of them. So I've really dug into growing as a guitar player this year and really learning the cage system in and out and really becoming fluent on the fretboard. And I don't know that if I wasn't teaching, that I wouldn't have like I wouldn't have seen as practical of a need for that, and I may not have done it because I'm I'm not I'm seeing how it's gonna benefit this other person, but then I'm seeing how it's gonna benefit me, which is really cool. So I think you know, not to sound cheesy, but like perspective is so important, and I think it's important that if you're gonna teach, it it teaching can burn you out. Like, let's not bury that under the rug, you know. It it can burn you out, it can feel like a lot sometimes. It's it's hard to get to get to a gig when you teach until 7 30 or 8. Just you know, not to sound cheesy, but it's it's all about your perspective. And so I think a practice that both Jeremy and I, I know you do it too because you have a best self journal, which if you don't know what a best self journal is, yeah, we're not sponsored. Um if you don't know what a best self journal is, check out best self journal or just bestself.co. But it's uh a journal that we use, our lead team uses it at Learn Music, and we use it to basically go from good to great to identify goals and achieve those goals. But one of the practices is in there is just a gratitude practice in the morning. You know, what what things am I grateful for? And starting your day with gratitude is so important, and I think that's a great practice that we can that's a real like if you take away one tangible thing from this podcast, if you're a teacher, really if you're in any walk of life, like and you're maybe feeling a little burnout, connect with the things that you're grateful for in the role that you're currently in and remind yourself of why you're doing what you're doing and how beneficial it is. And I knew I wanted to say this at some point in the podcast. Now feels like the right time, but teaching really is such a gift. You know, some when I think about my life, since I'm an almost 40, I'm an old man now. So when I when I reflect back, the most influential people in my life were typically teachers or like leaders. Like I grew up in church, so I had like a lot of church leaders that functioned as teachers too, and or mentors would maybe be a good word, right? And so my mentors were always the most impactful people in my life, and you know, at learn music, like collectively, we have the opportunity to mentor 489 students a week. Amazing. And so it's teaching really is a gift, and also another practice is just try to remember back to that first time that you fell in love with music, like when I talked about that moment that I had in my bedroom with my MXPX record. And you, as a teacher, get to be that for somebody else, you know, you get to be the person that helps them fall in love with music, and that's such a wonderful gift. But it's still hard to balance your creative life with that, right? And so let's talk about some ways that you can protect your creative energy. So we have some things written down here, but but before we go through those, Jeremy, I'm curious, like, what are some ways that you've really learned to protect your creative energy over the years?

Speaker 2 19:24

Yeah, it's um a lot of it is almost preparing yourself beforehand. You know, we talked a lot about like when we leave teaching, but a lot of it starts long before you ever show up to start teaching, you know, going on walks, sitting quietly before teaching, eating a good meal, taking vitamins, like it taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do for creativity.

Speaker 1 19:45

Yeah. Yeah, I've been this is slowly turning into a health podcast now, but uh I've been thinking a lot. I wear a whoop strap and it gives me like a recovery score. And so I've been whoop not sponsored. So I've been thinking a lot, but whoop, if you want to sponsor us, you can. And same with you best self. There it is. So I've been thinking about my recovery a lot lately because it gives you a recovery score, and like what things can I do to have a high recovery so that when I wake up in the morning, I'm not you know brain dead and I'm not I don't have a head full of fog and I can I can teach, but also have time and headspace in my day for for other things too. And I don't really think that we think about music as like a physical sport, but we kind of should. It burns a lot of calories, yeah, it does, especially when you're playing drums, right? But like, even too, like, you know, we have to make sure we're stretching so that we don't get injured when we play, especially when you play a lot. Like, you know, we need to make sure that we're eating, sleeping, and moving well so that you have the energy to be creative. Because even if your intentions are like, I I'll be really candid, like on Monday night, I'm like, I'm gonna record at the end of the day, and I ended up just working a ton and like exercising and stuff like that too. And I just got to the end of the day and I'm like, you know, I'd I'd run, I was running on fumes, and I ended up just like watching Fallout or something like that on Amazon Prime. Not sponsored, yeah, not sponsored. Amazon Prime, Jeff Bezos, you can sponsor us if you want. But so I think protecting your energy is really, really, really important. I think for me, one thing that's really helped is trying to schedule my practice at the beginning of the day. So, like, make time for yourself at the beginning of the day. It's important to do things like Jeremy said, like go on walks and all that. But I think to Jeremy and I just had a meeting before this, and we were talking about the concept of eating the ugliest frog first, which I don't know like where, like, why are people eating frogs? Yeah. Why are people eating ugly frogs? Like, I don't understand the saying, but I know what it means. It's like the thing that feels the most daunting, or or the thing that maybe even feels the most important that that you need to get done. The day in order to like feel good about your day, like do it first, you know. So wake up, drink some water, hydrate, eat some breakfast, go on a little walk, and then play, practice. You know, it could be uh my teacher is talking about the four areas of practice with me right now. So it's like you know, skills, so like learning scales and stuff like that, or arpeggios, triads, all that kind of stuff. It's ear training, and then it's oh no. Is there improvisation in there? No, but that might be under skills. I can see that. This is gonna drive me crazy. I gotta look this up really quick. The uh the fourth one, I can't remember the third one right now, but the fourth one is like just playing. So technical, like you should do a technical thing when you practice, do a theory-based thing. So like saying the scale degree numbers out loud when you're when you're playing a scale or the degree numbers when you're playing an arpeggio or a triad, and then ear training, so singing and playing, singing intervals, that kind of stuff, and then just playing songs. So, like in the morning, like be really intentional about doing something like that. But what's cool about that is when you practice in the morning too, you've got this fresh like inspiration for your students. So a lot of times it's interesting when I put my practice first, I'm like, oh man, I have Graydon today, or I have Joey today, and they would really benefit from this thing that I'm working on. And so, yeah, I think that that's that's a a cool benefit of doing that earlier in the day. What what other ones do you have?

