“Emily remembers the teachers who invested in her lifetime of piano playing and now devotes her lunch breaks to teaching the next generation.”
Note-teaching for the Future
ABOUT MY AUDIOGRAM
by Drew Shaw
Behind every professional musician, there’s a music teacher — a person who invested time into introducing them to the world of sheet music, chords and melodies.
Teaching is a craft in itself, and it takes patience and relationship-building.
Emily Daugherty, a 24-year-old Ellis County resident, knows this from experience. She remembers the teachers who invested in her lifetime of piano playing and now devotes her lunch breaks to teaching the next generation.
Daugherty gets her students, mostly children, by word of mouth. They start with nothing, and she works to teach them how to read music, play chords and memorize melodies. For a half-hour at a time, her living room becomes a music hall.
“I don’t think there’s really anyone that can’t learn music,” Daugherty said.
She doesn’t care if they become the next Beethoven, or even if her lessons lead to a life of serious piano playing. To Daugherty, her lessons give students a creative outlet, one away from school and video games, and that’s enough.
“I think having something extra, aside from school and aside from academics, that they can really put their hardest effort in, but also enjoy doing, is important,” she said.
Meet Drew Shaw
Drew Shaw is a journalism and political science senior at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he currently works as the managing editor for The Shorthorn, a student-run newspaper. On top of writing, Drew loves reading long-form journalism and classic fiction. He spends most weekends slowly making his way through an ever-growing collection of magazines and books.
Between the words, Drew is either hiking, watering his houseplants, practicing photography, or spending time with his family. Before graduating in May 2024, he will spend the spring interning in Washington D.C. with the Archer Fellowship program.
About AMA+UTA CreateCollab
Since the Fall 2022 semester, the Arlington Museum of Art has partnered with The University of Texas at Arlington and a senior-level digital storytelling class to explore a wide variety of contemporary themes inspired by the museum’s mission, values, and exhibitions.
Class projects include photo essays, one-minute documentaries, and brief audio stories.
Associate Professor of Communication Erika Pribanic-Smith teaches the class. She values opportunities to bring real-world experiences to her students.
“My goal is to give my students real-world experience in all of my classes, creating real stories using real sources,” said Dr. Pribanic-Smith. “Creating stories that will be published for the public to see, not just submitted for a grade, gives students extra incentive to put forth their best effort. Furthermore, working with professionals gives the students another layer of feedback to re-enforce what they’re learning in the classroom. I prefer to work with organizations like the Arlington Museum of Art who will benefit in some way from the students’ content so that we are providing a service to the community.”
