This book is the memoirs of Samuil Moiseevich Maykapar (1867-1938), one of the major piano professors of the St. Petersburg and then Leningrad Conservatory. Maykapar is currently known mainly as the creator of a large "children's" repertoire. At the same time, S.M. Maykapar was familiar with many prominent musicians and managed to describe his impressions in the book "Years of Teaching." Especially valuable is the fact that in this there are vivid portraits not only of such celebrities as Sofia Menter, Lyadov, Anton Rubinstein or Leshetitsky, but also, for example, Sacchetti, Zika, Demyansky, Soloviev, etc.