Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Drury.
Hi Grace, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It’s funny how many times I’ve told this story over the past few months. I was adopted from China at age 1 (and yes, I am in touch with my birth parents through 23 and me). My interest in music started with my parent’s old upright piano. I was mashing down on different keys, and my Mom told me we should learn them. (She, understandably, just wanted the noise to stop. The joke is on her, though, because I started violin at 5 and didn’t get noticeably better until age 9). For violin, it was a bit simpler, I played one of those toy violins with the bows attached to the fake plastic strings, and you press a button that plays 8 different songs. I started piano when I was 4 or 5 and violin shortly after. I can go into more detail about every teacher I ever had – I remember them vividly, but I imagine you don’t need or want that. So let’s age me up – I went through many ups and downs and struggled socially in settings like an orchestra because I was a curious child with no filter, and being neuro-diverse with a confirmed ADHD diagnosis didn’t help. Around the age of 14(?) we moved to Texas. I’d mostly aged out of social problems, but the stress of being an undergraduate and doing online college in a new state wasn’t easy. It certainly didn’t help when I graduated at age 18 and attended Pensacola Christian College. I got engaged the day before I graduated from PCC, drove to Atlanta, and from there, Greenville. I started a job as a grounds worker for Bob Jones University 3 days after I graduated. This Master’s degree, in many ways, was harder and, in some ways, easier; at this point in my life, I’d developed severe anxiety about everything I did, which conflicted almost daily with my neuro-diversity. My husband (Caleb) and I were married in December of 2018; being married to the love of my life and anchor was one of the best parts of that Master’s degree. However, the accruing stress had caught up to me, and I was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst that had taken over my left ovary; we had it removed laparoscopically a few days after my first graduate piano recital, and it was confirmed that I also had endometriosis in addition to PCOS. We had a lot of health hurdles that year, bronchitis, mono, the laparoscopy, debilitating back pain, and extreme fatigue – for which I finally received a diagnosis of Sjogren’s. That puts us up to 2020.
We moved to our home the week before the pandemic, and I finished my Master’s degree in August 2020. I had worked as a teacher at a music store; we found out we were pregnant with our daughter Noelle. Noelle was born in October 2021. I continued working, but policies were in place that were slowly forcing uniformity and scheduling problems for teachers and parents alike. Eventually, those were resolved, but not before I had to take a week of work off due to a difficult miscarriage. This ultimately forced me to move into owning my studio earlier than expected. Within 3 months, I had pulled together a studio, found an accountant, renovated my office and was ready for students. The studio is healthy, and I’m grateful we took the plunge to start the business, even though it was scary to go out alone. It seemed like imposter syndrome set in every day back then, but I’m grateful for my friends who rallied around me and supported my efforts. I have a lot of people to be grateful to, my former boss and colleagues, friends, my husband, and my husband’s family.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My last few answers with my health issues have been prime examples of my struggles: PCOS, endometriosis, ADHD, Sjogren’s, and stress-related flares.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in pre-reading, piano, violin, and adult lessons. Pre-reading combines rhythm sticks, large movements, stories, and piano activities for ages 3-5. Ultimately those students transition into the piano, but some switch to the violin as they age. Every student is different, so every lesson is a different combination from my ever-growing bag of tricks. I love working with younger students and eventually watching them gain more and more confidence and become excited about lessons. The most important thing I provide to those children (besides a strong musical foundation) would be an extra safe adult to “practice” on. I understand better than anyone that people (and children are most definitely people) have good and bad days. So when a student doesn’t want to do an activity or is shyer or more boisterous, I take it all in stride because their humanness makes lessons interesting.
I also specialize in teaching adults! I love adults! Some come to me and say, “I’m learning because my parents told me I couldn’t, and now I have adult money, and I can.” Teaching adults is amazing because they love finding resources, asking questions, and wanting to be here. They also typically have a set preference, so while I teach the fundamentals, we also work on versions of their favorite songs that they can play soon after starting.
I would love to be known for being a holistically minded piano/violin/music teacher – I aim to start every lesson with every student with a breathing exercise, which helps them and me focus for the lesson ahead. It also serves as a buffer for whatever they went through in their day. I also do my best to keep up with their lives, know how much homework they have, whether they have standardized testing, or if there are some other life-altering factors that are in play. It’s a relationship and a partnership, not just a business transaction. Ultimately, it’s unlikely that more than 10 of the hundreds of students I will teach will follow in my footsteps. However, they will remember how their piano teacher made them feel, and that can make the difference in them wanting to play later in life and even if they encourage musical learning in their children!
I am proud to be a culmination of every good and bad teacher, experience, and opportunity I’ve ever had. I have learned how to be better despite or because of those experiences. I know there is always more to learn, and I always strive to be able to serve my students, which means I research new material, methods, mental well-being, and physical techniques to make their piano experience the absolute best that I can. This has made me a life-long learner.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The biggest lesson I learned was when I became a parent. It changed everything for me. I was raised by parents who did what they thought was best, but looking back, there are a lot of cycles that needed to be broken in my own life that I learned from them. So when I gave birth to my daughter, I vowed to find a better way to raise her in a way that gave her respect and honored her inherent worth, yet imperfect humanness. I am a Christian and grew up thinking God was this distant person who provided but was constantly disapproving or critical. When I held my daughter for the first time, I knew immediately that God’s love for me couldn’t supersede my love for her, so I strived to love as Jesus loved. This has flowed into my life as a teacher, and I can deal with almost supernatural patience with my students. I’m still working on giving myself grace, but learning how to gently and respectfully parent my daughter has given me tremendous awareness of how important treating others is. Even the criticism leveled at different mothers has helped me develop even more empathy towards people like children and teens who may not be able to encapsulate their feelings in words fully.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.drurylanemusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drury_lane_music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087587934857
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-drury-1903ab15b
Image Credits
For my photo with my violin the photographer was Memory Layne – Aja Shearer (taken in 2018)
