What I’m Grateful For: Piano Lessons
Growing up, I was forced to endure piano lessons from a fairly early age. My mom signed me up at age six or so, and I was initially excited but that quickly wore off as the sheer drudgery of daily required practice was added to my long list of chores (tidy room, water for the kitties, brush your teeth. I know, it was clearly excessive and tortuous). I wasn’t gifted by any means, but I did the work (even if unwillingly) and became adequate to be able to plunk around a bit. I played in church and for one strange summer, played on the weekends in an upscale bar in the tourist town we lived in, even though I was only 17.
Lately, I’ve been adding “practice music” to my daily list of things I want myself to do – even if I just run through some scales – and it’s so incredibly rewarding. A new piece of sheet music is hard to describe. It’s nothing like a new book – a new book is a story that you get to discover. But new music (especially for an ungifted player like myself) is initially a tortured tangle of confusion and fumbling. Then, in brief bursts, a few bars will ring true to the song and things will begin to take shape. Much, much later the more complicated parts will become less hard and then, one day, weeks or even months later, the piece will become something that only requires gentle attention and becomes more like a meditation, or a return to a beloved drive or a well-traveled path. Even a piece that I’ve played a thousand times, for decades, sometimes has a little something new to reveal, a possibility that I hadn’t stumbled on before, or a particular nuance that I find.
Even now I marvel that my mom was willing to put up with my whining, complaining, and ultimately loud and angry pounding away on the piano every afternoon in our livingroom. Thank you mom, for a lifetime of adventure and joy.
What I’m Reading (again): The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Trevis.
This is just a really, really good book. It’s a novel but it reads like a true story, and it’s prose is spare and eloquent and the book is just captivating. If you have any interest in chess, or the mind, or unusually gifted people and what makes them tick, this is a great read.
Tip from Gene:
Ever heard the saying, “Deep work is the superpower of the 21st century”? (Yep, Author Cal Newport said that!)
Think about it: mastering deep work lets you learn anything, build anything, and CRUSH those goals you’ve been dreaming of.
But here’s the thing – most people think deep work is just about avoiding distractions (snooze that phone notification!).
While that’s part of it, there’s another key piece: getting into a state of “flow.”
Flow is that magical zone where time flies by and you’re completely absorbed in what you’re doing. It makes even the toughest tasks feel like a breeze.
Most people experience flow maybe once a week, totally by chance. But imagine being able to switch it on whenever you want!
Creating such a state follows a systematic process, and I’ve created my own system – and you can too. We will dive deeper into this system in future emails, one step at a time. So stay tuned – and for the time being, if you need to get something done, turn those notifications off (and even better, go put your phone in another room till you’re done)!
Quote I’m Pondering:
“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning” ― Plato
