I wanted to thread this year’s blog with our Core Values and reveal what they each mean to me. Ultimately, our Core Values are what keep us in business and set us apart from every other music studio. When developing our Core Values, I wanted to make sure people know we focus on both the product AND the people. We don’t just teach music lessons so people can learn how to play or sing. While that is a worthy goal in and of itself, it lacks a fundamental element of artistry: humanity. I know plenty of people who play excellently, who can pick up almost any piece of music and play it without mistake. I don’t know very many people who can immediately play that piece with an element of humanity and heartfelt empathy. Art is meant to provoke emotion in us, but how can it do so without the artist's humanity showing through? So while we have goals for the music, we also have goals for the musician.
Our fourth Core Value is Excellence. When most people think of excellence in music, they think of playing the correct notes, rhythms, and articulation, with proper styling for the piece's historical era. While we focus on that, our foundational expectation of excellence is that students feel safe enough to make mistakes. We celebrate mistakes because they give us the opportunity to learn and grow in a way perfection doesn’t. To us, Excellence is the pursuit of challenge, failure, assessment, and growth.
We have a rule at Ascend Music Studios: Our students are not allowed to say the word “can’t.” We take our time to unpack the implications of that word and redirect it to, “This is difficult right now, but if I practice, it’s possible that I will get it eventually.” We understand that our students may have literal physical limitations; that’s not what we’re pushing through. We’re pushing through the mental blocks that prevent students from trying. If the student thinks they’re incapable, they will prove themselves right every time. If we can guide a student toward breaking down their mental blocks and breaking down the task in front of them into small, actionable items, they will understand how to apply this to the rest of their life, and they will shine with Excellence.