Ethical Issues
By Cynthia Dempster

My discovery that students read and perform music better when they draw/paint and write stories was made naturally in the course of teaching piano lessons.  I developed a curriculum that included multidisciplinary art projects for interested students.  Always, the focus of the piano lesson, is the piano student and his/her developmental needs.  I am concerned that a formal research project might change the focus to the research project and my research needs.  My teaching process is not more important than their learning process.  I am also concerned that self consciousness might take away from the spontaneity that is an important part of artistic learning.  A third concern has to do with the unconscious material that can come up if people are drawing or painting music.  This process of learning can be therapeutic, but it isn't therapy.  It is important that students selected be essentially well balanced mentally.