Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson, and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the ways music can make our lives better and spotlight the resources you can use to enhance your life with music. As a music educator, I have been a member of MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) for years, as well as my state and local chapters. It was such a treat this spring to have MTNA Annual National Convention held right here in Minneapolis, where I live. I met today’s guest at the convention. We got chatting one day in the exhibitor hall, and when I learned what today’s guest is doing with her work, I started drooling and wished I knew about her work when I was more actively teaching piano lessons. As a piano teacher, I would say that the biggest challenge that I consistently witnessed was parents wanting to give their child the gift of music through lessons, but not wanting to quote, force it on a child when they didn’t want to practice. And sometimes these same parents would lament that they wish their own parents had not let them quit piano lessons when they didn’t want to practice. There’s sort of a lack of clarity around what is the teacher’s role, the parents role, and the student’s role, and how much fun and how much work should be expected in the music learning experience. Enter today’s guest: Barbie Wong is a passionate music educator and founder of Musical Nest, a vibrant community supporting teachers and parents in inspiring kids to make music. She has worked with thousands of educators worldwide, sharing practical strategies to nurture musical growth, foster motivation, and create joyful, engaging learning experiences for children. Barbie uses her background in classical piano and music degrees from Stanford University and Smith College to blend research, real world experience, and a deep love of teaching to inspire kids and the grown ups guiding them. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Barbie.
Barbie Wong: [00:02:14] Oh, thank you so much, Mindy. I am so glad to be here.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:18] So great to have you here. Like I said, when I when I heard and understood about the work you were doing, I was just like, oh my goodness, I wish I would have known about this when I was teaching. You have so many resources that you offer for both parents and teachers. I want to get into describing them in a moment, but first, I’d love to have you share a few insights from one of your most popular workshops, “Music Practice: Five Ways to Make it Easier.” For parents who are in the audience, and also teachers who are always looking for strategies on this topic, what are some of the top ways for parents to make practice easier? How can they best support music practice at home? How can they impact their child’s motivation and help their kids develop strong habits?
Barbie Wong: [00:03:06] Well, let me just tell you a few that I think are so important. And the first thing that a lot of times we don’t think about when we think about practice is actually to bathe children in music. Sometimes when people come to me and they say, oh, my kid doesn’t want to practice, what ends up happening is when I hear more and more about what’s happening at home, I learn a lot of times the children aren’t even listening to music. And you probably know this music is a language, and the easiest way to learn a language is through immersion. And the easiest way to entice children is to have things around them so much that they want to copy those things. So if the family is a sports oriented family, which there’s nothing against sports, but let’s say the family’s priority is sports and they’re watching sports, going to sporting events. That child is going to naturally want to do sports. Likewise with music. If you get the family saying, wow, I want to listen to this song or oh my goodness, when I was a kid, you know, the parent talking, I used to listen to this and we would dance to it or whatever the if the parents, if the grown ups are excited about music and show that interest and play music around the house, the children will naturally want to do it as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:04:21] That’s really interesting. I haven’t heard it put exactly that way before, but that totally makes sense. And I think back to some of the students that I’ve had in in the past who had a strong interest and motivation in learning music, and it wasn’t necessarily the students who were all motivated to do the contests and and compete and perform in certain ways. It was more they had parents at home who music wasn’t their parents vocation, but it was something that their parents really valued either listening to music regularly, going to live music, going to concerts, or I think of one family. The dad took some formal lessons as a kid, not a lot, but enough that he could just play on his own. And every night when he came home from work, that was his way of winding down is just taking some time to play the piano. So really interesting to hear you explain it that way.
