Three questions to give to a professional: "Tell me how you came to become a ___________? When did you know that this was your talent? What did you do to develop your talent?"

I met a musician recently.  I asked her how she found herself part of three bands.   She admitted that she had just quit one of the bands be

So I quoted to her the tenth principle from Austin Kleon's "Steal Like an Artist":  Creativity is Subtraction.   She agreed.

Here's what she told me:

My path

by Radha Windham

LifeSoFarMusic.com

I've been asked by one of my fans to trace my development as a musician.   

When I was twelve i took piano lessons.  Then I got interested in other instruments

By the time I was 15 I hadn't played piano for two years and when I tried the piano again, I found I still remembered a lot of what I had learned.

I started learning really complicated pieces on the piano.

I also taught myself a lot of guitar after taking a few lessons from teachers.

After learning to play by myself, I wanted to get more instruments to produce the sound that I wanted to hear.  I wanted to play with people to get that sound.

I wanted to learn drums and the teacher asked me if I had ever played before, he said I was a natural.

we rehearsed 

I found an Elvis impersonator and he wanted to create  a cover band.  He plays a guitar and so I play the drums in that cover band.

I went on to make a teen band (with some local teens).

Then I saw an ad on Craigslist:  

they were looking for a female 23 to 30 and I'm 17.  

the bank leader sent me six songs.  I memorized them and then I did the audition, all in about two days.   I was really nervous.... but they told me, "you have the part!"

Radha is under the "o"

so suddenly i was in three bands.     ... So when it became obvious that I had to actually travel for gigs (we're being booked by a national company), I realized that I had to get out of one of the bands.   

That's my story so far...

Radha Windham  

You can find her band at LifeSoFarMusic.com.  

What questions can we teachers ask to spark the generation of a testimonial?

What can we ask to empower a person to share their path to "how I find my bliss"?

What do we teachers do best?  "Tell me how you came to become a ___________? When did you know that this was your talent?  What did you do to develop your talent?"


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