Music is such a part of Bethany Parnell’s life that she shares it with others by helping them to learn to compose their own.

It’s hard for Bethany Parnell to remember a time when music wasn’t a significant part of her life.

She began learning piano at age 9, played saxophone in high school, studied music at college, and now teaches beginner-intermediate level piano and keyboard.

“It impacts everything we do, even the way we decorate our house,” the Opelika-Auburn native said, looking around the living room of her new home in Leeds, which serves as her piano studio.  The centerpiece is the small upright Winter she’s had since she was 10 or 11, purchased from a professor at Auburn.

Before playing a couple of her favorite pieces, Parnell explained what she’s learned from music and how she shares that with her students.

About music:  “Music has power behind it.  It shapes our culture.  God can be praised in a special way with music.  I know it taught me discipline and gave me a creative outlet.  I grew up with Tourette syndrome, and music helped me with it greatly.  It helped me focus the extra energy in my brain in a positive way.”

Music as a teaching aid:  “When you’re learning the ABCs, how hard would it be if you had to learn the letters in order, just like that?  But when you put it to a song, it’s easier to learn.”

The joy of teaching:  “My passion is to see kids create their own music.  They want to play what they hear on the radio or songs for their praise band, but they still have to learn about the classical composers and music theory, which helps them realize that they can create something beautiful too, even a new type of music we’ve never heard before.”

Music as a language:  “I caught on the that my first year at college when I was studying Greek and music at the same time.  Music is a language that conveys expression just like when we speak.  Listen to a movie soundtrack, for example.  It really speaks to you, even without words.”

Her husband:  Hayes Parnell IV.  They met while both were attending the University of Mobile and were married in May.  Both are music ministers holding degrees in worship leadership.

About her new hometown:  “I love Leeds.  I love its small-town elements, how people are community-oriented here, and the way they really care about their community and their town.  It’s so nice to live in town and still be able to walk around your neighborhood and feel like you’re in the country.”

How she describes herself:  “An outgoing, energetic, joyful believer in Jesus.”

The best advice she ever received:  “God’s ways are not your ways, and his thoughts are not your thoughts.  It’s a reminder to understand God’s thinking rather than what I think is right.  Who am I to say I know what’s right?  That, and never use a credit card.”

Her favorite leisure activity:  “I love the outdoors.  I grew up hunting, although that was probably a daddy’s-little-girl kind of thing.  Now I just like to hike in the woods and enjoy God’s creation.”

Bethany Parnell style:  “Casual and comfortable, with a little bit of girly glitter.  I might be out hiking, but I’m wearing a pink cap with a glittery walking stick.”