To celebrate the latest episode of the Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Samantha Coates, we are sharing an excerpted transcript of her conversation with Craig Sale. Want to learn more about Coates? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Coates on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Craig Sale: What are your thoughts on how music might shape our future?
Samantha Coates: Oh, yeah, these are heavy questions. [laugh]
CS: Yeah, these questions get heavier.
SC: Well, from a pedagogical point of view, how music might shape our future is that music can be more accessible to more people. The more that music is taught in a way that ensures recreational music making in the future, rather than just the study of difficult pieces to pass a certain exam and then stopping. That means people will grow up and play music for pleasure, play music for entertainment, and gather around a piano for entertainment, instead of gathering around an iPad.
CS: Yes.
SC: So I think that the way that I teach, which is so different to the way I taught twenty years ago, is probably going towards that, to make sure that people have these leisure skills in music, and then they can take that into adulthood and enjoy their instruments. Then they can be supportive to their kids who are learning an instrument. And for there to be a culture, wherever there is an instrument, just to get together and play together.
CS: So the answer to that question I asked you is, “Our future [has] us being brought together by music.”
SC: Yes.
CS: And I think, as you mentioned, music is accessible, but it’s very accessible [in that], you know, [you] can click a button and hear it. But that idea of music, active music making to bring people together, that’s how the future of our world gets impacted, not so much by pushing a button.
SC: Absolutely, that’s right. And it comes back to what you were saying. It’s not just listening to music on a CD, but the shared experience of being in a concert together is so important, and the shared experience of playing music together is so important.
CS: And we just have to hope and keep working that our world recognizes that and starts to value that more. And along with that, the work that teachers do to help make that happen.
SC: Yes.
CS: That’s one of the reasons why you’re here, is because you’re an example of a teacher who has—personally, I think it’s wonderful, that the self exploration that you’ve done—then really kind of going it alone, to make it different and to make music more accessible. And by doing that, you change the world. So thank you for that. It’s a wonderful example, I think, for all of us.
SC: Thank you.
If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Samantha Coates on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
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