Introduction: How did I get started? (Part I)
This is the backstory of how I got started running this consultancy.
I started running my own private piano teaching studio back in 2010.
I graduated with my master’s degree in piano performance at Indiana University in December 2003. I went back to my home country immediately after, and that was basically January 2004.
Back then, since I studied to be a pianist, I did not think about teaching privately too much. I was too busy finding performing opportunities. I was in a professional orchestra for close to a year: I was their main freelance keyboardist, I played the piano, the harpsichord, the celeste. I got to the point I hated it so much that I gave up. I knew it was not for me. It was a toxic environment for me and I hated every minute of it.
I also taught children’s choir for a while, I think two-three years tops. It was a part time position. I did love conducting choirs – the piano accompanying part was okay, I had done way too much of that to enjoy it.
Obviously I also did A LOT of piano accompaniment, more than I could count. I started doing it when I was little, playing with my brother who played the violin, then in college and graduate school, when I actually started to get paid for it. After graduation, it made sense to continue that work, because it paid very well. I could charge more and more for my service and people would still pay for it because I was quick to pick up difficult pieces and I was that good.
I was also an adjunct lecturer at my alma mater. I did not enjoy that role very much because frankly, college students were not the best people to work with, and I put it very nicely here.
I was never focused on getting a lot of private students. I was always too busy to figure out everything else, performing, conducting, lecturing, and even trying to get a doctorate. When studying for a doctorate, I was a teaching assistant at another college and I did enjoy teaching lectures (let’s just say they had much better quality of college students over there). I felt respected and enjoyed immensely teaching the students who actually listened instead of thinking how smart they were.
By the end of 2009, half way into my doctorate program (actually it was more of a MPhil leading to a PhD), I did not want to do it anymore. I want to say I hated it. That would not be entirely true. It was alright, I just did not find much satisfaction and enjoyment in it. I wanted something more, something better for me.
At the same time, my friend encouraged me to start writing a blog about my piano knowledge. I did not think I was that much more knowledgeable than anyone else who had the same kind of degrees and experiences. So I started with writing my biography and left it untouched for a few months.
It was April 2010 – it was almost like clockwork, everytime something significant happened was either April or August. April 2004 was the time I quit my music teaching job at a middle school after I was there for no more than 4 months. So in April 2020, after Easter, I decided not to go back to my doctorate program. I quit. Everyone was shocked at the school, I was doing so well (I always had almost a perfect GPA, what can I say, I was the A+ student). I just could not see myself spending more time in writing and checking the correct margin sizes of a document or the right formats of endnotes and bibliographies. Trying to find the right topic my advisor could actually advise me was frustrating to say the least. I found it utterly useless spending another few years writing an essay that eventually 3 people in my phd advisory committee would read. Instead I could spend time teaching in real life. So I officially quit and started putting effort into building my private piano teaching studio.
The amazing adventure started all from there.