Speaker 2 23:29

Uh just play is huge. I have a sticky note on my computer that says those exact words. Just play. I feel like we we often forget that. We get stuck in in just practicing. Well, I mean, not not all of us. I don't think we all practice like that, but we do get stuck in the loop of just practicing for this gig or practicing for this show. Yeah. When we forget to just have fun playing, enjoy enjoying music again.

Speaker 1 23:53

Yeah, it it's okay for a certain part of your practice to be fun and unproductive. You know what I mean? Make a mistake. Yeah, yeah, make a mistake, play a song you played a thousand times that you already know super well and you don't need to get better at. One of my favorite things, and I think you mentioned you do this too, is like just turning on a drone track. Oh, yeah. And like like I've been doing like a C major drone track, and then I'll play a C major scale, and then I'll play a C minor scale, and it's amazing how the the vibe just changes in the room. Like, you know, that kind of stuff's super fun too. Another one for me, and I'll say this before we move on to the next section, is like journaling, and there's two components to that. Like if I have a lot on my mind and I feel like there's a lot going on in my head, and I'm having trouble getting to my practice area, I'll just journal and like write out like just kind of brain dump everything that's in my head, and it's like it just kind of it's like a clearing out of like my mental headspace, and then I'm like, oh, okay, I'm ready to practice now. Yeah, so that feels really good too. And then the second component of that is I also like journaling what I've practiced. I'm not great at this yet, I'm kind of inconsistent with it. I was good for a while, but when I'm journaling what I've practiced regularly, I see my progress and it makes me want to practice more. So yeah, so we've talked about like using teaching as inspiration. So remember, like if you're a teacher, students' questions will spark ideas. Or songs too. Or yeah, totally. Like, oh, I've got to learn that song. Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:29

Well, also, just like when you write songs, I get some crazy ideas from my students. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 25:34

Yeah. Revisiting fundamentals can unlock creativity. You know, I think about like Tom Petty, like some of the best songs in the world are the simplest songs. And sometimes when you're teaching a kid, you know, the old GDC the old wagon wheel. Yeah, or a little bit of wagon wheel, like it's just like, oh man, like I I want to write, I want to write a simple song like this. Like, this is so fun to play. And then we we already talked about this a little bit, but I think it's worth noting too. One way to stay fresh is just seeing beginner excitement, watching kids fall in love with music or adults is such pardon me, pollen. I'm joking, pollen me. It's such a gift. Um, I need to take a sip of water real quick. Hold on. So seeing students like kind of fall in love with music for the first time or seeing them level up and get stoked about a new thing that they learned is is really fun. So let's talk about some Jeremy. Will you hit these small creative habits? You know, when we talk about Kaizen a lot at Learn Music, just kind of growing by a little bit every day. Yeah. What are some simple creative habits that instructors can tie into their day just to keep their creative gears greased?

Speaker 2 26:46

Yeah, I I like to keep a page nearby or my notes app really close by. And I'll just write down a word. It doesn't even have to be a line. It often doesn't come that way to me. But yeah, my voice memos are just filled up with little 10-second blurbs. Me humming a melody, or yeah, like I said, just one single word. I think today I wrote in my journal, Love is feeling something again for the first time.

