To my students, past, present, and
future,
My name is Ashley Wright, and I was,
am, or will be, your teacher. What does this mean? Well,
superficially, it means that I teach you to play a musical
instrument, teach you math, or who knows? Perhaps I will teach you
something else. More importantly, though, it means that I am helping
to determine who you become as an adult, modeling appropriate
behaviors and problem solving skills, and teaching you things like
accountability, responsibility, and dedication. These are skills and
attributes that will help you throughout your life, and it is these
skills that are most important for me to teach you.
You, as one of my students, are
anywhere from very young (3 or 4), a teenager and learning how to
drive, or an adult, and working to fit learning a new skill into your
busy schedule. You might begin learning violin or viola with me, or
you might have already taken for several years. Maybe you've gone
on, to take lessons at a more advanced level in college. I teach a
wide variety of students, but many of you begin lessons with me
around ages 7 or 9, and continue for several years. It's wonderful
to see the bright eyed enthusiasm when you first begin, and I love
working with you through the difficulties around a year of playing,
when you don't think you're making the progress you should. You
think you're stagnating, but I can see the progress, as you learn how
to practice more efficiently, and then you break through that wall
and I rejoice with you as your learning takes off again.
In all of my teaching and learning, I
have rhythms, and go through cycles. For a time, I may learn a lot
about playing piano, so I can better accompany my students, and then
I might switch gears and learn a lot, very suddenly, about goats, as
one of my animals has some emergency I have to take care of. My
teaching goes through similar cycles: sometimes we focus on rhythms,
sometimes on intonation, sometimes on musicality, sometimes on
improvisation. As we cycle through these different learning
experiences, we become more well-rounded than we were before.
My road to begin teaching in this
manner has been long and winding, but began when I was very small.
It began when I started to learn these things. There have been a
number of strong influences on my development as a person, and two
big influences were my violin teachers. I began taking violin
lessons when I was seven, from Linda Vasey. Linda taught me about
working through difficulties and sticking with something. Especially
now, as I am a teacher, live in another state from Linda, and have
not taken lessons from her for several years, I am learning more from
Linda then ever before, as she battles breast cancer. It's that
ability to stick to it that I learned so well from Linda, and that I
hope you learn from me.
Shortly after I started lessons with
Linda, I started playing in the orchestra under Colleen Wheeler, and
later took luthier (violin repair) and string pedagogy classes from
her. Colleen taught me about accountability and responsibility.
That I had a commitment to the group and to my students, and it was
my responsibility to follow through on it. Last year, I learned this
lesson from her in a very difficult way. I had asked Colleen to come
up to Washington (she lives in Oregon) to hear my students play at an
event called Junior Festival. We needed judges, and Colleen agreed
to judge. Colleen agreed months in advance, but when it came down to
it, she backed out, leaving us in the lurch less than two weeks
before the event. I couldn't believe that the woman who had taught
me so much about accountability and responsibility apparently did not
learn her own lessons. In the end, we found another judge, and the
event was a success, but Colleen's flip-flopping on me was
devastating to our relationship. I could no longer trust her. How
could she let my students down in this way? That was not behavior
that I had learned from her, or come to expect from her.
Linda and Colleen also taught me about
the rhythms and cycles of teaching. I usually had my private lessons
with Linda, but sometimes Colleen would take over; if Linda was ill,
or had an unexpected rehearsal, or maybe they just thought I would
benefit more from Colleen's instruction. We started out mostly in
Suzuki (so I started teaching with Suzuki), but in my many years with
them, they also had me playing from a variety of other books and
sheet music. Our focus would shift and change as time went by, which
allowed us to focus on one thing at a time, and really improve it,
but over time I became strong in a variety of skills. This made me a
more rounded musician. Similarly, when I teach, I, too, focus on one
or two skills at a time, but after a few weeks or months, will shift
focus, and my students will also become strong in a variety of
skills. Hopefully, in more skills than I was strong in.
Another important influence in my life
has been my work toward a career in zookeeping. This started in high
school, when I started volunteering at the Oregon Zoo, and working
with the keepers there. They taught me about the importance of being
thorough and careful, but then also about the importance of being
efficient. We had a schedule to keep to, after all. I worked hard
to become a zookeeper, going to Colorado State University for my
undergraduate degree in Zoology. While in college, I volunteered at
a raptor rehabilitation center. It was there that I learned how to
butcher animals. This may seem unrelated, but I really hate working
with dead animals. It took a lot of dedication to get over my
dislike, in order to learn the required skill, and I learned how to
work past my preferred inclinations. There are a lot of things in
life that need doing, that might not be our idea of fun, but we have
to figure out how to do them anyway. The raptor center taught me how
to do that.
And finally, after graduation, I
landed a job here in Washington, working at the Point Defiance Zoo
and Aquarium's Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater. I should mention here,
that I have one great fear in life: a crippling stage fright. While
working in the theater, I was expected to participate in the show
production. I loved handling the animals, releasing them and
catching them, bringing them out to the stage, and back to their
enclosures. But I was also expected to learn one of the speaking
parts, and finally the time came when I couldn't put it off any
longer: I had to go on stage. When it came time for me to walk on,
they had to push me on – I couldn't make myself walk out there. We
had audiences from just a few people, to over a thousand. By having
to participate in one of the speaking parts of the show, I eventually
conquered my fear of public speaking. I still get nervous, my hands
shake, and I forget my lines, but I know I can do it, and with enough
practice it becomes second nature.
