Posts on the mental lives of musicians. Advice to find joy, avoid frustration, and find success in all of your musical endeavors.
Last time, I focused on why being specific and relevant in your piano journey is helpful and how to implement that practice in your own goal-setting. In this post, I’m focusing in on the “MART” of smart goals and what it means to “reality check expectations,” as this is where new pianists especially struggle with …
Reality Check Your Goals: Mindset and New Experiences Read More »
This is part 3 in the series on charting your quest, strategizing your piano journey so that you don’t get lost in some figurative dark forest of no return. We’re making plans, so you can achieve your goals and feel really awesome about the work you’re doing! The first few posts aren’t about the act …
Set Yourself Up for Success: Be Specific in Your Goals Read More »
This post is part 2 in the Chart Your Quest series, for people wanting to start learning piano (or any instrument!) but don’t know where to start! You can read the first part here. Last week, we talked about finding our motivation: what is it we actually want to learn to do in piano and …
How Curiosity Keeps Us Happy and Motivated While Practicing an Instrument Read More »
Taking up piano is very much like embarking on an epic quest. You have a general idea of where you need to go, but there’s a lot of terrain between here and there that you don’t know about yet.
If you’re not careful, you could end up trapped in a dark forest of no return!
But don’t worry, these posts will be your guide to finding the perfect guide for you. It will help you create the path for your journey, starting with where you’re going and why.
How to memorize music is a question most classical musicians ask, and it’s not surprising given the incredible feats of mental acuity they are asked to perform. This article explains how expert memory works and how you can use this knowledge to memorize your music more efficiently and much stronger. “The demands placed on memory …
How to Memorize Music: The Many Pieces of the Memorization Process Read More »
This post outlines some of the psychological and neurological research on mindfulness in the lives of musicians and describes ways you can incorporate mindfulness into your life today. Research on Mindfulness (and Musicians) Review of the Basic Research on Mindfulness Mindfulness is defined as a mental practice that focuses one’s attention on the present moment …
In his 2019 literature review on the study of joy in positive psychology, Matthew Kuan Johnson explains there are four types of joy. Joy can be an emotion, mood, a disposition or trait, or what religious or spiritual practices consider a “spiritual fruit.” As an emotion, joy comes from an external situation; it’s an affective …
7 Steps to Practice Joy While Practicing an Instrument Read More »
Finding new piano sheet music is one of the most exciting parts of being a pianist. I love visiting old book stores that have a sheet music section, as I’ve found treasures from composers I’ve never heard of. Learning to pick piano music that is at the right level for you (not boringly easy and …
The Selection: How to Pick Piano Repertoire to Increase Momentum and Avoid Frustration Read More »
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process is a collection of super-short, inspiring essays from acclaimed authors that comes originally from Joe Fassler’s online series “By Heart” featured in The Atlantic. In this series of interviews, he asked authors which pieces of writing changed their lives as well as how these …
Book Recommendation: Light the Dark by Joe Fassler Read More »
I’ve been procrastinating this review for most of the year because this book, Presence, influenced me so deeply that I wanted to do it justice. While I may not be able to do just that, at least I can share this resource with people who would benefit from it: musicians, creatives, and people living in …
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Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
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Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
Free
Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
Free
Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
Free
Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
Free
Musescore, Music xml, Midi, and Pdf file types included.
