The temple remains.

Fragments of past transmissions echo below.

Category: Email Archives

  • How Long Does It Take To Learn Piano?

    I got an email someone who’s wondering how long it will take to learn piano. I get this question a lot and I’m sure it makes sense in the head of whoever’s asking it. But, I’ve been playing the piano for decades and I’m still not good at it. So, what hope do you have?

    The way to turn this into a useful question is to ask “how long will take to learn [specific song]?”

    That’s easy to answer.

    (The email is in a bold italic font, and my responses are in a regular font.)

    “Hi Michael, I’m just getting started with piano and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how long it will take?”

    Welcome to piano. I hope you enjoy the ride.

    Oh, wait. I see you’re already wondering when they’ll let you off the ride. What’s the rush?

    Half of me wants to give you a bullshit “spiritual” answer and admonish you for not enjoying the journey. But, that wouldn’t be helpful. You want results and you want them now.

    I can’t blame you for wanting results. Why else would you invest time into something if you didn’t have an expectation it would pay off?

    So instead, I’ll blame you for not asking about specific results. You asked “how long will it take?” What’s “it”?

    “I know you’ll tell me to be patient,…”

    No, I’m not going to tell you to be patient. I’m going to tell you to set a timer and work on the damn exercises until the timer goes off. It doesn’t matter if you’re patient or not.

    You didn’t say in your email what results you want. If you had, I’d be able to give you specific exercises to get those results.

    “…but I just want to know how long before I’m at a reasonably ‘decent’ level?”

    Again, you haven’t defined “reasonably decent level.” So, I’m going to define it for you: A “reasonably decent pianist” is someone who can play River Flows in You by Yiruma.

    Now, as to the question of time. I broke this song down into 45 exercises. If you spend one day on each exercise, you’ll be able to play the whole thing in 45 days.

    Unfortunately for you, I haven’t published all 45. But, I’ve got the first 5 up on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. So, what you should do is watch those videos and learn the exercises. Do them one at a time and master them.

    I don’t know yet what I’ll do about the other 40. Maybe I’ll publish them like I did with first 5. Maybe I’ll charge money for them. Maybe I’ll do nothing at all. If you want leverage over this decision, you’ll learn the first 5 and send me a video.

    Thanks for your email,
    Michael

    If you have a question you’d like me to consider answering in a future article, you can send it (3-4 paragraphs/500 words max) to this email address: questions@michaelkorman.com.

  • Worried About Starting Piano Lessons

    My way of teaching piano uses mindfulness. You might not know that because I haven’t used that word much lately. That’s because it has connotations I’m trying to avoid. But, I got an email from someone who’s interested in mindfulness. So, let’s talk about it.

    (The email is in a bold italic font, and my responses are in a regular font.)

    “Hi Michael! I read your page about mindfulness for musicians. I think it’s great because we need more mindfulness in the world.”

    There’s a blast from the past. That article was among was first I wrote after I decided to make mindfulness the core of my piano teaching. Now that you mention it, I’m going to have to go back and clean it up. I haven’t changed my mind on anything, but I’d use different language today.

    But still, I’m glad you’re inspired by it. We do need more mindfulness in the world.

    Hold on, let me pause here because the word “mindfulness” has connotations that I’ve got to address.

    Take a stroll through the Mindfulness section of the bookstore. You’ll see books about relaxation, aromatherapy, self-esteem, as well as something called “adult coloring books.”

    None of that is what I’m talking about when I use the word “mindfulness.”

    Real mindfulness is deep training for your mind.

    “I’m not sure if I qualify as a musician or not. I took piano lessons when I was a kid but I barely remember any of it.”

    I’m not sure I qualify as a musician either (that’s why I sometimes use the term “KorMusic” for what I do).

    Let me be more straightforward. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a musician if you make the decision to call yourself a musician. You don’t need a license.

    “Now, I’m 35 and I want to get back into it.”

    No time like the present.

    “I also meditate and found that it’s helped me with my anxiety. I remember piano lessons being very stressful and I’m worried that will happen again.”

    My guess is you were taking piano lessons against your will.

