Confessions of a Traveling Music Teacher

Reflections teaching Orff workshops around the world.

Monday, June 1, 2026

Sharing the Wealth

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One quality that feeds my faith in our humanity is how we are disposed to share good things that fall our way. Be it a spiritual insight, a ...
Sunday, May 31, 2026

An Extraordinary Tale: Part III

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Last year, my daughter Talia and her boyfriend Matt invited my wife and I to an event in San Francisco called The Moth. It’s a venue for sto...
Saturday, May 30, 2026

An Extraordinary Tale: Part II

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Fast forward now 48 years and here we are again in York. It’s a short ride on the Number 10 bus to Nether Poppleton and so we get ready to s...

An Extraordinary Tale

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I often have felt like I am living out a remarkable story written by unseen hands, with an intricately woven plot masterfully penned in ways...
Friday, May 29, 2026

My Walking Autobiography

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As promised, I’m thinking about my history with walking and it’s a pretty interesting lens through which to reflect. Perhaps too personal to...
Thursday, May 28, 2026

Suitcases Up Steps

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Somewhere around 11 th  grade, I suffered from an inexplicable bout of insomnia for a few months. Never knew why it started or how it ended,...

Be Here Now

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If the reader will indulge me, a short rant and vent before moving on to the praise of this wild and precious life.    As noted in the last ...
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About Me

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Doug Goodkin
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E.B. White). Early on in my adult life, I was convinced that the world is a mess that needs fixing. But I also sensed that life is short, that miracles and beauty abound and that we would do well to pay attention to them. In a stroke of good fortune, I stumbled on a life that allowed both to happen at once. Teaching music for 45 years at The San Francisco School with children between three and 14 years old guaranteed a fair share of miracles and beauty. The sense that happy children playing, imagining, thinking and creating might help a bit with that improving-the-world side of things made it easy to plan my day. Alongside a half-century of teaching children is a parallel life of traveling and teaching the Orff approach to music education—some 50 countries to date banging on xylophones and slapping our bodies. This blog now in its fifteenth year sharing these experiences. Settle back in your armchair and enjoy!
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