Barbie Wong: [00:05:20] Yeah, in my research, because what was happening was with my own children, I basically struggled. My kids didn’t want to practice and things of that sort, and even though I was saturating them with music, I realized there was all these other things that could be done. And what I did was I looked into the lives of adult musicians, because a lot of times we just think about, well, what is it we want our children to do? A lot of times parents aren’t interested in, I want this child to be playing at Carnegie Hall. Most parents want, oh, I want my child as an adult to play music for fun. And so I’ve interviewed a lot of these adults, and I’ve looked into the lives of adult musicians and lo and behold, the ones that are making music as adults, they had so much musical input as children. They were listening to music. I mean, Elton John talks about how the radio was constantly on. Lin-manuel Miranda talked about how his parents were obsessed with Broadway musicals. So you can see from all these examples, that’s what these quote unquote, a lot of times people think, oh, these are prodigies. No, these are people so seeped into music that they can’t not make music.
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:30] Ah, interesting. Well, and it’s also a way to demonstrate and live out the value that you place on that activity as a parent. You know, it’s one thing to, to pay for lessons and take your kids to lessons and provide the instrument, which is huge. But if you’re one of those parents who are saying, put the headphones on, though, because I don’t want to listen to you practice, you know, that’s communicating something very different to your child as opposed to walking the talk in terms of really getting a lot out of music in your own life and demonstrating that you really do place a value on it and that it enhances your own life.
Barbie Wong: [00:07:12] Yeah, exactly. And what what teachers can do is to guide parents, to say, oh, please play the music you enjoy. Or they can even assign students to listen to music or watch videos. Being part of learning music isn’t just to play the instrument, it’s also to absorb the sounds that that instrument makes by professional or more well developed musicians. Mhm. The other thing that I highly recommend is to make it social. Kids really want to be with other kids. Kids have most fun with other kids. And the unfortunate part of learning a musical instrument is that the practice necessarily has to be done in isolation. You can’t have five or even two violins in the same room practicing because the, you know, the sound just carries. So. The sad part about practice, in a way, or the tough part about it, is that kids have to practice by themselves. But if any way possible, make sure that kids have a chance to be with other kids. Whether it’s in group lessons, have them sign up for band or orchestra, or send them to a music camp. I actually hated practice until I went to music camp, and once I went to music camp, everything changed. What ended up happening was in my research, I found out, oh, this is the same thing that happened to Joshua Bell. I think he went from practicing, I don’t know, 45 minutes to an hour before music camp to practicing about three hours after that. So it’s a huge motivator when kids get to make music with other kids. And not just that, you have to make sure that they’re also developing friendships, because I’ve heard of people say, well, but my kid went to orchestra, but they didn’t really like it. And I asked, well, what were they doing after orchestra? Were they hanging out with those people, or did they just leave because we want them to develop friendships from those social experiences?
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:10] That’s another really interesting insight, too. Those were not the two strategies I expected, and I love both of them. It’s funny because, incidentally, I just had a conversation about this social aspect of learning yesterday with a college music faculty who I connected with through my job. She organizes a piano camp every year and just shout out to her camp if you’re in the Twin Cities area, Bethel University has a summer piano camp every every summer. Actually, this is the second annual camp that they’re holding. But she was talking about that was a major motivator for her. Creating this camp is because piano and other musical instruments can be so solitary in terms of, you have a private lesson, you sit and practice on your own. And we are social creatures, and I totally relate to that. When I was teaching actively, I did have regular group lessons, not super frequently, but several times a year, and it was really interesting to see how kids thrived on just that social connection and playing for each other. And the young kids thought it was so cool. They got to be with some of the older kids during those groups, and the older kids just really rose to the occasion and nurtured and mentored those younger students. And so it was really fun to see the dynamic of those, those groups and the kids. Then when they would show up at recitals, they knew each other, you know, and it did create more of a camaraderie amongst themselves and almost more of a community in the piano studio, even though for the most part, they were just showing up for individual private lessons from week to week.
