One might imagine that an afternoon of piano teaching would be about teaching the piano. One would be mistaken. It’s that of course but lots lots more. For instance, take today. It was the usual Wednesday afternoon line up. We began with a brother and sister team who have their lessons one after the other in between their good mother ferrying them to and from gymnastics. Here I was treated to tales of a recent trip to the snow and (perhaps the highlight of my week) a delightful 8 year old boy demonstrating how he could make two sounds at once. First was a rendition of a guinea pig and a frog. Then, for his second act he performed guinea pig plus cicada. It was tremendously impressive. Following this I heard a long and involved story about another 8 year old’s taekwondo lesson yesterday afternoon, including a run down of all the different belt colours. Next was a talented 16 year old who came bearing three gigantic home grown lettuces and about half a kilo of cherry tomatoes. The evening is rounded off with my two adult students. The first one, a pharmacist, shared some stories of life in the pharmacy as well as a rendition of a Richard Marx song from the 80s which brought back memories of school socials. Lastly, the mother of a four year old, and 18 mth old twins informed of the politics of dancing lessons for kids in town, as well as the ins and outs of childcare. I am considerably more informed about all sorts of things than I was at 3:30 today.