Category: Email Archives
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There’s no way to teach you
I want to know what keeps you up at night. I want to know what struggles you have as a musician. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you do. What instrument you play. It’s all the same, anyway. You’re a human being, and you struggle with something. You aren’t totally happy. Right? If you…
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Getting a little sick of piano teaching
You might have noticed that I didn’t send out any emails last week. This is because I’m having some doubts as to whether I am truly capable of helping pianists with piano problems. I might want to focus more on talking about meditation. Not sure yet, still trying to figure it out. In the meantime,…
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Your playing is horrible
Your playing is horrible. (Calm down: this is a mass email going out to my whole list. I’m not referring to something specific that YOU sent me.) Anyway, if you’ve sent me a video of your playing, and you want to know my opinion, there it is. It sounds horrible, and it feels horrible to…
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Hey, wake up
To all my adoring fans, I find it deeply offensive when you tell me how great I am. Please, take that time and energy and put it into making something. For yourself, or for others. Once this moment is gone, it won’t be coming back. Stop waiting for the world to return to normal. It…
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If this is you, go away
If you want to learn how to play the piano, you should stay focused on practical issues. I tend to attract people who identify as having trauma in their past. They often get pissed off when they realize that I’m a jerk, not the kind and loving caretaker that they thought I was. I also…
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How to breeze through a pandemic
I listened to a great podcast today featuring Daniel Ingram. For those who aren’t familiar with him, Daniel is a meditation teacher and former emergency physician. He had a lot of good stuff to say about the pandemic. Particularly about how we can best deal with the many emotional issues that are likely to arise. A lot…