Barbie Wong: [00:10:55] Well that’s great. I love hearing that, and I think about how important it is also for the teacher’s role to really encourage those music camps and group lessons or group ensembles, because I still think about my own daughter. When she was taking cello lessons, her teacher would consistently say every year, oh, why don’t you think about this camp or this camp? And it took us about 3 or 4 years until we finally signed up. So don’t give up. If there’s teachers out there, don’t give up. Just keep reminding parents how wonderful it is.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:28] Sure. And that is a good reminder, because so often we do need to hear things multiple times. And the person who’s mentioning it multiple times can be very tempted to think, well, I offered it and they didn’t want it or they didn’t take me up on it. I won’t keep pushing it when really, you know, you can just keep keep planting those seeds. And sometimes it does take multiple mentions before it really sinks in or catches someone’s attention. Well, like I said, you do offer so many resources for parents and teachers. There’s free resources, there’s paid resources. I know there are some free downloads on your site. One of them is a guide called ten Ways to Inspire Kids to Make Music. So I encourage listeners to go to your site and check that out. What do you want listeners to know about that guide and the other free resources that they can find on your site?
Barbie Wong: [00:12:21] Well, those are great ways to get things started. There are great ways to think about those those things. And it’s funny because what I’ll do is I’ll, um, I’ll look at these. Or when I first made it, I just basically it was my own download of all the things I really thought, if you did nothing else. If you only did these ten things or even the first top three I did them in. I felt like the most important to the you know, maybe you don’t need to do as much. So prioritize. Yeah, yeah. Prioritize. If you if you do these you can see a big difference. And the funny thing actually is that when I occasionally go back and I read those, I am reminded and I realize, oh, I don’t think I’m doing number four very well. Or oh, I forgot about number six. So it’s kind of nice to have and then to kind of go back and and look at it periodically.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:11] Yeah.
Barbie Wong: [00:13:11] Or even print it out, put it on your refrigerator and keep looking at it. And I’ve actually had a lot of guides where even children. Uh, one time at this, this keynote speech, a teacher brought her a child, I think, her eight year old child. And afterwards he came up to me and he had highlighted things on there for his parents to look at.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:31] These are the ones I want you to do, mom and dad!
Barbie Wong: [00:13:34] Yeah. I think the one he really loved was it was it said, you know, music practice is difficult for most children and a lot of humans don’t like it. And that’s okay.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:46] Sure. Yeah. Well, Yo-Yo Ma has said that he hates practicing. And you mentioned Joshua Bell. You know, I mean, yes, that is it is very normal, especially when you’re when you’re weighing it against playing video games or going outside and riding bikes with my friends, like, most kids are going to feel like playing video games if they’re given the choice between the two. I mean, that’s just normal.
Barbie Wong: [00:14:12] Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:12] Oh, yes. Well, and that’s funny that the kid highlighted it because really, I mean, different things do work for different people. I just think back to when I was a kid, my mom always had a stew, certain chores. And I remember occasionally you should write up my list. And I’d say, well, you didn’t include clean the bathroom or whatever it was. And she said, well, I know you already did that. And I said, no, I want you to put it on there so I can check it off. Like I like being able to check it off the list, you know? And if that’s something that your kid really gets in, you know, if that’s something that does something for them, it’s nice to know that. And that sounds like that kid knew what he wanted and needed and was letting his parents know. What are some of the other free resources that you have on your site? I know there’s a free download that’s a practice schedule that you can download and sort of create with your child. What are what are some of the other things? A blog?
Barbie Wong: [00:15:05] Yeah, I have a blog. I have some YouTube channels, some stuff. I also have an Instagram. Um, yeah. Just things that I feel like, wow. If I can give information to parents and teachers in a way that’s easily accessible. Um, a lot of times I try to make it so that it’s bite sized chunks because I know a lot of us are busy. But yeah, just a lot of these ideas that I have, and sometimes they’re just completely random. I just did an Instagram post when I went skiing and I just thought, oh my goodness, skiing is very similar to learning music. And I thought, wow, this maybe there are some skiers out there and it would reach some of them. So anything to make it easily accessible.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:46] Love it. I think there’s an e-newsletter on there that you can sign up for. And like you mentioned, just following you on socials will give a lot of regular systematic input just on things that may resonate with parents in the moment when they see it. You also have premium resources that are paid resources. And um, there’s there’s so much there in a variety of price points. I know you have an ebook that’s, I think just $10, but tell us about tell us about the e-book and tell us about some of the other premium resources that you offer, including the musical Nest community.
