I haven’t taken too many guitar lessons in my life. Though I spent years as a guitar teacher, ironically, I’m mostly self-taught.

Almost every teacher I tried did that thing where you pick up the guitar and do a fast run to show off.

No piano teacher I ever had did this. It must be something about having the instrument in your hand, just begging to be played.

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Yesterday, while driving, I came up with a new way of visualizing the relationships between the programs I’d like to offer.

I held it in my mind and committed it to paper later that day. It’s starting to make sense. However, the diagram I drew made me realize that there are still some pieces missing. And what is the overarching theme?

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Back when I first started teaching music lessons in Atlanta, I was a little self-conscious about my circumstances.

I lived in a small, run-down apartment with no central air conditioning and a bad parking situation. Piano lessons, I taught in the bedroom, and guitar lessons were in the living room.

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At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Fiona Apple, at not quite twenty years old, accepted her award for Best New Artist with a speech that earned the criticism and derision of many.

“This world is bullshit,” she said, her choice of words bleeped by the censors. “You shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.”

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In my work with adolescents, I like to remind them that they are active participants in creating the kind of culture they want to be part of.

"I'm only able to get up in front of the room and speak," I once told them, "because you're allowing me to. "If you all started jumping up and down and screaming, there wouldn't be much I could do about it."

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