    As an adult, you’re now free to come and go as you please. But, if you’re like most adults who’ve been traumatized by school, you still act like a child. Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. But, it will hold you back until you fix it.

    Learning piano should be stressful. Your mind’s job is to conserve energy, to maintain the status quo. That means keeping you in your comfort zone. Stress happens when you leave your comfort zone. To learn a new skill, you must leave your comfort zone.

    Stress is unavoidable, so don’t try to avoid it. Instead, face it head-on and use it to help you learn.

    The solution is the same whether you’re learning on your own or with a teacher. What you’ve got to do is get clear on what exercises you’re using to train yourself with. Then, do those exercises (even if they’re stressful). The exercises will teach you.

    (If you want to work with me 1-1 online, I have a great deal right now.)

    “I like how you say it’s important to be nonjudgmental. Do you have any tips about how I can avoid judging myself as I get back into piano? Thank you.”

    At this point, you can’t avoid judging yourself. Your mind has been trained from a young age to judge, so don’t fight it. Let it happen and keep doing the exercises.

    Thanks for your email,
    Michael

    If you have a question you’d like me to consider answering in a future article, you can send it (3-4 paragraphs/500 words max) to this email address: questions@michaelkorman.com.

  • Have you heard the good news?

    Hey, have you heard the Good News of your personal Lord and Savior, Michael Korman?

    Here’s the deal: if you do as I say, you’ll be saved from your sins.

    I know what you’re thinking: “Michael, I have no sins.”

    Nonsense, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of Michael.

    So, if you’re interested in salvation, this is what you need to do:

    • Confess your sins. You’ve got to tell me about your problems. No pretending there are none. I need to know the details, with specific examples from your life. No virtue-signaling, no abstractions, no ideologies. Otherwise, I can’t save you.
    • Repent. This means practice. Meditation, radical acceptance, NVC, whatever. It’s not enough to admit you’ve sinned. You must change your life around or else you’re screwed.
    • Tithe. You’ll achieve salvation quicker if you pay me some money. If I’m not bringing you enough salvation to justify payment, confess more sins until I start doing my job.
    • Evangelize to your friends. Cults require members. It can’t just be the two of us, as cozy as that might sound.

    You know, all the usual stuff.

    Have a blessed day.

    Yours in faith,
    Michael

  • Weekly Update – July 2, 2021

    I’m giving you an update for the past two weeks, because this is my first weekly update, and I want to get you more up to speed. Hope this is entertaining and helpful.

    News

    I’ve been categorizing my content produced over the past year+. Here are the basic categories I’ve come up with so far:

    • Art
    • Influencing and Marketing
    • Meditation
    • Music
    • Philosophy
    • Psychology
    • Random Fun Stuff
    • Writing and Creativity
    • Yoga and Spirituality

    This is all a work in progress, but you can find lots of content on my website currently.

    I created a new page for my Influencing and Marketing journey.

    I’ve now been kicked out of 7 piano groups! I wrote a blog post about the one that bother me the most: Attack of the Piano Justice Warriors. I’ve been running that as an ad, and someone shared it privately and their share has gotten laughs and comments that I can’t read. So frustrating.

    I changed the name of my Facebook group “Radical Acceptance Through Meditation” back to its original name of “Awareness, Equanimity, Mind & Body”.

    You know, because it’s NOT New Age, self-help, self-care, group hug, we-live-in-community, trauma-informed, we-can-do-better, there’s-no-I-in-we, social justice, soothe-my-activated-nervous-system BULLSHIT.

    I did a 1-hour standing meditation for the first time. Highly recommended. Two rules: (1) Eyes closed, (2) Feet planted to the floor.

    Instagram Posts

    YouTube

    You can find a bunch of my videos on YouTube. I try to upload the good ones. You might find that useful if, especially if you don’t have an Instagram account.

    A few blog posts:

    Michael, why do you like provoking people? Don’t you have anything more fruitful to do?