Barbie Wong: [00:16:25] Yeah. The e-book was something that I just basically wrote in a day. It was something that I realized, oh, there’s all these reasons why kids don’t want to practice. So the book is called Why Kids? Well, at first it was called Why Kids Hate Practice. And then I thought that was a little too much. And so I put Why kids and then in parentheses sometimes hate practice. Yeah, because it’s true. And a lot of adults hate practice. And as we talked about you talked about Yo-Yo Ma. So many people do not like to practice. And there are many reasons why. And there’s ways to address them so that we don’t just say, oh, my child doesn’t like to practice. I guess my child is just going to quit this instrument. No, there’s it’s just so common. So let’s just deal with that reality and find ways that are palatable for the child, including things like playing games and and making sure that things are done step by step. Because some children, of course, it depends on the personality and also the dynamic between teacher and child and parent and child. You know, some children really need things done in a certain way. Some children needs to have more of a transition. So that’s one. One of the reasons why kids hate practice is some need that transition period. And so without that kids will a lot of kids will just say, no, I don’t want to practice. But if you tell the child, hey, we’re going to practice in 15 minutes. First of all, you’re not saying, do you want to practice? Never say that. Don’t make it optional. Just say, oh, you’re you know, your practice is happening in 15 minutes, so you have 15 more minutes to play. Uh, whatever it is, you know, with your Legos. And then maybe that child needs a ten minute warning and a five minute warning and a okay, now, finally it’s time. Why don’t you go ahead and put that away and I’ll meet you at the instrument? So it just depends on the child how much essentially scaffolding you need to give them.
Mindy Peterson: [00:18:22] Yeah. Well, and one thing I love about that, I know you and I talked about this at Mtna when we met is a lot of these strategies are not just for music lessons, they’re life strategies. Because a lot of times this also applies to the kids homework doing like who feels like doing homework? Pretty much nobody usually. Or who feels like brushing their teeth before bed or cleaning the bathroom. As I mentioned earlier, you know, most of these disciplines of life are things that we need to learn how to do them and how to make ourselves do what we know we ought to do, whether it’s for a job or school or family life or whatever. And so a lot of these strategies that you talk about, both in, in the book and in other ways, in your in your resources and your community, it transfers to other areas of life. So I love that as, as a parent, as a teacher, knowing that these skills are so transferable to every other area of their life, and hopefully all of our children who are Experiencing music lessons are going to be launched into life when they graduate. Much more better equipped for being a good roommate and being successful in college and being in a good relationship, a healthy relationship because of some of these strategies, but I digress. Tell us more about the the anything else you want to say about the book? Or, um, if not, let’s tell us about your musical community.
Barbie Wong: [00:19:56] Uh, yeah. The musical community is basically it’s a place I wanted parents and teachers to be able to feel like they’re literally in a nest, that you’re surrounded by something that’s really comforting and supportive. Uh, because really, what we think about what we want for our children, we want them to be able to eventually fly out and go and do what they want to do. But before they can do that, we want to provide them with a lot of support. Port. And um, and also, I think about it as us, the grown ups who also need support during this, because the hard thing I think about teaching music is if, you know, the teachers are getting pedagogy, they’re getting trained how to be teachers. A lot of that does not teach them how to work with parents. They learn how to instruct the students. They learn how to become skilled in their own instruments and skilled with teaching the child. But there’s not as much support with, well, what do you do with parents? How do you help with structuring, actually the practice, and how does the parent get involved? Or if the parent isn’t involved, what do you do to make sure that the parent understands the progress? Because there’s you know, I understand not all parents are involved, and that’s fine. But I think that at least most parents at some point want to know, oh, my child is progressing. Sure. And so musical. This is a place where we have a lot of different exchanges we have.
Barbie Wong: [00:21:26] It’s an online platform and so you can go in. It’s basically it’s a place where there’s all these different spaces. You know, there’s a space where you can ask questions of the community. There’s a place where we have live events. And so we have these live event spaces where you can say, oh, I’d like to go check out this thing or this. You know, we have community meetings. Um, I have something called Parent Talk, where I invite a parent who has raised a musical child to come in and talk about that journey. How did she or he raise this musical child? And it’s been great. I just I think last time we had a parent who talked about how her daughter does bluegrass fiddle and how she’s now has, you know, she’s a professional musician at 18 years old, but going off to Berklee School of Music. And then I had actually a a father and a son, and the son is a Steinway artist and a professor of music at Notre Dame, and they talked about what was happening when he was growing up. So these are really fantastic ways for parents to understand, oh, there’s not just one way to raise a musical child. And for teachers to really get an insight into, wow, there’s all these different things that can happen. And oh, this is how the teacher’s role plays into all this.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:41] Yeah. Fabulous. I know there’s also a lot of other resources that are offered to members of the musical community. There’s archived YouTube videos. I think you mentioned or maybe I saw it on your website, the Wednesday Whines and Wows, which is I love it. It’s kind of like what what’s working and what’s not. And so I think that would be really encouraging for parents and teachers to see like, oh, I’m not the only one who’s dealing with this and just be inspired by some very practical tips and hacks and things that are ideas that have worked for other parents and other teachers that they can try out.
Barbie Wong: [00:23:24] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, those those are fun. We have Tuesday tips and Thankful Thursdays. So things that really get the community involved and engaged and and and celebrating each other too. I see a lot of support across, you know, across the waist. And we actually have a lot of really, um, really resourceful people. And people I would say are experts in different ways. One of our members knows so much about improv and composition. And so during our community meetings, there have been times when she shares things and I’m thinking, oh my goodness, this is so valuable. Or others talk about their practice challenges that I now have adopted in my studio. So it’s not just I feel like, uh, you know, I have a partner who’s co-leading this community, Christine Gardner. You know, we’re both experts in our field, in this field. But the people we draw in, they have all these wonderful things to contribute as well. Yeah, I guess I want to mention also that we have challenges. We had a practice challenge in January, which was fantastic, and this was a way for both the grownups, but mainly for the children to get involved, because a lot of times with this, with the musical ness, it feels like, okay, we have grown up supported, well, what do we do with children? Um, and so that was when a children could actually this was a 30 day practice challenge, and people got prizes for different days that they practiced. And, you know, they could report on, hey, this is how I practice today. They could show a little video or, um, just all these really fun things. And at the end, we had a fun celebration.
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:05] Oh, cool. I know you also have games on there for for parents and teachers. So a lot of really creative ways on how to foster a love for music, whether you’re a parent or a teacher. Um, ways to sort of integrate music learning in the home. Uh, fresh ideas, inspiration. So really lots of great ideas. I think you and Christine both are parents and have taught your own children music lessons. Is that right?
Barbie Wong: [00:25:35] Um, I don’t know if Christine has I have, okay. And I would say the first was the my, my failed attempt, which is actually in some ways kind of good because this is what brought me to this topic. I didn’t I didn’t do very well with my first child, and she started to really resist playing the piano. And I just thought, if I am an experienced musician teacher, I have two degrees in music and my own child will not play or is resisting practice. What’s everybody else doing? What are all the parents doing who don’t have any musical expertise? And so then I started doing research, started changing things with my second kid. Then we had a fantastic both parent and child, but also teacher and child relationship. And so I taught my kid. I think between the ages of three and 14, so about 11 years and that worked out really well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:36] Oh good. I also taught my own children music lessons, and when I started I thought, well, I don’t know how long this will last before I need to, you know, switch them to a music teacher who’s not their parent. And we ended up doing it for the full time that they they took lessons most of the time that they were living at home before graduation. Um, but it definitely, definitely had it’s challenging. It’s challenging moments and it’s joys to both. I mean, there’s there’s pros and cons to it, I think. And you alluded to this, your experience teaching your own kids is a little bit what guided you along this journey and into the path that you ended ended up creating this community? Can you tell us a little bit more about how your own joys and frustrations in that stage of raising music, making kids kind of influenced your work and brought you to the point where you are right now? I think you kind of created what you wished you would have had. Is that right?
