I first met Andrea Miller on Instagram when I started following her page, Music Studio Startup. She was announcing the launch of her new podcast so I direct messaged her. Later, she called me, we met face to face when she presented a workshop at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention last June, and now I consider her a friend. I am grateful to have her on the podcast.

Tell us your piano story.

We had a piano in the living room when I was growing up and I was a very determined and curious kid, so I tried to figure out how to play it. My mom gave me one piano lesson, where she explained how the grand staff worked and I took it from there. I taught myself for a year or two and then my parents enrolled me in lessons when I was about 8.I started teaching when I was 15, like a lot of other teachers — because someone asked me to! Before that I had no plans for a career in music. I had known for years that I was going to study business, but my teacher at the time just assumed I would be a piano major and kept pushing me along that path.I eventually decided to double major in Entrepreneurship and Piano Performance. I continued to teach and ran a house-painting business to pay my way through college. After I graduated, I started a music school in St. Louis.When my husband’s job brought us out to Maryland I decided I wanted a new entrepreneurial adventure, so I worked with some startups in a few different fields – tech, education, legal, but I started a small studio on the side. Now I continue to teach part-time and coach music teachers.

Were you a good student?

I don’t think I have any special “talent” for the piano, but I have always been a hard worker and someone who likes a challenge. My very first teacher was really good at finding challenges for me to work toward, so I think that’s what cemented my interest in the instrument.

What is one thing you often say to your piano students?

“I don’t know. What do you think?”I had a great Economics professor who really influenced how I teach piano. He was adamant that we understood how the principles worked, not just the right answers, so we could think like economists and (fumble) through new problems we had never seen before. I teach my piano students with the same philosophy.

Is there a common struggle your piano parents deal with? How do you help them through it?

I teach in a suburb of D.C. that is highly-educated and highly Type A. A lot of my students excel in school and are used to things coming easily. This makes piano a humbling experience because the lessons always adjust to challenge them wherever they’re at.