How to Have a Horrible PerformanceDiscover the essential skills every underperformer needs: obsess over the wrong notes, ignore the right ones, compare yourself unfavourably to Glenn Gould, and mistake mild […]
When I was hired to teach at Toronto Metropolitan University, I was still teaching at Seneca. I mentioned the new job to one of my classes. Dave asked, “Isn’t that […]
A musician standing outside an office, accidentally overheard another musician being interviewed for a teaching position. Walls were thin. At first he had no intention of eavesdropping but trapped by […]
In the summer of 2026, Mona the cellist hitchhiked along Highway 17. Forest fires had been burning for weeks. Some days the air smelled like a campfire. Mona carried her […]
Re: cheating, I never believed it was an rarity. Simply part of how the world operates. People test what they can get away with. I do it myself in small, […]
Handed in my final PhD work at 3 a.m. this morning. The send button clicked, the file vanished into the university’s portal, and I sat there staring at the screen […]
Finished the first draft. Editing now. Raw, messy, maybe out of tune but full of intention. You hear the shape of what could be, even if no one else quite […]
Very close to a first draft of the book. I must print copies and get readers, objective people, people who enjoy telling someone like me what I did wrong, what […]
Over these recent years teaching I meet a lot of students who do not know how to play an instrument well but believe themselves great artists. Is that the Dunning […]
Some of the songs written by students whose first language is not English: You cannot boil the water without heating the utensils,You cannot break a rock without damaging the hammer,To […]