Friends with Hearing Loss
Dinner with a fellow musician with hearing loss offers Nancy M. Williams communion and validation, while at the same time forcing her to face her fears. »
Reflections Nancy M. Williams
The Gift of Mercy Mild
A personal essay by Nancy M. Williams about how the memory of her father teaching her the words to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" helped her find mercy. »
Visualization for Carnegie Hall
After walking the spiritual Labyrinth at church, Nancy M. Williams comes up with a visualization strategy for her upcoming piano recital at Carnegie Hall. »
Lazer Tag and Classical Piano Music
Playing Lazer Tag at her son's birthday party reminds Nancy M. Williams of the uncertainties of sight-reading and gives her a push to address her weakness. »
Lent’s Thirds in Clair de Lune
Committed to an act of justice each day during Lent, an amateur pianist begins to understand what it all means while practicing the thirds in Clair de Lune. »
Lowered Shoulders: When Piano Technique Spreads Out to Life
After Nancy M. Williams' piano teacher urged her to relax her shoulders while playing, her quest for this piano technique led to understanding of her past. »
Hope for Adult Piano Lessons
An adult piano student considers her music ugly, a holdover from her childhood. Then when looking to buy an antique Steinway, she instead leaves with hope. »
Osama and Adult Piano Lessons
Photo by Frank Schramm. This past Sunday night, while a group of Navy Seals broke into a compound in a nothern Pakistani city and cornered Osama Bin Laden, I packed for a trip to Washington DC, unawar... »
To Buy a Piano: A Cherry Steinway’s Soul
I stepped into the foyer of an SoHo apartment in Manhattan. On the opposite wall hung an abstract oil painting of a nude, her body contorted and sectioned. At the smell of alcohol lingering in the air... »
Why this Student of Adult Piano Lessons Wished for a Chinese Father but Became a Western Mother
Somewhat eerily timed with the Chinese mother debate, my daughter, Mena, and I had a piano recital this past Saturday. Rather than performing at Carnegie Hall, where Chua’s daughter Sophia play... »
The Yogic Om and Adult Piano Lessons
Earlier this week at yoga, I received an unexpected confirmation of the progress I’ve made in my adult piano lessons. At the Thursday night Be-evolution class, the brainchild of Jagadisha, our s... »
Classical Piano Music at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel
Classical piano music may be found even in Yosemite. In August, my family and I took our annual vacation. Throwing caution to the winds–we are quite good at this when it comes to planning vacat... »
