Ending with a positive note
- Sarah Lyngra
- 4 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Back in February I wrote about Notice Happiness Cards in a blog post (you can read here) . In it I shared that I've started ending all my lessons by writing on the back of a card with a small piece of art. Four months later my students now have mini-art galleries filled with positive comments and joy.
I've written things like:
I love how you connected the melody of Somewhere in My Memory to the Pachelbel chord pattern. (to a 9 yr old)
I love being able to talk 2-5-1-4 chord patterns in that Bach invention in a minor (for an 11 yr old)
You are making up really solid improvised melodies. I especially liked when you played in e flat minor (for an 11 yr old)
It's awesome that you're playing Primavera by Einaudi after only 5 months of lessons ever (for an adult student who started with me in December)
Did you know that you can play the bass pattern in all 12 keys for Pachelbel (10 online student )
The list goes on and on. It's often the first thing a parent checks when they come to get their child at the lessons.
Nicholas Epley, a Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, recently published A Little More Social; How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection.
You can check him out here: https://www.nicholasepley.com/
He actually has a chapter in the book that outlines someone doing something very similar to what I'm doing with the cards! The person in the book was giving verbal compliments rather than written ones, the card she hands out just asks to be part of a "Compliment Club."
Notice Happiness cards have spilled into every area of my life, just like the experiences that Epley describes in his book. They have strengthened the connection that I have with my students and their parents. They have changed what I look for with my students in lessons. I know I'll be writing something both truthful and positive at the end of a lesson, so I have to pay deeper attention to find it. I feel great after each card I write.
I use them in public with both friends and strangers, noticing and writing things about awesome cappuccino art, and gratitude for help at the hardware store. I've given them to postmen, moms who smile beautifully at their children, musicians who get obvious enjoyment when they play. Epley says that being a little more social has changed who he is, and I would completely agree. I am much more positive and happy since I started using the cards. Sometimes when I give someone a card, I add a second one so they can pass it along to someone else.
Sets of 12 are $5, or if you want to start a studio program and get more, teacher packs of 120 are $25 — email me directly . More designs are coming this summer!
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