My husband and I just moved into a new house. Actually, it’s a very old house, built in 1880.

Accordingly, it’s small by modern standards, just under 900 square feet. But it doesn’t feel small. It feels just right.

I’ve lived in places that felt too small. And the logical solution was to move somewhere bigger. But what I now see, after spending some time living miserably in an enormous house, is that bigger isn’t necessarily better. It is more useful to identify and address specific challenges.

Read More

A friend’s five-year-old has taken to calling the time of coronavirus “The Season.”

She doesn’t like The Season: No school, porch visits only, masks and physical distance. Right there with ya, kid.

It’s important to me to have a sense of ease in my work — but discomfort is also a key element of growth. The harmony between these two states is what keeps us learning effectively. We want to see juuuuust the right amount of discomfort melting into ease again and again, little by little, like adding flour to your eggs and butter.

Read More

As a young adult, I didn’t know that the music teachers who advertised in the classifieds section of the free weekly paper were the crummy ones who weren’t generating enough business through referrals.

I attended one lesson with a jazz piano teacher. Instead of teaching me new things, he spent most of the hour lecturing me on why I needed to focus. I couldn’t play guitar and piano…and if I was going to play piano, I needed to specialize. I couldn’t keep playing classical and pop and jazz. If I wanted a career in music, I needed to make a choice and go all the way with it.

Read More

Like many people, I’ve gotten progressively more boring as I’ve gotten older.

I don’t go out as much. I work a lot. And most egregiously, when I’m driving or out for a walk, I’m more likely to listen to a podcast than music.

My fifteen-year-old self, to whom music was a fundamental reason for living, would have a hard time understanding.

Read More

It’s the time of year when resolutions and self-improvement are in the air.

Unfortunately, most of us will have abandoned our goals within weeks. Why is it so hard to follow through?

Here’s what I see as a teacher and a coach: We beat ourselves up for struggling with difficult things, and then the discomfort is so intolerable that we take the easy way out. It’s all pain, no gain.

Read More

I was hanging out in a bus station (as one does), eavesdropping (as one does) as an an older man made conversation with the slightly younger one behind the counter.

“So…do you get free travel?”

“Yes.”

“Year round, or just two weeks a year?”

“Year round.”

“Ahhh…but you don’t have year round vacation,” said the older man with a note of regret in his voice.

“I’m working on that,” said the man behind the counter.

Read More

A popular tactic of guitar teachers is to play along with their students. It’s easy and natural — two guitars sound good together.

The problem comes if the teacher never lets the student play by themselves, whether in a performance situation or a lesson. The student will always sound good — in fact, they’ll sound better than they would on their own — and that’s the problem. They don’t have to work that hard to be steady and play with a strong tone. They will find themselves without much experience, and therefore confidence, when they try to play on their own.

Read More