'Music is My Life, and the Beat Goes On!' -Al Sulak

The love of music is indescribable, as witnessed by the plethora of webpages on which resides quotes about the magical effects of music on humans. Those humans that feel the need to generate and share this magic with others are called musicians. Then there is a subset of musicians who feel the need to perpetuate the love by teaching others to play music. Within that subset is another group of musicians, who not only teach but after hours perform on their own or with other musicians to bring the happiness that allows folks to leave their world behind and just be happy for several minutes. It is a noble undertaking on all levels.

Through the centuries, music instructors became famous in their own right. Beethoven had several music teachers to guide the prodigy, one was Franz Haydn who also produced well known symphonies, and after Beethoven achieved fame, another prodigy, Amadeus Mozart showed up at Beethoven’s doorstep with a desire to further his music skills.

In the last century, pop stars Roberta Flack and Sheryl Crow both have music degrees and taught elementary and junior high school music classes. Another well know celebrity, Andy Griffith, was mentored early on by his Moravian Brethren preacher to play trombone in the preacher’s brass band, upon graduating from high school, Andy attended college with the intent to be a preacher. He soon changed his major to music and he graduated with a degree in it. Andy then spent several years teaching music in elementary schools before turning to acting. However, if one remembers, there was frequently a guitar near by in his television shows and educated television audiences about Bluegrass music by featuring the Darling Boys (The Dillards) on several episodes with Andy joining in.

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