The Mystery Student : Family Support Story #15

I have never figured out if I dreamt having this one particular woman student, or if I saw her once and then somehow forgot to ever get back to her. It has perplexed me for a long time.

When I was first getting into teaching, I was coming out of working at a studio. The owner was not so good at his finances, and was constantly bouncing checks, or not paying me for extended periods of time. I was frustrated, and eventually I started transitioning out of working at that studio, and a lot of my students ended up exiting with me, as I was their preferred teacher. That is when I really started doing housecall lessons, something which is still a main income stream for me to this day.

When you are working with students it’s common to get referrals, or to occasionally meet the neighbors, and gradually a word of mouth or interaction based business grows, as it did with mine. I have almost exclusively taught private lessons in students' homes most of my professional career.

There is this one student that I swear I remember teaching,.. A woman. And I can almost clearly remember working with her, once,.. Maybe twice,.. I’m really not sure. It’s very possible that I met her and then somehow totally forgot that I was teaching her,.. I was maybe like 17-19 years old, and really just getting started as a teacher. I didn’t have the organization skills that I do today, nor was I really much of an adept professional just yet. So I would say that it’s a 50 / 50 chance that I just forgot her in my roster long enough to not be able to recall working with her. Or.. was it a dream.. It kind of feels like a dream.. I honestly can’t tell. Back in those days I would have had a 1st generation Nokia phone, or a flip phone LG or something, and texting was still this new practice. I would write down people’s addresses, and get instructions to them step by step style. It was all so primitive compared to today.

I remember having so many short lived clients back then. People I would meet once somewhere, they would try a class, and maybe never do another one, for whatever reason. And then of course there were the ones that stuck, and were with me long enough to be in memory. That still happens today on occasion, where you do a trial and the kid doesn’t like it, or the parents are forcing it and the kid resists, or sometimes the energies just don’t jive. That’s all part of the business, and I strive to always draw in people long term for my services. I just can’t tell if I ever actually had this woman client or not. I guess I will never know for sure.

So.. mystery woman guitar student, if you somehow read this and the memory of our work comes to you, please do reach out. The next lesson is on me.