Meet Mrs. Misty

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                    Misty (Stocker) Ralphs is a native Texan where her love for music was fueled by exposure to fine arts at a very young age. Misty's music teachers in her early life made an everlasting impact on her. She was taught by some of North Texas' finest music educators Susan O'Rear, Mark Baker, and Ann Smith. Misty has studied music in some capacity privately since the age of five and contributes much of her early successes as a budding musician to her private piano and voice instructors Joy Tipton, Lanelle Blanton, and many others. While in middle school, Misty decided that she wanted to become a music teacher so that she could impact the lives of others the way her dedicated music teachers impacted her. Being able to share her love of music with her students is a dream come true for Misty.

Misty began being recognized as an outstanding musician while in middle school where she won the honor of being first chair in the All-Region Choir. When Misty went on to high school, she competed at the state level for the U.I.L. solo & ensemble contest and received superior ratings her Junior and Senior years in high school. When Misty graduated, her choir director Ann Smith, awarded Misty with the National Conductors Choice Award, an award given to one student at the high school every year. 

Misty continued her studies at Brigham Young University where she studied voice with Anna Mooy-Braithwaite and finished her schooling at the University of North Texas, one of the nation's finest comprehensive music schools,  where she received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education with a primary concentration in voice and a secondary in piano. Misty was blessed to have been under the tutelage of Heidi Klein, Dr. Alan McClung, & Henry Gibbons. While at UNT, Misty participated in the student chapters of ACDA (American Choral Director's Association) & TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association). Misty began teaching private piano & voice lessons while she was working on her undergraduate degree at the university. Misty also had the privilege of being one of the students selected to work with the UNT Early Childhood Music Classes under the direction of Dr. Warren Henry and Heidi Scheibmeir. Misty thoroughly enjoyed learning about how young children understand music and believes that musicians are created at a young age. During Misty's senior year at UNT, Misty taught private voice lessons to students in the Argyle High School choir. 

While attending UNT, Misty married Darin Ralphs.  They have four high-energy children that keep both Darin and Misty on their toes. Misty took a break from teaching from 2007-2010 to focus on her family. During that "break," Misty was a volunteer choir director for various choruses at her church with students as young as 3 and as old as 90. Misty's teaching experience does not only consist of private lessons and choir direction, she has worked as a substitute teacher in the public school system, and for a short period of time she worked for a pre-school piano company called Tickeled Ivories.  Misty also worked for 14 years for her family's swim school teaching swimming lessons and training other swim instructors. It is safe to say that Misty is and has been a teacher in many capacities for nearly her entire life.

Currently, Misty teaches group piano and voice classes and is a "retired" preschool teacher. Misty certified as a Let's Play Music teacher in May of 2014 and absolutely loves teaching the curriculum. Misty continues to participate in various performing groups to build upon her experience. Since Misty graduated from UNT, Misty has been privileged to perform with the AF Sharps, Camerata Singers, and the Denton Bach choir. She most recently performed in Palace Playhouse’s production of Annie.  Misty has been chosen to be an adjudicator for music festivals and pageants throughout Idaho and Utah. Darin and Misty are very involved at their church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Why I Teach Music 

1. MUSIC IS A SCIENCE: It is exact, specific, and must be 100% correct. It is unalterable. It demands absolute acoustics.

2.   MUSIC IS MATHEMATICAL:       It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time in space into fractions which must be done instantaneously and not worked out on paper.

3.   MUSIC IS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE:  Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French.  The notation of notes is not English, but a highly developed kind of shorthand.

4.   MUSIC IS HISTORY: Since music has always reflected the environment and times of its creation-often even the country or racial feeling.

5.   MUSIC IS PHYSICAL EDUCATION:  It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back, stomach, and chest muscles which must respond instantly to the sounds the ear hears and the mind interprets.

6.   MUSIC IS ALL OF THESE THINGS BUT MOST OF ALL MUSIC IS AN ART:  It allows a human being to take all of these dry, technically boring (but fantastically difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion!  That is the one thing science cannot duplicate- humanism or feeling or emotion or call it what you will.

THAT IS WHY I TEACH MUSIC

          Not because I expect you to be a music major

          Not because I expect you to play music all your life

          Not so you can relax

          Not so you can have fun

          No so you can trot around the football field 

BUT

          So you will be human

          So you will recognize beauty

          So you will be sensitive

          So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world

          So that you’ll have something to cling to

          So that you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more

          In short, more life.

Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?

THAT’S WHY I TEACH MUSIC!