An Interview with Guest Speaker Lorraine Alner
The Music Department recently had the privilege of inviting Mrs. Lorraine (Yant) Alner to speak for their department chapel. Lorraine graduated from MBU in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Pedagogy and Piano Performance. She has used her degree and her talents well, and we had the chance to ask her several questions regarding her current work, leadership, and ministry opportunities.
Q: What are you doing now in Teaching?
A: “Managing a private piano studio teaching about fifty students a week, ages five to eighteen. About fifty percent of my students are actively performing in local and state events. About twenty-five percent of my studio is comprised of students who are autistic, have ADHD, or struggle with anxiety, depression etc.
“Since this past January, I have been recording every lesson with a first-time beginner student. This has been both encouraging and revealing for me to watch back. This project was incentivized after one of my students started teaching a new beginner themselves.
“Outside the studio lesson time, I spend significant time lesson planning and digging for repertoire. I find choosing repertoire is consistently a challenge and ultimately the ‘make or break’ for the lesson with every student. Of course, administrative work is time consuming and involves a ton of communication every day with parents.
“On weekends, I often travel for recitals, festivals, exams, or competitions. Typically, I am merely present to support my students; however, since becoming a certified adjudicator, I have enjoyed being the adjudicator.”
Q: What are you doing now in Leadership Roles?
A: “As the nominee for President of the Oregon Music Teachers Association, I’ve been planning OMTA’s 2027 state conference which involves venue rental, catering, lodging, piano rentals, event scheduling, recitals and masterclass, choosing guest clinicians and artists…etc.
“Every year, I chair a state-hosted specialized exam for seniors preparing to major or minor in college. The ninety-minute exam includes a half hour recital program and testing on all keyboard skills, technique, and theory.
“As Trophy Coordinator, I maintain inventory, process orders, and communicate with teachers in all districts across the state.
“In my local district, I co-chair our annual Ribbon Festival with an average of one hundred to one hundred and fifty students. I also serving as Treasurer—keeping accounts, reimbursing people, covering bills, paying presenters/adjudicators, tracking scholarship accounts etc.”
Q: What are you doing now for Self-development?
A: “Performing in collaborative recitals to keep myself practicing and learning new pieces, attending state or national annual conferences, participating in my local district’s monthly workshops featuring guest clinicians. My most inspiring moments, of course, are spent reading books on pedagogy, composers, practice, performing, or anything to do with piano or teaching.”
Q: What are some challenges you have faced and how did you manage?
- In undergrad at MBU?
A: “Not getting enough practice time. I don’t think I managed as well as I could have during [my] first two years. As a freshman, I’d think ‘I only have 10 minutes – I don’t have time to practice before my next class!’ I had to change my perspective about taking advantage of micro-moments, and it really became a gamechanger.”
- In master’s program?
A: “Being ok with ‘good enough.’—I learned to shift my perspective from ‘Everything I do must be perfect’ to ‘my time is precious and I must choose what I give my best work to.’ As a perfectionist to a fault, I learned to ask myself, ‘Is this something that deserves my best brain or my left-over brain?’ That question helped me prioritize what I scheduled during the ‘prime’ of my day vs. end of day. For example: woodshed practice, learning new material, and memorizing was in the morning. Research projects that put me at risk of getting lost in the woods was saved for late evening or a dedicated weekend. A “crank-out session” got scheduled in my “prime brain” time with time-limited deadline.”
- In “starting up fresh” after academia?
A: “Sitting in the ‘unknown,’ and experiencing the insecurity of the ‘in-between,’ and feeling a sense of having no control over my career. I managed by seeking out what I could do: I found a temporary job that gave me tons of teaching experience, got connected and involved in OMTA and started meeting people and making connections. Of course, those connections led to opportunities I had to say yes or not to. My gut was always right, but I learned to list pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, and determine if it would be a stepping-stone or a distraction from my goals?”
- In managing a studio?
A: “Not having enough time to do it all! I am learning to identify the top priority by asking myself, what is the one thing that must be accomplished to make today successful, this lesson successful, this meeting successful? Then, the sub priorities find their respective places quickly. I have found it helpful to have an email address for each of my jobs to stay compartmentalized, utilizing one planner with color coded pens for each job, and establishing office hours to accomplish different jobs, plus office hours for ‘catch-all’ stuff.”
Q: What is your advice for undergrad students?
A: “Freshmen: Focus on creating healthy habits. Determine and strategize what skills you want to have when you graduate and how to get there, then be open to making changes.
“Sophomores: Take a temperature reading on how close you are to sticking to your goals, make decisions to ‘let go’ of distractions, or make those ‘adjustments’ you need to make.
“Juniors: Start researching grad schools. Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Decide what things you will be bad at and specific weaknesses you want to improve. Capitalize on practice quality, beef up getting in shape, and plan audition repertoire especially if you plan on grad school.