    No, I have nothing more fruitful to do. This is the most important work I can think of. You might find the following content revealing: (Read more)

    I Just Love Invalidating Innocent OPs

    In an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group on Facebook, somebody asked: “How do I persuade my mind that something isn’t really a threat?”My reply: “Easy. Just expose yourself to the thing you’re afraid of and learn from experience that it’s not a threat.”This was denounced as invalidating, glib, “a command”, and I was accused of assuming the poster hadn’t made any effort to do anything. (Read more)

    Authenticity vs. External Results

    Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been working non-stop on sharing my ideas about piano playing, meditation, and being creative. It’s been quite a ride. I’ve made a few friends, lost tons and tons of friends, and learned a lot about how to create content. (Read more)

    Medium

    I’m on Medium.

    New podcast episodes

    #31 – What’s the Deal with Michael Korman?, with David Servias

    Cancel culture in the world of collaborative piano! David Servias sat down to interview me about trouble brewing in some of the Facebook piano groups. (Listen)

    #32 – Blame isn’t the Problem

    When you get sufficiently advanced, spiritually speaking, you’re likely to view blame as a problem. As in, you shouldn’t do it. But, this is a misunderstanding. In this episode, I revisit the Drama Triangle and the Empowerment Dynamic, as well as Nonviolent Communication. The key phrase here is “it’s about function, not form.” (Listen)

    Offers

    Imperfect Practice

    An 8-week program for musicians, artists, and writers who get in their own way and aren’t creating as much as they should be. (Learn more)

    Answering the Critics about No Problem

    “Why would I pay so much money for your course when there’s all this free stuff out there?”

    Because you like the stuff I put out. You have a sense there’s something I’m talking about that maybe isn’t captured by all the free stuff. Maybe there’s some good free stuff out there. Do you know where it is? I don’t know. I don’t pay a lot of attention to it.

    If the free stuff is working for you, by all means keep doing it.

    But, if you like the stuff I’m doing and you want to take the next step with me, here’s my offer. (Read more on Instagram)

    Here are some of my favorite tweets from the past couple weeks.

    • “What did you learn from the experience?” What an awful question. The verbal echo of an “experience” isn’t a measure of what the organism actually learned.
    • “That which hinders your task is your task.” —Sanford Meisner
    • If you don’t make it clear to someone that your love is CONDITIONAL, they’ll put you on a track you DON’T want to be on. Then, you’ll suffer for every mistake their mother made.
    • You have imposter syndrome because you’re acting like an imposter.
    • It seems to me that the best metric of YouTube success is watch time, rather that views. Watch time, after all, translates directly to “moments of consciousness”. That’s real impact.
    • I made a Twitter app this week. Yes, folks: this tweet is being tweeted by my app.
    • What if, instead of being someone who provides solutions, you had a reputation as someone who understands the problem?
    • Since pandemic, nonstop sharing re piano/meditation/creativity. Made/lost friends, learned lots. Still finding right folks. 15 products so far. Authentic>$$. EASY>hard. Yet, authentic=scary. Learned marketing to sell piano info. But, as hard as piano!IG no.michael.here
    • I have a policy of not liking friends’ Facebook pages unless I’m truly interested independently of our friendship. Those fake likes are hurting you more than they’re helping you. They destroy your confidence, poison the algorithm, confuse you, and annoy your friends.
    • Big ideas get both 1-star and 5-star reviews. Most of these ideas never see the light of day because the 1-star reviews are so scary. They’ll be the first to appear when you start speaking. But, you have to burn through the 1-star reviewers before you get to the 5-star reviewers.
    • Carrying around a notebook while I walk. I have my best ideas while walking, not while sitting at the computer. I wish I had a podcast app that let me take notes.
    • I know that if I get cooking with my thinking, if I start posting the stuff that gets me fired up, I will get kicked out of the group. That’s an absurd burden to put on group members. What do you think that does to the quality of the group?
    • I will always disagree with you (as much as I can muster, anyway). The difference is that I will never try to cancel you.
    • Outrage culture happens because people have a blank spot in their minds where they should be seeing a human being. Instead, they see a cartoon character.
    • Envy is based on the delusion that pleasure is a limited resource. You believe you don’t have pleasure because I’m hogging all the pleasure for myself. Maybe it’s true that I’m depriving you of that particular strategy of obtaining pleasure, but what if you found another one…?
    • I would rather choose between 10 ways that I loved of playing the piano than run away from 9 out of fear.

