Sticky-notes are wonderful things. I don’t know who invented them, but I wish it had been me. I use them all the time. My piano is sometimes covered with them, as well as my kitchen cupboards (the fridge has magnets…a sticky-note free zone). I use them for reminders or to write a quick thought on before it leaves my head. I often think of them when I am teaching. Really, if all we had to do to teach a musical concept  was to write it on a sticky note and stick it on a student’s forehead, well, that would be great. The only problem is most students, when arriving at their piano lesson the very next week, would come back without their sticky-note on. It just didn’t stick. We would have to write the same concept on another sticky-note and put it on their forehead again, hoping it would stick for the whole week this time. With some students, a whole pad of sticky-notes would be used up before a concept was finally learned. (Are you still with me, or did you give up on the seventh time I used the word “sticky-note”?) Seriously, it takes a lot of repeating the same information again and again before a student gets it. Repetition is the key to learning. It’s the key to getting things to stick.

We can’t get tired of repeating ourselves again and again. We do need to find ways to make it sound different though. It’s like zucchini. You can serve it up the first time boiled with butter. The second time, add a few slivered almonds. The third, bake it into a chocolate cake, and by the fourth time, well… by the fourth time, just leave it on your neighbor’s porch and run. How many different ways can you serve up a musical concept? As many ways as it takes a student to finally get it. It has to stick, and when it does, it is wonderful. That first week back, when a student finally comes through the door with the repeated concept still intact, never to be forgotten again, well, then it’s time to celebrate!

I suggest a piece of chocolate cake without the zucchini.