BIOGRAPHY
I grew up in a home where music was like another member of the family. One of my earliest memories is of my mother playing the piano at night as I drifted to sleep. She passed on to her children what her father, a professional flutist, had passed to her – the priority of musical instruction. Between my brothers and me, there was always some sort of music practice going on in the house – piano, flute, trumpet, trombone, guitar. Learning two instruments was like learning math and reading. We didn’t know it was an option.
In my early years, playing the piano was mostly a discipline. It was a thing to be checked off the list and completed before going out to play. It wasn’t always fun. There were times I begged to quit. From age 10 to adulthood, I studied with college-level instructors; and high school recitals, college competitions, and endless hours of practice were a major part of life.
When educational requirements were lifted and the adult life was now to be lived, playing the piano changed for me. Since being an adult, the piano has been one of the most constant and fulfilling things in my life. In times of joy, it adds to the fun; in times of sadness, it is a medicine. There is little else more fulfilling than expressing in the language of music what spoken words cannot say. Music is that other member of the family that now grows up with my children as it did in my childhood home. Kids play, dogs bark, and piano music flows. How empty we would be without it!
As an accredited teacher with Simply Music, the greatest priority I have for my students is that through the fun and discipline of learning and practicing, they will come to love playing the piano as much as I do. My focus is on their retention of music as a lifelong companion, so they can in turn pass a legacy of music on to the generation after them.
Beth Sheets
Piano Studio
The best gift of all
is a house full of music.
