Have you ever been enthusiastically teaching one of your students something that you find incredibly helpful and exciting only to find that they were staring at you with a glazed look in their eyes?

Yeah, me too.

For those of us who've been studying and making music for years, it's really easy to forget how it feels to be a beginner.  Also, we can be so excited about the information that we inadvertently deliver it with a fire hose and totally overwhelm our students.

One of the ways I deal with that is to take lessons to learn new techniques on the guitar, piano, and more recently, I've started learning how to play the banjo.  From time to time, I love to work on my songwriting with artists I adore.

Aside from the joy I feel learning new things, it also gives me the chance to remember how it feels to be in the student seat, a completely different experience from being in the teacher seat.

Like all of my students, no matter how well I've played something while practicing, I'm more likely to screw it up playing in front of the teacher.  It doesn't matter how nice the teacher is (and they're all lovely humans), it's just a bit more stressful performing in front of them.

It also gives me the chance to observe when I feel my eyes glazing over with confusion, and then ask specific questions to help me refocus.  

Because I'm learning something new, I get a real-time reminder about how to break down information for my students.

p.s. I had so much fun meeting with the lovely singer and songwriter, Sally Louise for one of my 10 Minute Tutoring sessions at the Folk Alliance conference.  She was looking to set up a schedule that supports her touring and as soon as she created her first lesson package, several new students showed up and paid in full.

How's that for some serious manifesting?!?!

Check out her kind feedback below: