Here’s a question for you: Who are the five people who have had the most influence on the person you are today? I know it’s difficult to limit your list to just five, but who are the first people who come to mind? I’ll give you a minute. Ready? Okay, take a look at your list—was there a teacher somewhere on it? Maybe more than one? Was one of them a music teacher?

They are teaching far more than how to play an instrument or read notes—they are modeling an approach to life.

When I did this exercise, music teachers occupied three of the five spots on my list. I suppose it’s not surprising, given the career path I’ve chosen, but I had never stopped to think about just how influential music teachers are in my life today—decades after my last lesson with them. In fact, I remember every music teacher I have ever had, in vivid detail, whether it was an elementary school music teacher or a college professor. If I were to expand my list from five most influential people to 10 or 20, I am sure that teachers—and especially music teachers—would continue to occupy most of the real estate. Forget YouTube and Instagram influencers, teachers are the real difference makers in our lives. Always have been, and always will be.

While it wasn’t shocking to me that teachers have had such an outsized influence on who I am today, it was a powerful reminder that, as a music teacher myself, I am in a privileged position to have that kind of positive influence on my students. This can quickly start to feel like a heavy responsibility. But my conversation with the interview subject in this issue of Harp Column was a wonderfully refreshing reminder that no teacher has to go it alone.

“You never stop learning,” harpist and high school orchestra teacher Annie Ray reminds us in our interview Teacher and Student. “I guarantee you the teacher up the street has 10 great ideas you’ve never thought of that can help you in your classroom.” Ray was recently named the Grammy Music Educator of the Year for the work she has done in her suburban Virginia public school. Talk about an influencer! But even though Ray had just received a national award for her teaching and rubbed elbows with the biggest stars in music at the Grammys, she was quick to point out that teaching is a team effort. “This award isn’t just mine—it’s very much a group project, and my name just happens to be on it,” she acknowledges. “All of these things have come together—many people, many different ideas—in this community of Annandale, [Virg.], and these people have taught me more than I’m ever going to teach them about what music is really about.”

Ray is quick to share what she knows about teaching music, and eager to learn everything she can from others, whether they be fellow teachers,  students, parents, or experts in other fields. In a world where so many people operate from a scarcity mindset, hoarding their knowledge and expertise and resources, Ray takes the opposite approach. She shares what she knows, collaborates with others to tap into their well of expertise, and never seeks the credit. Ray takes an abundance perspective, understanding that there is plenty to go around—plenty of ideas, plenty of students, plenty of recognition. Sharing what she has only makes more for everyone. 

This perspective is at the heart of why Ray and other teachers have such deep and profound influence in students’ lives. They are teaching far more than how to play an instrument or read music—they are modeling an approach to life. “We are not here to create the next Yo-Yo Ma,” Ray points out. “If we happen to do that along the way, cool, but we’re trying to create good people. There’s so much to learn between the notes on the page, and that is what we, as music educators, are teaching our students each day.” •