I'm not just a teacher. I'm a student too.

One of my top pursuits of 2025 is to be able to play entirely from memory again.

Just before the pandemic began, I taught students who had long retired from their careers and wanted to explore music. Studying piano was considered a luxury for some, while feeding the babies and taking care of the household and then ailing parents while also having a life took top priority. Now that the kids were grown and they were finished with their careers, they had the time and investment capital to devote to their long delayed dreams.

Two of these piano students separately spent quite a bit of time after the lessons talking about the effects of chemotherapy with me. I have experienced osteogenic sarcoma—bone cancer—and the super-duper aggressive type of breast cancer.

One of the effects of chemotherapy that happened to me is that I lost my ability to remember music. I’m certain I’ve lost the ability to remember other things but I really don’t care about those things the way I care about being able to walk onto any stage in the world and play something on the piano. Priorities.

I can read music, I’m getting good with my sight reading on the piano (I’m legendary on the clarinet), I am learning to trust my ear when I’m improvising, but I struggle with remembering whole pieces, and it all started when I began chemo.

Recently, a doctor shared that maybe I shouldn’t try to remember pieces like I used to; I might want to try exploring different techniques for memorization and learning. I am 53 after all, and I have a lot more going on in my life than I did at 23. I agree; I used to be able to look at a phone number once and recall it many months later. That skill set is gone too. She cautioned me that that ability might not ever come back, and then helped me find resources and classes designed by neuroscientists.

Professional development workshops, seminars, and classes are not just for you. I need them too. I am gently growing and learning how to push my limits in fun and uplifting ways (instead of “Get it! Get it! ARGGGG!” toxic ways).

Proof of whether I am consistent with this will show up in my environment, and the fact that I dig that fact instead of fear it says a lot about mindset.

Here’s the other thing: it takes time for it to show up in the environment, and I’m in no rush to rush the results. I want a strong foundation…and you can’t rush that.

See what I mean?

Now, please look at all of the previous posts I have written (except for the gratuitous cat photos). My whole company is based on slow and steady growth, changes from within show without, and so on.

Foundational learning is not sexy. Doing the Fundamentals is y.a.w.n. Ask anyone who has to do drills on the piano or the soccer field or kitchen cutting board. It’s boring. Sometimes agonizingly so.

At first.

And then something breaks and you see it. You see how you can Do The Thing. And then you’re willing to do the drills a billion times even slower to get that feeling again…except it won’t take as long the next time because you’re developing the neural pathways…and then you get the jolt of adrenaline as you are able to do it again and better than last time…and then…

Same.

The best in the world ride out the discomfort to get to competence, and then keep going to try to achieve mastery, knowing full well that much like an asymptote, you’ll get super close to the line but never quite reach it, but, for you, the chase is enough.

Take the classes. Find the workshops. Network with teachers. Don’t do this alone.

We teach this.