Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
🎹 🤥 the lie I believed for 37 years {video}
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I found old footage of my 1989 Cliburn audition. It inspired me to do something a little different. I recorded a message to her. To 27-year-old me, about to walk into that room. Here are highlights of what I told her. She thought it was all or nothing. Get into the Cliburn, or the career she'd worked her whole life for wasn't even possible. That's what she believed in every bone in her body. I know how devastated she was when she didn't get in. She thought that was the end. She didn't know it wasn't the end. It was the beginning of something she hadn't even dreamed up yet. 🤷♀️ I posted a clip of this on Instagram and wasn't ready for the response. It currently has 33,413 views. What got me wasn't the numbers. It was what people took from it. Not getting into the Cliburn wasn't a verdict on my playing or my talent. It was just how brutal that field is. The moments that actually shaped my life weren't the ones I staked everything on. They were the ones that didn't go the way I'd planned. 🎼 A tiny practice experiment for you Then ask yourself what actually happens if it isn't. 🤔 Usually, not what you think, right? |
Lisa Spector, Piano Ninja
Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
We just wrapped up our annual Beyond the Keys piano retreat and I sent every pianist home with six new cards to put on their piano rack. One idea on each. Play On! 🎹Start Where It Breaks ⛓️💥Back Up Just Enough 🔙 Name It When You Play It 🔊Record Today, Listen Tomorrow 🎥Take a Break 🧘♀️ Four days of workshops, performances and conversation. And this is what I wanted them to leave with. Not a notebook full of ideas they’d never reread. Six decisions small enough to fit on a piano rack. None of...
Members of the Piano Ninja Tricksters Club are flying in from across the country for our annual Beyond The Keys piano retreat here in Monterey, California. A group of adult pianists, a lot of piano talk, and some unusual experiments. Let's just say this is not your typical adult piano camp. There's even a piano movie night. 🍿 (If we get to it. For the last two years, we've talked right through it. 🤷♀️) But the moment I keep thinking about is Friday night. That's when they'll walk into a room...
I'm wearing a back brace while a compression fracture heals, with strict orders not to lift more than 5 pounds. And I was about to fly from California to Toronto. ✈️I'm a lifelong over-packer. 🧳 🧳 Carry-on only was a stretch. Carry-on I wasn't allowed to lift? 🤦♀️ The trip was for Stu McLaren's 10-year celebration of The Membership Experience. Stu is my membership mentor and I've been meeting with him and his fabulous team for 5 years on Zoom! Before I knew Stu, my first attempt at a...