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24.04.20 – Darrell Priestley
I’ve been very lucky in my working life, for several reasons. My partner, Eileen, on whom I totally rely, is a rock solid ace; she is also the love of my life. I am further fortunate in that I love what I do, always have. And the cherry on the top is that this work has endlessly enriched my life by bringing me into the orbit of so many wonderful people, people like you. Now, amid the biggest change to our working and social lives that any of us have known, I find myself humbled, because here you still are. Almost to a man, the many students who were studying music with me in early March do so still, getting their music lessons online and continuing to light my day.
I have a lot of students, and it’s amazing really, but when teaching music it feels like every time I learn something new. Working together and thinking up new solutions to help students overcome their latest challenges, of course, as they learn to leap the weekly hurdles that have stood in their way, but learning also about people. People can be wonderful, and not even know it. Just yesterday one of my students, an NHS gem, was telling me how she is also helping out three of her self isolating neighbours. From what she tells me, she doesn’t enjoy going shopping for food right now any more than I do, but nevertheless she is doing this for others, as well as her own household. Plus of course her day job, working full time in healthcare. We are surrounded by angels.
In late 1987, shortly after the advent in our lives of our beautiful daughter, Jessica, my wife Eileen and I took the decision to expand my music teaching business, which frankly had outgrown our home. But the scale was something altogether different, with a lot of investment and associated risk, and it seemed like a gamble. We were safe, secure and happy. But we imagined more; a musical community, and yes, ultimately a legacy, something we could achieve in our lives of which we could feel justly proud.
It took a lot of planning, and not a little faith, but in January 1989 we opened our Yamaha Music School, as it then was. We had calculated and we had planned, running the numbers over and over. To succeed we would need a huge recruitment drive, as having taken on substantial overhead anything less would have left us in a slightly precarious financial position.
Finally, came the arrival of our big launch weekend, and we were nervous and excited. Would it work? In truth, we could not afford for it to fail, because by now I had burned my bridges, selling all of the cool instruments and equipment I had built up in ten years of working as a professional musician to raise the money to buy all the Yamaha pianos, organs and keyboards that now filled the studios.
Happily, our efforts were not in vain, and the hunch that we could make this grand idea work was rewarded as hundreds of people descended on us, deciding that yes, they did want music lessons. At the end of a mammoth three day weekend, tired but content, we had experienced the biggest recruitment event that Yamaha Music Schools UK had ever recorded.
So much has changed since then. We have considerably widened the range of instruments taught, becoming the Northern Music Academy in 1998 as the business expanded and developed beyond the original core instruments. By now, thousands of musicians can say they trained with us. Quite a number of them have gone on to success in the music industry, while many others have pursued quite different dreams, but together, all of our lives have been enriched not only by music, but also by each other. We are proud of all that has been achieved, happy to have had the opportunity to contribute to so many lives, and grateful for the quite wonderful friendships it has brought us. Thanks to the Northern Music Academy, we have the richest social life. To find that that richness continues now, as most of us hunker down in our homes, is amazing beyond measure. We are most humbled.
It’s good to see you all each week. I still look forward to giving music lessons. As I said before, and will say again, I have been lucky in my working life. Very, very lucky indeed. So much so, sometimes I wonder, did I choose it or did it choose me?
23.04.20 – Darrell Priestley
Since trials of online teaching began fully one month ago, most of our students are now on board and having regular lessons, so I wanted to take the chance to welcome you all – wherever have you been? No, don’t answer that, I can guess!
After auditioning several possible apps that allow online meetings with both sound and vision, we finally settled on Microsoft Teams as being the most suitable for both our purposes and scale. This proved to be a good decision. Microsoft’s new flagship meeting software is clearly very important to the company, and as I understand it is under continual development. Crucially, though, it is meeting our needs very well, and is proving simple to use in practice.
Once someone has joined their first online ‘meeting’, it’s proving very straightforward in repeat meetings, is quick to connect and slick to use, offering decent sound and vision, which in practice are limited only by the hardware used. Teams is easy to get the hang of, with a clear display and accessible controls. A relative joy to use, in fact.
When it became clear that continuing my love of teaching music meant moving online, I believed instinctively that we, the other teachers led by myself, could make it work. Look at everything as an opportunity, and you will see that the present situation has it’s advantages. Students, most of them, have more time in one place now than ever before, with access to their instrument. It follows that, if you plan your practice time around your lesson time, warming up before and following up on new ideas staight afterwards, you will get a great start on your week’s work. And so it is proving.
I offer my students guidance on how to approach practicing in the present situation, and there is no doubt it is working well for everyone, especially after two or three lessons to get used to it. Of course, some things are more complicated, like demonstrating technic, and it is here that the teacher really has to adapt their approach, so as to find other ways to achieve the goals they set. However, this is also where a good teacher proves their worth, and again, a good teacher will relish such challenges. But it would not be true to say that I don’t miss live lessons, or the joy of playing duets with my students in real time. While I do not see online lessons as a substitute for the live work I do in person, it certainly offers a very viable alternative at this time.
There is always something very special about sharing music with others, and the best examples of that are playing music ‘live’ with others, in the same place and at the same time. Because of the slight time delay online, this is just one example of where in person lessons will always excel. One thing that I have always done, and never better than now after more than four decades of teaching practice, is to create excercises to help students overcome the immediate challenges they face on pieces they are learning. Working live, it is easy to come up with great ideas, practice drills and so on, and convey them very quickly to students, in a way that suits them as an individual.