Barbie Wong: [00:27:37] Exactly. I wish. Basically, I’m doing all this for my younger self.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:43] Yes.
Barbie Wong: [00:27:44] And and for me. Because it confused me. Because I thought, why do some children seem like they naturally. You know, there are there’s a whole spectrum. There are certain children that are so much more excited about practice and certain children that just really aren’t or flat out refused. And I was trying to figure out, well, what is what’s really happening here.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:05] And each child could cycle through different seasons of both of those stages. Yeah.
Barbie Wong: [00:28:11] Yes, Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It’s. It actually, it reminds me of the time when I was teaching, you know, online. And this one student I couldn’t figure out. He kept looking to the to the right until finally I asked the parent, I said, what’s going on? He said, oh, there’s a window there. And his friends are playing outside. So I said, well, how about we move this to the other side? And you know that just that was good. So but it was a good reminder. Sometimes a solution is so easy and quick and, you know, all you have to do is physically change where the child is focused. Um, and then sometimes it takes a little longer, like saturating the environment with music. Just because you play music for your child for two days doesn’t mean your child will suddenly want to make music. But if you’re doing that for the next few months, the next few years, then you really help develop really deep roots of musical desire.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:14] Yeah, well, the musical community is one of your premium resources, I believe. It’s available for as low as $10 a month when paid annually. Is that right? Yes, yes. Yeah. So we’ll definitely include lots of links in the show notes for that, including to a link on your website of a video that kind of gives a little introduction with both you and Christine chatting on there about, um, what the community looks like and what you can expect to receive as part of that community. There’s a 14 day trial available where if if you don’t love it in 14 days, it’s on. It’s on you, no questions asked. People can cancel within that time period. Um, I would love to know if you have some kind of a studio plan. I know we talked a little bit about this at Mtna. Is there any anything in the works to offer a studio plan for teachers so that teachers can sort of build membership into their studio rate for for their families. I know when I learned what you were doing, like I said, I was just like, oh my goodness, I wish I would have had this to offer to my for myself to take advantage of the resources, but also to offer to the parents of my students. And I was just thinking it’d be wonderful if you had some sort of a studio plan so that the the teacher could just buy a more expensive plan that they could then offer to all of their their students. Do you have anything like that in the works?
Barbie Wong: [00:30:45] Oh, I so wish I did. Right now, uh, we are actually working on something or I’m talking to Christine. We’re like, kind of going back and forth on a lot of ideas. So it’s it’s in the works. That’s and I would say if anybody, if any listeners wants to be updated on that, just get on my newsletter, I will definitely send it out, uh, once that becomes a Reality. And also, I would love to hear ideas on that because I don’t know of any places that have studio plans. So, you know, we’re trying to figure out the best way to make that happen.
Mindy Peterson: [00:31:18] Sure, sure. Well, yeah. Listeners, if you’re a parent or teacher who wants to see something like that happen, let Barbie know what your ideas are. Probably the reason it popped into my head right away is because there’s a piano app piano maestro that I used a lot when I was teaching actively, and they had studio plans available, and so that’s probably where I got that idea. But, um, yeah, that would be something really amazing to be able to offer. Let’s talk about the timing of this. Our episode will release, um, later in May, and at that point, a lot of students will probably be sort of at the tail end of their school year, if not already done with school. I’m thinking this would be a great time for parents and teachers, really to kind of experiment with your your plan and your membership over the summer while the their kiddos or students might be on a little bit more of a casual lesson and practice schedule. Um, and that way the parent, the parent themselves also may have a little bit more breathing room in their schedule. Teachers too. During the summer, they could maybe implement some of those games and some of the other ideas that they see on your site so that they don’t. Their students don’t lose progress, progress over the summer. They can just hit the ground running in the fall. But do you have any other recommendations for this time of year, kind of late spring summer, for listeners who are hearing this when it releases, and maybe contemplating how they want to implement this into their either teaching plan or their work with their own kids at home.
