naziwa

My name is Carmel Madsen.  I teach piano lessons out of my home as well as virtually.  I have been a private piano instructor for over seven years.  Piano lesson began for me in the third grade.  The boarding school for missionary children in Ivory Coast where my folks worked had a variety of extracurricular activities for us students to be involved in, piano being one of those. It was not uncommon to walk around campus and hear the same songs over and over again as each piano student put in a 30 minute practice session after school.  Consequently I have a particular aversion to the "John Thompson" piano course!    My teachers opted to use other curriculums.  I improved in my piano ability in high school.  Because we lived in the tropics, we had screened windows and were able to hear a lot of what was happening in the homes near us.  My neighbor could play the piano quite well, and so it was that I tried to play the pieces he was practicing, but not with the same amount of finness.  All total I have had thirteen years of formal piano instruction.   If I had had the same amount of discipline that my neighbor had, I would have achieved the status of a concert piano...but alas...I was not endowed with such determination.  

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Our business name is Naziwa, named after a dear Ugandan friend and former employee of ours while our family was living in Uganda.  Her  first name is Goretti, but in her culture, it is considered respectful to address her as Mama Naziwa, Naziwa being the name of her first born child.