Let the music tell your story!

October 20 2026

The story goes that when the piano tuner came to tune our Kimball grand piano, he asked my mother to remove her toddler (me) from the room because I was matching every note he tuned! Yep, I started young. A little later, I woke up one morning and began mimicking a song I’d heard at my sisters’ sleepover the night before, “Heart and Soul.”

I loved music, and my parents took the cue and started me in piano lessons very young, before I could even read English. The music moved me and gave me a voice early on. It was the melody, phrasing, and rhythm that drove my playing and eventually singing.

By high school, my style had really taken shape, and I remember being compared to two classmates, one a pianist and the other a singer. Both were incredible musicians. The pianist was technique-focused, concentrating on the notes, while I took more liberties with dynamics and rhythm. The singer had a highly developed voice, but the delivery lacked engagement with the audience, whereas my performances were conversational and driven by the story of the song. All three approaches were valid, yet people tended to prefer one over the others. What this taught me is that music is subjective, shaped as much by memory, culture, and mood as by sound. That’s why we “surf” our playlists until we find a song that suits us, moves us, or even excites us. My advice, then, is to listen to and play the music you resonate with and let the joy of playing carry you toward your musical goals.

When I work with beginning piano students, I often start with a story instead of a scale. I ask them to imagine a travel memory or an invented adventure, then explore how it might sound on the keys. A rainy afternoon in a foreign city or a made-up journey through a forest can become a piece of music.

Music also works well for the days that don’t go as planned. After a grueling day, there’s something very satisfying about a “complaining” song built on the 12-bar blues pattern, with a stream-of-consciousness rant over the top. Recently, “It’s so hot!” became the theme of one of these creations. It was funny and a little dramatic, and it turned a bad mood into something we could all enjoy.

When the mood is heavier, the same blues pattern can do the opposite job. Play it slowly as arpeggios, sounding each chord one note at a time, and let a sweet, introspective three-note melody unfold over it. Simple as it is, the music has a way of lifting you.

That’s what I love about it: music has room for humor, tenderness, energy, and joy. You don’t have to pick just one.

If you’d like to try something simple, listen to a favorite song with your eyes closed. Notice one detail that draws you in, maybe a bass line, a breath between phrases, or a particular harmony. Breathe along with the phrases and let the rhythm, melody, and harmony surround you. What does it stir inside you? And if there’s a song you’ve always wanted to play, what is it about that song that keeps calling you back? That answer is often the best place to start.