Proud

My students often make me laugh. I heard a great "your mama" joke last week that had me howling like a banshee, and before that, an eight year old told me he would take me to the mall and help me pick up girls.

My students often make me think, and refine the information I share with them. "It's as clear as mud, man" one of them just said after I asked him if the concept made sense.

And my students always make me proud.

He had been asking about writing a song. I went in to my lecture about the craft. He comes back two weeks later with a drum machine, charts, lyrics, and a clearly defined song structure, sits down, and plays and sings it. I was floored! He had all the pieces put together, and had showed great talent, skill, and most importantly, initiative. Bravo, bravo! (Hey, let's hope he remembers where he learned about song composition when he's got all that royalty money, and just happens to stop by the Corvette dealership!) Well done, sir.

Her mom set up the guitar clinic for her fellow home schoolers. There she sat, patiently through my explanation of what a fret was, transposing the examples of "Iron Man" to accommodate the drop C tuning her guitar was in, and playing pentatonic scales up a whole step from the written example. I'm glad my 13 year old self didn't realize that there were girls the same age who could rip my face off with their guitars. Trying to convince the class that improvising was possible, I asked her to the front of the room. She proceeded to improvise beautifully, and showed the whole room what was what. It was great to stand next to a student on stage and know that I could count on them to play something cool.

These are just two examples of many. You all make me very proud. Thank you.

- Josh