Barbie Wong: [00:32:59] Oh, yes. Definitely. In fact, uh, we are going to have a summer music bingo challenge that’s going to happen. So the idea is we’re going to give out people, you know, give out bingo cards which have different tasks on them, relating to not just practice, but also, you know, things like, you know, watching videos or going to see live music. So we know a lot of people will be traveling as well, both teachers and families. And the idea is that you’ll have until, um, we have to figure out the time, maybe August, September to basically complete that bingo card. And people who have completed bingos, uh, will be in a drawing for to win a certain prize. And then people who have completed the blackout of bingo will get a certain prize. And then. Yeah, so teachers can pass this on to their students. And, you know, that way there’s music happening in the summer, even if practice can’t happen consistently, at least there’s still musical input.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:57] Yes. Love that. What a fun idea. Well, anything else that you want to make sure listeners know about your resources, what you have to offer the musical community before we close things out with a coda. Anything that we missed that you want to make sure listeners know about?
Barbie Wong: [00:34:15] I think I just want listeners to know that this, this whole thing about getting kids to make music and enjoy music, it’s a it’s a long and winding road. It’s something that I had to learn. Oh, okay. I need to be more forgiving of myself. There’s all of these ways in which we can get so frustrated when either a child won’t do something we want them to do, or I’ve worked with both parents and teachers. When the parent teacher relationship, a lot of times the teacher will say, wow, if the parents would only do such and such, they don’t seem to hear hear me, and vice versa. The parents are saying, oh wow, the teachers don’t seem to understand. Um, I just I just think that it’s good to just give people a little grace, and to try as much as you can to communicate, because, you know, we’re all trying to do our best. And also then at the end of the day, I think the most important part is our connection with the children. Like, how are we connected with them? Okay, yes, maybe practice doesn’t look amazing today, but maybe practice is just a you know, we’re going to play these three pieces and I’m still able to stay connected with my child. And I would consider that a win.
Mindy Peterson: [00:35:32] Mhm. Love that. Well thanks so much Barbie for sharing with us and for all these wonderful resources. Um, I encourage listeners to check all of them out and to share them with their teachers. If you’re a parent, let your teacher know about it. If you’re a teacher, let your parents know about it, because there’s so much on there that it can just see, uh, really enhancing the musical experience for the parents and the teachers and the child and bringing great results about. So thanks for all of those. As you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Do you have a song or story that you can share with us today? In closing?
Barbie Wong: [00:36:18] Yes. This, uh, happened about a year and a half ago. Uh, my grandmother, who lives in Taiwan, um, she has had Alzheimer’s for many years. And at some point it was very obvious, you know, everything was starting to shut down. Um, and all this time, I was keeping in touch with her. Through my parents, we would do video calls, and at some point, I thought, you know, my grandmother, she loves music. She grew up listening to music, and she actually grew up during the Japanese occupation. And so I would hear her sing Japanese songs all the time. Um, but she obviously, you know, she knew Chinese. And so I started singing to her in Chinese. I also played the ukulele. And so I would sing these Chinese songs to her. And it was interesting because you could see that by then, you know, she she couldn’t talk. Her eyes were closed. But when I would sing to her, she would move her mouth. Sometimes she would moan a little bit. And it was just so wonderful to feel like, wow, I can’t be there with my grandma. She can’t. Maybe she can’t hear my voice as well, or maybe she could, but music was what was reaching her. Yeah, music is what was helping her. I’m hoping, uh, transition and, um, hoping that it gave her a lot of comfort. As you know, she was dying.
Mindy Peterson: [00:37:44] What a great way to connect with her. And figuratively hold her hand at that time when you couldn’t physically be there and do that?
Barbie Wong: [00:37:53] Yeah. It was. It was one of the best moments of my life.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai