During our first months in Boston, we had each other, our home, our piano, and our four walls in the lockdown. Grocery stores shuttered so we purchased canned food from the corner store. The corner owner, white haired, blue capped, and with his face permanently obscured by a mask, shared stories about the road trips from his youth. For an instant, we imagined ourselves to be both young and free. At home, piano filled our space with my feelings each day. I bought and printed more new music than I have in the past five years. When the toilet paper ran out, the corner store owner opened a special ..read more

When I complain about back pain, Jay shares exercises and stretches to try to help. After sitting at the laptop for 2 hours, I am rubbing my back and groaning. The last 2 years of indoor sitting is catching up to my back. Jay says, “Try the exercise I showed you first, then we can talk about it if you’re still in pain.” He demonstrates again. “Fine.” I say. The exercises can be tedious but help me stay limber, especially before playing piano. I liked the exercises so much that I’ve asked Jay to share an exercise routine with you all so that we can learn together. We filmed the video below alon ..read more

Pan is a pen name. I started using it years ago when we met and I wanted to write about him as a stranger. But now we’re married, so here I’ll refer to him by his other name, Jay. After we gather our luggage at Logan airport, we sit in the car ride to our first home. People huddle along the streets around tents outside the hospital neighborhood. Jay peers through the car window, hair flying in the wind. We hobble inside our building with our four suitcases, where the blue 90s dot carpeted hallway leads to white doors. I press the number for the elevator and when we get in, the elevator doors c ..read more

Some days, I pace around my home or lay in bed. the lockdown didn’t help, we didn’t get a chance to meet friends in Boston. On a lot of days, there was pain in my abdomen. There was a lot of waiting by the phone for doctors or hospitals. I have been to the ER three times which is unusual for me. I’ve started playing piano again. Our home in Boston is set up. And I’m writing again. I realize that if I’m not playing piano or writing then I’m not doing well. My therapist says at least some of my pain can be attributed to stress. I hope to share more of our lives with you soon and learn from ever ..read more

We would meet in Toronto to get married. That was the plan. We thought it was logistical, simply signing papers, so Pan could come live with me in Boston. My sister would be one of the witnesses. Then we would have a real ceremony next year when covid is over. Though none of the scientists are predicting it to end next year. Pan called City Halls all over Canada to find someone to marry us during the midst of covid lockdown. London, a small town, was open, but Pan accidentally told them I was coming from Boston, so they wouldn’t let us schedule a date until I was in the country. Then I called ..read more

I was one of the first to start lockdown by myself in Seattle. My workplace was the first to send people home. Home for me was in Canada, and they closed the border so I couldn’t get home. Throughout the lockdown, I didn’t leave the apartment and I didn’t touch a real person. When I told my neighbour that I wanted to jump out the window after being alone for so many weeks, he laughed. He’d just returned from vacation. On the last day that flights were running, I packed my suitcase and flew to Boston. I moved in with Penelope’s family so we are five people in a one bedroom apartment. Her ex-hus ..read more

It turns out that 1-4% of the population have synesthesia. Synesthesia is when one sense is linked to another, for example, if you see colour in music or letters. People with synesthesia have amazing long-term memory. It’s easy to tamper with memory when you have direct access to the senses that control memory. A while back, I noticed that one of my piano students never flipped the sheet music when she played. At first, I thought she learned by touch. But then she struggled with fast runs and it didn’t matter how many times we deconstructed them when she hesitated a fraction. We play a single ..read more

Everyone is teaching music online now. If you teach music online, you can get a lot more students. You can, in theory, teach at all hours of the day because your students can be from any time zone. Here are 8 tips to build a career teaching music online. 1. This means your pricing can be a lot more flexible. You are operating on the world market now, not just your local rate. You can charge however much someone with your level of experience charges. It’s probably more than what you charge now. You could see what Juilliard professors charge for private lessons. Not the lessons at the conservato ..read more

It’s the season of love! My friend Sydney and I wrote a piece about a robot falling in love, with a mix of Debussy, by combining two pieces of music. And I’m real excited about it! Arabesque was one of Debussy’s earlier works and you can already hear experimentation with wild, unrelated keys. Undertale is a game where a child falls into the Underground and encounters fun adventures. This is the music when there’s a robot who falls in love! Sydney plays the part from Undertale in our duet and you will hear it above the Debussy arpeggios. Sydney talks about piano, mental health, an ..read more

Sometimes, it’s frustrating when you can’t play something that seems straight forward. I have played pieces that are harder and yet this piece stumped me during recording, where the sound produced isn’t exactly what is recorded. I love how the melody seems to slow and start again, the variation in the tempo and freedom in rhythm. For me, the beginning chords depict snowy, winter scene, not harsh, but ethereal. If we used the same chords sped up, we would find ourselves in a hectic icy winter scene. I improvised a bit later on. How do you like this piece? Get the sheet music fo ..read more