This was an important thing for me to
learn about, as a vital part of being a musician is performance.
I've never been nervous while playing in a group, but put me on stage
by myself, and watch out. However, this allows me to empathize with
you, my students. I can tell you about how nervous I get when I
perform a solo, and how I work to combat it. I also know, through my
experiences, that the best way to work through this fear is by doing
it, a lot. I offer you a lot of performance opportunities, so you
can get used to your own reactions to being on stage, and learn how
to work around it. Sure, a lot of you get nervous, and sometimes
there's a less than stellar performance or forgotten parts. But this
teaches us to work through our problems, to confront them, and then
become better people because of them.
While I do not have a career in
zookeeping, working toward it taught me about working hard, striving
for a goal, and working through obstacles. These are important
things for me to be able to do now, owning my own business, and they
will be important things later in my life, as well as later in your
life. There are always difficulties and struggles, but if we know
how to work through them, we can attain our dreams.
Today, I am just finishing up my
latest cycle in my life, and just beginning another. I am mere days
away from finishing my Master of Arts in Education from Michigan
State University, a process that took much of my time, energy, and
attention over the past two years. At the same time, I'm just
beginning my next cycle of my life, as I am pregnant with my first
child. While I look forward to having more free time to pursue other
areas of my life now that I will be done with school, I know those
days are short-lived. Soon, my days will revolve around caring for a
new life. But I know that with the help of my husband, and with all
that I have learned about working through difficulties and sticking
to priorities, that we will come out of this cycle of our lives as
better people.
Throughout all of these changes, I
continue teaching, and continue learning: about my students, my
instrument, music, and life. I continue teaching with different
rhythms and cycles, and enjoy the variety this offers my students and
myself. When I first began teaching, I taught using the Suzuki
books. I introduced a couple extra books, here and there, as
supplements; books to teaching special skills and techniques, like
shifting a double stops. After a few years of this, I started to
realize that you could equally benefit from playing “fun” music:
music from movies, or pop songs written for violin or viola. We
spent a few months one summer, everyone playing their favorite “fun”
music, and you learned so much. We had complicated rhythms to work
out, difficult key signatures, tricky fingerings, and accidentals
galore. A lot of the music you were playing was far more difficult
than the music I would have assigned to you. And yet, you were
practicing it, and making huge progress as a result. I continue to
periodically return to this “fun” music.
About a year ago, I discovered another
method book: Strings Fun and Easy. I have had a lot of fun working
with this one with you, and I've been starting students in third
position for it. This makes a number of problems disappear, at least
in the early stages, and helps us focus on music rather than posture.
The music is also completely different from anything I had
previously taught, includes a wide range of major and minor keys, and
styles like jazz, dance, classical, polkas, and fiddle tunes. I can
see myself returning to this book in a future cycle of my teaching.
I just recently acquired another
method book, this one the Pascale Method. It seems too easy and
elementary for most of you, but I am going to try it with an
Introduction to Violin Group Class. This new phase of my teaching
will get its trial run this summer, and I can't wait to see how
things work out. I may end up changing some of the exercises, so
that students begin playing in third position, but I would like to
try it as published, first.
In the future, I would like to try the
O'Connor Method, which is supposed to use American music, as well as
a variety of styles. I feel like it would be a good complement to
the Suzuki books, which do tend to be a bit narrow. In order to try
this method book, and start yet another cycle of my teaching, I
simply need to acquire the book and familiarize myself with it.
I tend to go through cycles with my
learning, too. Before I began my master's degree, I took piano and
guitar lessons for a time. I discontinued them when I went back to
school, but I see myself coming back to them in a future cycle. For
the time being, once I am done with school, I will begin my next
phase of learning, in taking voice lessons. The voice can be a very
useful instrument, and I would like to be able to better demonstrate
something to you using my voice. Once I feel more confident singing,
I may cycle back around to piano, guitar, or bagpipes (another
instrument I have taken some lessons on), or I might learn a new
instrument. I also might find that I need to focus my time, energy,
and attention on learning how to care for an infant, and so might put
other cycles of my learning on hold. Whatever the future brings, I
know I will continue my cycles of learning, and using the skills my
life has taught me, be able to tackle any challenge.
So, to you, my students, I offer this
advice: learn as much as you can from every experience that you can.
You may think you come to my house only to learn a musical
instrument, but there is so much more to every experience. Every
encounter you have can teach you about love, happiness, pursuing your
dreams, career goals, and all of those essential skills in every
life. I hope you learn as much about dedication, accountability, and
responsibility, as I learned from my teachers throughout the years.
I hope I also teach you how to have fun while you're working hard,
and that the rewards of hard work outweigh the costs. These are the
most important life lessons I could ever teach you, as everything
that is worthwhile in life takes a lot of work. So, don't be afraid
to work hard, but also, don't be afraid to be flexible and let your
plans change. Life takes us in many directions, and you never know
where you'll end up.
Ashley Wright
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