Small Beginnings

The driver creeped along the dusty desert road trying to find a way across the sand. The directions indicated that the house we wanted to find was somewhere on the other side of the desolate lot to our right. Finally, he found a dusty track to get us across and headed towards the friendly lights shining off the courtyard walls. 

This was my first time going to tutor piano at this young lady’s home, or actually her parent’s home where she lived. I quickly sent her a text as the Uber dropped me off to ensure that I had landed in the right place. After all, addresses are often slightly inaccurate or the location pin could be incorrect. Tall palm trees surrounded the imposing villa with a well tended garden in front. Right behind me, a red SUV pulled up and a young lady stepped out of the passenger side in her regal robes. Waving her hand she dismissed her driver and approached.

Her scarf half-draped gracefully over her hair was more like a decorative veil than a restrictive cover. She held out her hand to me in greeting and together we headed through the imposing gate. As we entered the courtyard, two maids appeared out of nowhere. The young lady sent them to bring us refreshments, then waved me into a small building in the courtyard. Having a separate sitting room apart from the main house is quite common here. Often it is similar to a “man cave” in that that is where the men will go to watch sports, smoke hookah, play games or just drink coffee and chat, but tonight it was a our music room.

Inside low couches lined three of the four walls and a tv was mounted on the other. In one corner sat the keyboard that we would be using for our lesson. Before entering the carpeted room, both of us took off our shoes and abayas (outer robes). My student was dressed in a simple black top and trousers under the colorful abaya. She seemed very relaxed and chill. We set up the keyboard on a small coffee table by the sofa after managing to find an outlet that was close enough. At last we were ready to begin…

Teaching piano is a new thing for me. I’ve played for many years but only this year have started offering classes. Offering piano lessons and music lessons of any kind is a new thing here in the kingdom. It’s almost impossible to find a real upright piano, let alone a grand piano. The best I could do was get a full sized Roland electric piano with weighted keys. My student mentioned above has a Yamaha keyboard that I'm teaching her on. 

In the west, it’s common for non-musical individuals to say, “I was in choir as a child, but I don’t sing now,” or “I tried piano and violin as a kid but it’s not my thing.” People have often had a chance to try out music of some sort and decide if they like it or not. Whereas here, musicians are hard to find. If I talk to those who would consider themselves non-musical, often the response is something like, “I always dreamed of learning guitar or piano as a kid,” or “I tried playing oud, but my parents wouldn’t let me play it outside of the house.”

When I do find musicians, they are usually one of two categories: (1) non-natives originating from Africa, Yemen, Lebanon, India, etc. or (2) natives that either just play/sing in private and if they do perform in public, they are willing to be on the fringe of society. It was just in the last couple years that music schools started to open and music classes were allowed in the school systems. An open air music concert or live band performance was unheard of just five years ago, but now in the capital city we see it all the time! As these things become normal, we are starting to see those who always had a dream of creating music start to embrace this desire and pursue further education and training. As the shame of music itself and the stereotypes with it start to disappear, we are finding young adults passionate to express their hearts and lives through song. 

My dream for this country is that the creatives in this country would be given the opportunity not just educationally but from their society to pursue music and express their hearts in worship. I would love to see individuals revealing the glory of God through sound and voices. Can you imagine what it would sound like? Can you imagine what music will be coming from this nation in 20 years time? 50 years? I can and it fills my heart with hope to know that this is just the beginning.