Speaker 1 27:09

Just small little things like that throughout the day. That's great. Writing a riff a day is a fun thing to do. I did about a year and a half ago, I did like a riff a day challenge, and I'd I'd write, I'd like video it, I'd put it up on my Instagram, and it's I I would like record a drum part, record a bass part, record a guitar part, and it was like kind of an A section and a B section. That was really, really fun. It was a really good challenge for me. But it doesn't have to be like that, like it can just be you and your guitar and voice memos and just write a little riff a day.

Speaker 2 27:42

So what else you got, Jeremy? I mean, that's that's the most what I do. I I'm I sit there with logic and just mess around with MIDI a lot. Yeah, yeah. You can you can it's those small moments like that that actually end up inspiring you later on to make bigger things.

Speaker 1 27:57

Yeah, totally. Yeah, coming back to those voice memos. And I think you know, consistency over intensity. So when we think about like burnout, I I was talking to somebody a couple weeks ago, and I was like, you know, when I when I want to do something, I have this tendency, like if I want to lose 10 pounds, like I try to do it all in one day. You know, it's like 10 pounds a day. And it and it doesn't, it doesn't go great. So just remember, like, Kai's in it, like small steps every day, like recording a lyric idea in a voice memo, or writing a lyric idea in your journal down like once a day, or writing a riff a day, or you know, running scales, like playing one scale three or four times a day, like those things add up over time. Make it sustainable. Yeah, exactly. All right, so we've just talked about basically today, like there's an identity balance here, right? So the real danger that people think they're gonna kind of encounter when they teach is losing the identity of musician and having to trade it in for trading in your musician hat for a teacher hat. But what I hope we've established here today is that both those things can coexist, right? You can you can truly be a great musician and a great teacher. Someone I think of on our team actually is Bobby Thomas. Bobby teaches with us, he actually teaches with us six days a week right now, and that dude gigs out more than anyone I know. Yeah, same with Grayson Drum, same with Jacob. So I think that you know it's very possible to be a successful musician and a teacher. And I would go as far to say they complement each other very well. So, how do you protect your identity as a musician? Join a band. Me and my friends started like 90s cover band this last year, and it's been so great. It gives me a thing to practice for and a reason to play. Still create, even if it's imperfect, you know, even if you think your songs aren't good. I heard somebody say one time for every 10 songs you write, one of them's gonna be good and nine of them are gonna be bad. And you gotta write the bad song to get the good song. Apparently, you've got to write nine bad songs to get one good song. So, and then keep learning new material. So remember, you don't need to arrive at a certain goal to be valid as a musician. If you're if you've got an instrument and you're committed to kaizening a little bit every day, congrats, you're a musician. So teaching doesn't have to kill creativity, but neglecting your own work does. These are some of our takeaways for today. Stay in motion creatively, even if it's in small ways. So, and there's a couple more, but Jeremy, I'm just curious, like, what are some of your takeaways from I love these conversations because I'm learning stuff right now. Like, what are some things that you've learned today or that you've been reminded of?

Speaker 2 30:50

Yeah, watching the process in in students. That's a huge one. It really is so exciting to see a kid pick up a new concept or just or just watch them get excited in general. Just watching them jam, it it it it reminds you of being a kid again. And I think that that's one one of the big takeaways, I think, is you have to you have to kind of be an adult kid sometimes. Yeah, totally. And that makes creativity flow.

Speaker 1 31:12

Yeah, that's so good. I think one of mine is from something you said, Jeremy, where you're like, you know, you really you do have to hang up the creative hat for part of the day, but you can like you gotta you you've gotta put on your teaching hat, but you can do that again at the end of the day. And so it's not that you know we're gonna be writing songs when we're in lessons with students. It doesn't happen like that. It also doesn't have to be one or the other, it doesn't have to be black and white, but what are some practices that you can put in your life to wear both hats? Because we see a lot of people do it that are in our circle, and I think it's it's eating well, sleeping well, moving well. I think it's prioritizing your own development as a musician, doing that early in the day, because most people teach lessons in the afternoon. I know we teach from two to eight at Learn Music most days, so kind of feeding yourself before you feed your students. I think that that's that's really, really important. And then intentionally putting small kind of creative nuggets throughout your day, like creative snacks, you know, like things that are gonna help you to be more creative. So that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. You know, we want to bring it back to them to the mission of this podcast. This podcast is about becoming better musicians, not just better teachers. You don't have to permanently hang up your musician hat when you're a teacher. So we're gonna keep it grounded and simple. You know, just keep showing up for yourself and your students if you're a teacher. And we're thankful that you listen today. We desire to help musicians become better musicians one day at a time. Thank you so much.