Blog

These links go to YouTube:

• Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
• Glimpse of Us (Joji)
• Can’t Help Falling in Love (Elvis)
• Other Father’s Song (from Coraline)

Musicians should be meditating. Otherwise, they suck at music. Here’s some content for you. I’ll be adding to the YouTube playlist (especially more pandemic-era stuff).

Blog posts:

• No-BS Meditation: Embracing Contradictions and Realities
• Mindfulness for Musicians

Podcast episodes

• #8 – Meditation for Musicians
• #10 – What Music Teachers Are Getting Wrong, with David Servias
• #24 – Random Talking About Meditation and Piano, with Ruth Djatmiko

Watch the YouTube playlist

Here’s some content about boundaries. This stuff is SO IMPORTANT and you need it because you’re doing it WRONG. You should be thanking me and paying me so much money for doing all this work for YOU. But, luckily for you, I’m doing it even without thanks and even without money. All because I’m a whore with no boundaries. Like Jesus.

(btw, Piano Boot Camp is based on boundaries. I teach you how to set boundaries by doing it myself. It turns you into someone capable of learning piano from a piano teacher.)

You should check out my page on Influencing and Marketing, as well. It’s part of this but I don’t have time to merge them right now. It has a link to “Attack of the Piano Justice Warriors”, for example.

Why and how to set boundaries

Having boundaries makes it possible to show up and talk with those who disagree with you. Here’s a simple way to set a boundary:

“It’s my job, not yours, to ______.”

Boundaries are all about negotiation. They’re NOT about taking a hard stand. You’re showing up to the table with a clear sense of where your limits are.

When you heal yourself, you heal others.

Those who don’t have boundaries feel attacked and controlled by those who do. When you have boundaries, you teach others to make boundaries.

YouTube playlist

Podcast episodes

• #2 – Stop Setting Boundaries
• #50 – Start Setting Boundaries

Personal explorations

• How to Respond to Mean Words with Self-Respect When You’re Being Dumped
• Rules for Comments
• Rules of Conduct
• List of Attention Services

Instagram posts

• How to set boundaries with entitled people
• To play piano, you need boundaries
• Keep going
• Thanks for the advice, but this is my account, not yours
• My mental health is my responsibility, not yours
• How to handle sarcastic criticism
• How to respond to criticism without becoming defensive
• Here’s why you feel “burned out”
• The problem is you’re lazy and I’m a bad writer
• Responsibilities of Instagram users
• To the guy who called my content “spammy”
• Why trans people are allowed to be offended
• How to handle unsolicited advice
• This account is juvenile and it’s none of your business
• Topics on which I’ve demonstrated how to set boundaries
• Notice how it says “Creator” next to my name?
• When your “customers” act like entitled bitches
• Stop seeking validation from your enemies
• It’s ok to insist on respect
• If you’ve blocked me, I want to clarify something
• Why I refuse to ignore the haters
• You can think of my account like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory
• I didn’t “lose a subscriber”
• A restraining order is NOT a boundary
• My YouTube channel is my own project. I’m the absolute authority.
• Boundaries, Drama Triangle vs. Empowerment Dynamic
• You must set a boundary EVERY SINGLE TIME
• Why I love Trump
• Dear Hater in the Comments
• People ghost when they don’t have boundaries
• your call: unsubscribe or engage? let’s discuss boundaries
• “get therapy dude”
• It’s not your place to tell me I treat other people badly
• It’s like Amber (Heard) has no clue she’s the one picking the fights
• Don’t let yourself get traumatized by the haters
• It’s my job, not yours, to decide what information is in my content
• To anyone who calls me a fascist for deleting comments
• omg I finally realized I’m not the abuser
• YOU SUCK
• “No one needs your content”
• Dear One Who Dumped Me
• Back off. My channel is for the videos I want to post.

come on
level up
I've invested a lot in you

but
I can't save you
from your feelings
I need to focus
on what I'm good at

start pulling your weight

you can do it
I believe in you

If you want to understand how I think about piano, read this series of posts I wrote in 2018. I should charge money for this material but unfortunately, I’m too generous for my own good.

1. Seeds of Awareness
2. Piano Technique Made Super-Simple
3. The Most Basic Way to Play a Piece
4. The Waterfall Technique
5. Dropping Your Arms
6. Rhythmic Flexibility
7. Bach B Major Fugue Demonstration
8. More About The Waterfall Technique

May you use this power wisely.

The basics (rhythm & meter)

Here’s a music theory lesson for you: Pretty much any song has either 4 or 3 beats in each measure.

1 2 3 4 – 1 2 3 4 – 1 2 3 4

or…

1 2 3 – 1 2 3 – 1 2 3

Listen to a song and count along. You’ll see.

It’s super-helpful to know this because it gives you a way to keep track of WHEN things happen in the song. Otherwise, it sounds random and you get lost and your playing sounds awful.

(I used that word “measure” up above. It means each one of the groups of 1 2 3 4 or 1 2 3.)

Advanced music theory

This blog post is a bit beyond Music Theory 101, but if you want the TRUTH, you might find it here: Music Analysis for Pianists. I believe in you.