I was watching the show Touch the other day and this was said at the beginning of the episode.

“The chromatic scale consists of 12 tones arranged in time and sequence. These 12 simple tones create an infinite variety of music.

Harmony and dissonance. Tension and resolution.

All can be described by the mathematical relationship between tones. If we could translate all ratio’s to sound, we could hear the music of the sphere’s.

A sound as immense and as powerful as the universe itself.

As beguiling as the human heart, for some, music elevates the human spirit to a place of transcendent beauty.”

POWERFUL ~ THIS IS WHY I PLAY MUSIC!

It still blows my mind that all music is really created from 12 tones. These tones allow us to access parts of ourselves, many times in ways that nothing else can.

This in turn is why I teach music. It is what inspires me to bring music into the lives of anyone that wishes to learn, so that they can touch a part of their own soul, and in turn others.

I think the impact of music is why we continually want to play music and have it as an integral part of our lives. What would life be like without music? I can’t even imagine!

If this is you and this is your heart’s desire, it is my mission to bring music to you and anyone else I can. It is this inspiration that has led me down the path to where I am now. Trying to find a way to make music a possibility for anyone who so desires!

The words below were written by one of my beloved teachers. I observed her teach and totally fell in love with her mission and philosophy, all of which I try to integrate and accomplish in my lessons on a daily basis. This was her definition of a teacher and I’m happy to say I’ve adopted it to be mine as well.

THE TEACHER

The teacher is a professional whose principal function is to lead the students step by step in the art of string playing in such a manner that each individual play appears relatively simple and flows into the next. Her all-consuming goal is to open the doors of self-expression. Convinced that each person has something within him uniquely beautiful and individual just waiting to be freed, she realizes that she as the teacher, does not create it – it already exists. Her role is to guide and help the student develop technical tools so that the internal beauty can flow freely.

The teacher looks on herself as the key-holder and recognizes that the ease with which a door is opened has nothing to do with the contents of the room and that untold spenders may lie behind the door with the most stubborn lock. And she believes the medium that her student has chosen for self-expression is one of the most beautiful and elemental of all — the vibrating string.

Excerpt from Playing the String Game by Phyllis Young

Musically yours,

Christine