“Seniors: Don’t check out, skimp out, etc. Make it your best year of progress and practicing yet. Decide what is most important to you and prioritize going the extra mile in that class. Is it public speaking? Is it playing your instrument? Is it a life skill? Then, give yourself space to make calculated decisions for your future unpressured.”
Q: What is your advice in seeking out grad schools?
A: “Know your teachers – most important. You spend most of your time with them. Are they healthy individuals? Do they tear their students down? Do they care about your success and interests more than their own identity?
- Meet and have a few lessons if possible. Ask around and interview existing students who are graduating because they don’t have rose-colored glasses. I did this both before I came to MBU and before I committed to grad school. In my case, a lot of students spoke very highly of their teachers. It was important for me to put myself in a ‘life-giving’ student/teacher relationship so that I could be a ‘life-giving’ person to both undergrad students and kids I taught. Healthy people are constantly receiving and giving.
- I wanted to be someplace where the teachers wanted me to succeed, and where I could experience freedom to expand my wings as a budding professional and have more autonomy of my time (in teaching, adjudicating, research, and practice.)
- Every teacher has a niche and strengths and passions. Find out what those are and why and make it your goal to take a little bit of that with you when you leave. For example, one of my teachers was a certified technician, so I learned to take a piano apart – quite beneficial to know when you drop a pencil in the piano! And no, I don’t tune my piano, but I can critique a piano tuner and know if I want them back again or not.”
“Know the program – research degree requirements. Check if they align with your goals/needs: Find the degree’s course of study you are interested in and research every class you take. Compare that list with your current strengths and weaknesses and use that intel to prepare early.
“Do your financial research – internship or scholarship opportunities: Know the credit cost for each course you will need to take. Contact someone to give you financial information. Know the maximum credit load you can take before being penalized. In my case, if I took more than a certain number of credits, I had to pay more. But I also had to take a minimum of six credits per semester to qualify for the scholarship – which I got.
“Know the surrounding area’s opportunities: You are not as tied down to the school in grad school. Find someplace where you will be challenged, where your world will be expanded, where you can network. It is so true in the music field that ‘it’s who you know.’
“Auditioning: I have a friend who applied to several well-known schools in New York, California, and Texas for both undergraduate and graduate programs in piano performance—even schools she did not plan to attend. Looking back, she considers her experiences highly formative to obtaining a Fulbright and to her career as a performer now. So, there is something to be said for applying to and auditioning for multiple schools. I knew the school before I chose it and what I wanted.”
Q: What is something you heard at MBU and ignored, but now you realize you needed it?
A: “I remember being told, ‘You will miss it! One day you will look back and wish you could still practice twenty hours a week, be learning again, be poured into again.’ It is true! I really do. Take advantage of the opportunity to be fully invested in what you do. Soak in as much as you can.”
Q: What is something you remember failing?
A: “My most memorable were an English paper assignment, my speech final, history quizzes, and a music history test!”
Q: What classes were most vital?
A: “Music Studio Management, Pedagogy Classes, Music Theory, History, and Piano Literature.”
Q: How did you know you wanted to go into Piano Pedagogy?
A: “I’ve known I wanted to be a teacher since third grade and imagined myself studying music in college since sixth grade. The one year I did not teach was the most depressing of my life. After I started teaching again, my mother told me, ‘Your spark came back!’ I had taken classes with a well-respected pedagogue the year before attending MBU and absolutely LOVED them!”
Q: What do you wish you had known about Piano Pedagogy when you graduated?
A: “First, I wish I hadn’t thought: ‘Ok, I know how to do this now!’ because you never really do. And it will not always be your fault that a student has a bad lesson—sometimes you can make their day better and sometimes you can’t. This is especially true with students with learning disabilities. Second, there is no substitute for ‘being in shape’ when teaching. You must be in shape to demonstrate excellently, and you will gain more respect than you thought possible from your students. Finally, there is no one right way to teach something, and there is always a better way. Always be open to still find that next better way.”
Q: What are your favorite books on Pedagogy?
A: “The Art of Practicing – Madeline Bruser (on practice) and “Intelligent Music Teaching – Robert Duke (on teaching)”
Q: Any final thoughts for us?
A: “Don’t be so concerned to make the ‘right’ decision. Be concerned about why you make your decision. The principles by which you make decisions are often more important to your formation as a person than the decisions themselves. Second, be wary of demanding perfection of yourself and judging yourself based on results. Results are just feedback, not identity labels. Hilary Hahn said in an interview once that she only demands perfection of herself in practice when she is working on an isolated and targeted issue. On stage, there is no judgement. I have found this very freeing in both practicing and teaching considering that for me it was on the stage that I judged myself, not the practice room! Finally, don’t waste your time investing in something that will not invest into your future. Learn to trust your gut. God gave it to you for reason!”