Caylia's Blog

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... read more »

Music learning can begin with a simple question: “How does that work?” Curiosity gives us something meaningful to explore, whether we are sitting at a piano, singing a familiar melody, or discovering the story behind an instrument. Research connects curiosity with memory, and music studies help us understand specific kinds of learning, without promising that lessons will transform every part... read more »

We walk, pacing our strides in a natural rhythm. Our speaking voices rise and fall, shifting in pitch and dynamics as we talk with one another. And when a familiar song drifts through the grocery store or fills a concert hall, we can’t help but hum along. Everyone is musical. read more »

My first day at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music was as intimidating as it was exciting. The Conservatory’s Outreach Program, a program that sends musicians out to perform at local Convalescent Homes, hospitals and other service facilities, heard about my reputation as a Cabaret Singer, so they sent me out to perform classics from popular American music standards; show... read more »

When I was five, my older sisters had a slumber party and I was too young to join them. From my room I heard their friends play “Heart and Soul” on our piano. The next morning I woke up and played the song by ear. It was the first song that I had ever played and it became the defining... read more »