Those who can... also teach!

Whew, this summer has been going by WAY too quickly and I'm behind on posting! So I'm taking this opportunity to do two things at once: a little shameless self-promotion AND a (hopefully) thoughtful blog entry.

We've all heard the maxim, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Ugh - it's one of my least favorite sayings.

If you're wondering where I'm at personally on the spectrum of "doing," I'll be glad to tell you. The fact is, I love performing, and my audiences usually leave happy.

If you'd like proof of that, you might stop by Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA this weekend for the Abbadia Mare ("Abbey-By-The-Sea") Renaissance Festival. It's a fundraiser for the Castle museum, and I've been performing at it for the last five or six years, both as a solo artist, The Wondering Bard (yeah, it's a pun), and with my awesome a cappella group, Myschyffe Managed.

I always let my students know when and where I'm performing, because as a student I always loved to see my teachers actually DOING the thing they taught. In high school my favorite science instructor was the one who reminisced fondly about the geological digs he'd been on in his youth. Oh, and somewhere around age fifteen or so, I was (very cordially) thrown out of a bar... I wasn't trying to get alcohol, I just wanted to hear the band that my guitar teacher played in...

So clearly that old saying isn't true, or at least not all of the time. So where did it come from?

Well, sadly, it is SOMETIMES true - and in part that's because we tend to think of teaching as a second-class career choice in this society. It's altogether too common to hear the phrase, "Well, if I can't find a job in my field, I can always teach." If you want to know what that says about our society, just go talk to the nearest teacher who has ever had to strike for decent wages.

The real issue here is that we don't see teaching AS A SKILL IN ITS OWN RIGHT - which it most assuredly IS. Good teaching takes a lot of "people sense" - the ability to see how someone else is thinking and gauge their understanding - as well as the creative power to find ways past the stumbling blocks that we all encounter while learning a new skill or discipline.

And therefore - you might want to sit down for this! - IT MAKES SENSE that sometimes the person who does and the person who teaches are not the same person.

I have known amazing musicians who were terrible, terrible teachers. Performing skill doesn't necessarily translate into the ability to train others; that takes a different mindset AND a different skillset.

I've also known really terrific teachers who weren't doers. Not every English professor is a budding poet - and that's okay. Some people choose to teach because they love the process of opening minds and helping students to grow. That's a beautiful thing, and a valuable one, too.

So, while I'd love it if you'd come to see me (and all of the other great acts) at the Castle this weekend, I won't ask you to judge my teaching ability based on that.

Well, okay, maybe you can a LITTLE, since I do lots of audience-participation stuff that uses my "teaching muscles"...

Aw, heck, just come and enjoy all the great music at the Faire, because there's joy in music - whether you're studying, performing, or listening.

And come say hello. I'll be watching for you! ;)