There was a Toronto pianist who hated G# so much that she decided never again to ever play it. This made it awkward for other musicians to play with her, it even cost her some jobs. Someone at Musicworks wrote an article about her peculiarity and a few months later it must have been noticed by the President of America because he started mentioning her in speeches and calling her music the best music ever written in the world – superior and strong – he favoured white keys. Next she was offered a job in Washington making interstitial sequences for Presidential speeches. She was also offered a sports car, her own recording studio and hassle free P2 visa. She liked the new life.
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Then one day while waiting at a railway crossing idling her purple AMG C class Cabriolet she noticed the hum of railway cars and it reminded her of a pattern she used to play in F. This led to thinking about the fingering that never felt right in G#. And then she imagined an alternative way to imagine whizzing thru G# – eureka. As soon as she got home she tested the daydream and it worked. Now she could skate around G# as easily as F or D or A. This changed everything and she returned to playing in all keys. Meanwhile people had started publishing articles about the 11 tone octave concept. Music clubs had started programming festivals without G# and in certain circles one ran the risk of great embarrassment to admit they still listened to anything in G#. When people heard about her new perspective they called her a sell out. The president was also displeased and fired her and told Fox and Friends, “I always had a bad feeling about her.” They launched an audit resulting in financial penalties, forfeiture of the car and rescind her visa.
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She moved back to her parents house in North York and wrote a memoir “Thoughts On Accidental Accidentals”. In it she explained that following her instincts was all she was doing and the strangeness about finding so much judgement about her process which was only about being true to her music instincts. Later, CBC asked her to audition to be a Q host and the Polaris prize asked her to become a judge. Netflix approached her to turn each chapter into a 13 part series. She was left wondering about the difference between musicality and notoriety.