“Your Life is About to Change Forever.”

Those are the words that stumbled out of my mouth as I prepared to teach a group of my beginning trumpet students to play a chromatic scale.

I was feeling very lighthearted as we began the lesson. The school year is winding to a close, and there are no looming deadlines or upcoming performances. Just an opportunity to teach, not rehearse.

I was trying to over-dramatize the point that these students will use the chromatic scale throughout their musical careers, and that this was going to be a landmark lesson in their journey to musical excellence.

But then the thought occurred to me that all lessons should be life changing for elementary students.

Sure, we will always have those weeks when we’re in concert preparation mode and don’t teach any new concepts. But shouldn’t there be twice as many life changing lessons as there are rehearsals of overplayed music?