At this point, all teachers are now bringing or have already brought their students on board with online music lessons. There were practical reaons that delayed this happening on a large scale at first, and Eileen and I have worked hard, spending long hours and much effort at the kitchen table to get things to this point. We had to confront the fact that major changes were needed to the business back end to facilitate this, but to mix a few mataphores we bit the bullet, pulled out all the stops and left no stone unturned. Happily, that work is mostly done now, with just a few finishing up jobs still to do. Nearly all of my students are now well under way, with the last few taking their first online lesson this week. Hallelujah!
While we have made strenuous efforts to contact everyone, we know that sometimes emails can be missed, or the email address we have for you may now be out of date. If you have not heard from us, please email and request information about lessons online. This also includes free support for students who would like lessons, but are not in a position to take them at the moment. We have prepared for this need, and would be pleased to help all our existing students, because we know how how great a difference having music can make to your life, and even the lives of those around you, at testing times like the one we are all living through.
Remember, we are here for you, just an email away. Stay safe, and stay strong.
With love to all, Darrell & Eileen
22.04.20 – -Darrell Priestley
Now pay attention, class, because there will be questions at the end. People have been telling me about some of the things they have been doing lately, (I see a lot of students and their families now with lessons online), and I am rather impressed. All sorts of good things are happening, it seems, and you should probably be quite proud of yourselves!
Here at the Priestley residence, shock has been registered at quite how busy you can find yourself when you can’t go to work as usual. If this should be what retirement is like, I’m not sure I’m fit enough for that yet. With so much to do, I’m having to get up earlier in the mornings, but I am enjoying it. And, what beautiful sunny mornings we are having!
There are so many things you could be doing to fill your time at home, it’s quite bewildering. The newest thing for us here is Reading Hour. Ever wonder how come you have accumulated so many wonderful books about all the things you are interested in, but rarely get around to reading? We’ve noticed that too, and have decided to do something about it. So, starting this week, we’ve introduced morning reading hour, a time after breakfast where we pick up something interesting, but not a story, and endulge our many interests while learning something useful. I’ll let you know how it’s going soon.
For me, the best thing about being at home is that it’s put me much closer to my hobbies. When at work, I am usually out of the house for about twelve hours most days, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to do the other things I like. How about you? What is it that you like to do more of now you are at home?
As our regular readers will already know, we are all about the positive here at NMA, and we would very much like you to share your thoughts with us on all of the good things you have found to do with your time now that you have more of it than usual. Why not write and tell us, so we can share your stories? Either list a few of the new things you have noticed, or things that you enjoy doing now that you didn’t do before, or even write a little piece, maybe 400 words or less, and if practical we will share it in our daily blog.
Please email your contribution to me at the usual Address – see ‘Contact’ Page.
21.04.20 – Darrell Priestley
Squirrels are early risers. Early on Sunday morning, as I was on garden watch, checking out the interactions of the bird life from the hidden vantage of my bedroom window, a squirrel hove into view, moving fitfully as it lazily circumnavigated our back garden. Squirrels are pretty nonchalant animals; nothing much seems to phase them, maybe because they are so agile, moving eratically but quickly when required. In about forty seconds it had traversed the rear perimeter, along the top of the fence, up and over the garden shed, then up into the big tree, going from branch to branch, ever upwards at a constant 30 degrees from the horizontal, somehow finding a connection with a smaller tree and down again at the same angle before heading over to the neighbours to continue the assault course. Totally madcap, but fun to watch. And the funny thing was, although it was still only early, I now found the energy not only to ditch the plan to go back to bed, but to burst forth and take on the day.
Parks are fabulous places, aren’t they? And leafy lanes. The world outside your window is really coming to life this spring, making you want to get out there and in amongst it. Where the world was previously open, lockdown has made what was once ordinary seem suddenly amazing. Time now to peer into that hedge and see if anything is moving in the spiders web. You want real life entertainment, with no CGI, explosions or car chases? That’ll be nature, then.
I like to look out of my window into the garden when doing my morning yoga. If nothing else, I enjoy the plants and flowers, which now especially are giving me a real zest to nurture living things, which just makes me feel good. I’m growing some lovely plants, and it still amazes me that for all the mistakes I have made many of them not only survive, they thrive. This year, there should hopefully also be a decent food crop, from a modest space that used to be a flower garden. But it also feels like I am getting to know the garden birds better. In my morning yoga session, while balancing on one leg, a blackbird swooped down for a drink and spent a good wee while peering in, wondering how long I could possibly hold the pose before falling over.
This spring, even the space outside my back door feels awesome. Ordinary things, all of a sudden, are imbued with extraordinary qualities. It is remarkable the extent to which distancing, and not going out, is enhancing the senses, making fresh air seem fresher, though the big reduction in pollution undoubtedly helps, colours appear more vibrant, and people suddenly more interesting, even though we now greet them from noticeably further away than usual. For all that the times are strange, and sometimes a little disconcerting, with a little imagination it’s possible to find your eyes opening wider and your mind’s horizons expanding considerably.
If you can get past the discomfort that a change to your familiar life brings, this might be an excellent time to develop or renew your interest in things you have hitherto neglected, or been too busy to think about. There is a world outside your window, and it may reward you handsomely to endulge yourself deeply and take a long, thoughtful look, and perhaps even be glad you had the time.