Sometimes the mind is muddled. And sometimes I find out just how muddled MY mind can get.

Yesterday I opened up my first student’s notebook to find this (with messages written to the student as well, but you don’t need to know everything, right?):

1. warm up on g
2. staples: chromatic, major: Bb (B) C (C#/Db) D Eb (E) F (F#/Gb) G (Ab) A
3. Ed 1
4. Ed 2
5. Ed 3

Yes. Really. I wrote staples rather than scales! Go figure. (Scales in parenthesis mean “You aren’t playing this one yet, but look how close you are to doing them all!”)

Today one student’s assignment book had this in it:
Chromatic scale up to

Yeah. Really. Up to what, I ask you? Who knows! (Actually it was “up to your highest note” … but I neglected to write that.)

Sometimes I open up these assignment books and I really crack up. My students must think I’m one odd duck, but at least I show them that I easily laugh at myself and I always point out my goofy errors. I think it’s terribly important for students to know I am not perfect. (Somehow they are never surprised by that. Hmm.)