    General themes in my Instagram stories (follow me on IG if you want to see this stuff…I don’t feel like typing anymore)

    • Cancel culture, piano
    • David Servias’ awesome group: Teaching and Learning Piano
    • Meditation is not about relaxing or relieving stress
    • Not your job to make other people feel loved and appreciated
    • Katie (@katie.sula.exists) has blocked me on all platforms. I’ve been posting a bunch of stories about that. There’s a highlight on my profile.
    • It’s about intent, NOT impact
    • Teachers, have respect for yourselves. Kick your students out if they don’t follow instructions.
    • Kids want firm boundaries
    • Deliberately provocative
    • Collaborative piano jokes
    • Kids punished you for being weird
    • Two types of anger

    Hope you have a good day.

    —Michael

  • Authenticity vs. External Results

    Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been working non-stop on sharing my ideas about piano playing, meditation, and being creative.

    It’s been quite a ride.

    I’ve made a few friends, lost tons and tons of friends, and learned a lot about how to create content.

    I’m still trying to figure out how to attract the kind of audience that would benefit from what I’m doing. Also, still trying to figure out how to package things in a way that they would recognize as being what they need (I’ve made about 15 products so far).

    I’m not making as much money with this as I’d like to be making. But, I’m not interested in rushing that. The last thing I want is for people to misunderstand what I’m doing and pay me for something other than what I’m actually offering.

    “Authenticity” is more important to me than external results (such as “money”). That’s what I teach, anyway. You’ve gotta find ways of doing things that are EASY. Otherwise, even if you get some success, you’ll feel horrible trying to replicate it.

    This is hard for me because I have a long history of driving people away when I become more authentic.

    When I decided to learn about marketing so that I could sell my piano course, I had no idea learning about marketing would be just as hard as learning to play the piano.

    I’m sharing this information in case you relate to it. If so, follow me on Instagram (@no.michael.here). That’s where I tend to publish things first, before anywhere else.

    —Michael

    P.S. I deleted all my Instagram followers recently, so if you used to follow me, you might not still. But, you can re-follow. Listen to my podcast episode about why I did this.

  • Here’s the thing with writer’s block

    Writer’s block is a huge con.

    You think the idea is: “I’m trying to write something, but I don’t know what to write. There’s a block.”

    Yeah, that’s not it. Writer’s block happens because you’re afraid of something.

    What is it? Could be anything:

    • “I won’t express myself very well.”
    • “I’ll be misunderstood.”
    • “What will (someone specific) think of me?”

    Only you would know.

    But, that’s the thing you’re calling “writer’s block.” That’s what’s getting in the way. It’s a fear of what would happen if you let the skill of writing express itself.

    It’s not a block. It’s fear.

    “No, Michael, it’s not fear. It’s just that I’m not always in the mood to write. Sometimes it’s just not the right time.”

    No, it’s fear.

    You are more than capable of writing even when you’re not in the mood and when it’s not the right time. But, you’re afraid of what will happen if you do.

    If you’re not aware of your fears, if you’re saying “I’m not afraid of anything. I just don’t have any ideas,” that’s the con.

    That mind says, “I just don’t have any ideas. It just seems like there’s a void. A blank spot where it seems like there should be ideas.”

    That’s fear.

    I go through this every day. When I go to write something, I might not have an idea about what to write about.

    “I don’t know” = FEAR

    But, you don’t have to know what you’re going to write about.

    Let me come up with an idea for a post right now. What’s the topic? I don’t know. But, I’m not going to accept that. I’m going to say the topic is going to be:

    “HOW TO WRITE AN INSTAGRAM POST.”

    That’s the topic. I’m going to make a post about how to write an Instagram post.

    Now, there’s fear that comes up. I chose that topic out of the Void. I’m taking the universe and forcing it to collapse itself, forcing it to get clear on what it wants to do.

    For more help with writer’s block, see my workshop Getting Unstuck on Writing.

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