Have You Ever Heard a Musical Fairy?
Please take a listen to this mesmerizing magical musical fairy friend and neighbour of ours.
Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TC2tBBSGJQ
Maureen Goebel is Bear Mountain’s resident concert pianist. She regularly can be heard playing the grand piano in the Buck and Bear lounge in the hotel’s lobby, entrancing patrons as they take in the stunning views of the golf course and Mount Baker.
Maureen has taught piano for years. She has been teaching for 50 years and taught piano at the University of Alberta. She had so many students that she would teach a full day five days a week. Maureen takes great pride in teaching with a method that she calls ‘making instant pudding’, in that she is able to coach her students to learn this instrument with ease. She uses Japanese techniques that scaffold the learning in very manageable ‘sticky’ segments. Today she teaches mainly adults who have the extra time to learn a new instrument or for those wanting to relearn piano from their childhood. Gentle, playful, and encouraging her students are enticed to quickly learn as their confidence is fuelled by hope and trust.
Her story is one of inspiration. She began her education in childhood doing exceptionally well, she was accelerated TWICE! Maureen reflects that this was not good as she was emotionally immature by the time she graduated. Upon leaving high school she completed her medical school but before beginning her residency she left the medicine. She says, “I didn’t like hospitals”. She then received her Masters in Social Work and came just shy in obtaining her doctorate in music!
Her message to others is, “Do what you love, what you are passionate about. Life is about options. Never think, ‘oh no I can’t change’. Everything is about learning and one experience builds on another. Education from one area can be applied to another.” She has seen first hand where many parents have pushed their kids into areas of study that the parent feels the child should follow. She offers a gentle warning to parents to listen and watch their children and not push them into areas that do not hold their interest.
Maureen is a lady of versatility, grit and optimism. She moved across the world with her two girls, started a new family with wonderful Joe, the electrical engineer, had two sons and when her one son was a year and a half, she beat tongue cancer. Through the past ten years of retirement, she devotes herself to serving her friends in need by cooking and shopping. She engages in fitness daily and she and Joe extensively travel throughout the world. Nothing holds her back. This humble fairy of goodness and prayer, is filled of never ending energy and joy feeds on the energy of others in her daily insatiable desire to learn. She says, “Don’t stop! If you are not happy look around the corner, and above all listen to music, it will ground you!”
Dazzle’s Challenge: Have you thought of taking up an instrument? Piano, guitar, drums or what about a wind instrument? Given physical distancing and our increased mindfulness that has brought all of us more time, maybe now is the time?
Quick Take Away Links:
Learning an instrument as an adult
https://www.libertyparkmusic.com/8-tips-to-learn-music-as-an-adult/
https://www.connollymusic.com/stringovation/4-myths-about-learning-an-instrument-as-an-adult
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/playing-an-instrument_n_4903835?ri18n=true
Changing jobs or careers
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/successful-career-change-2058452
Learning music for kids
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/6-benefits-of-music-lessons-for-kids/
https://www.parents.com/kids/development/intellectual/6-benefits-of-music-lessons/
