Yesterday’s highlight was when I got to briefly assist Mr. Noble with an inservice which Carthage offered to the music teachers of Kenosha Unified.  First of all, it was so cool to see our choir room filled with so many good friends / able music teachers: first and foremost Polly, my sister-in-law and the choir director at Tremper High School – but also Brad Mann, John Choi, Judy Kirby, Kathy Thorson, Kathy  Ripley, Carol Hodges, Sandy Lindgren, Lou Covelli, and Ken Wiele, just to name a few.  And you could hear a pin drop in there. . . which says something about the respect which they have for Weston Noble.  I can say this next thing because I’m a teacher myself . . .  there’s no tougher audience than a bunch of teachers, and if an inservice is a waste of time or perceived to be a waste of time, a roomful of teachers are capable of being as rude and inattentive as any mob of middle schoolers.  But give them something that matters and teachers can be the most grateful of students.  And that’s what that moment felt like- teachers transformed into students again, learning from someone who has been in the business longer than most of them have been alive.  I felt so lucky just to be in the room. . . let alone to actually be a tiny part of it for a few moments.  Mr. Noble asked me to be available for a quick demonstration towards the very beginning of his talk; on cue, I was to play a verse of Amazing Grace and play it correctly and accurately – but with no life – and then play it a second time with that certain sense of “dance” that all music is supposed to have.  (So says Robert Shaw.)  And after that, I did the same thing with a piece by Mozart.  Mr. Noble likes to say that I’m such a good musician that it’s all but impossible for me to do things incorrectly.  (Boy, is he wrong about that- but it’s still a fun compliment to receive.)   Anyway, I think I managed the assignment pretty well and then it was time for me to be on my way.   But it was so hard to walk out of there, knowing how much fun they were going to be having together- a roomful of wonderful teachers being taught by one of the greatest teachers of them all.

pictured: Weston Noble in the Carthage choir room, with the KUSD music teachers.