Definitely a sillier context here as James does the Podcast while trying to survive driving through Boston, but coming around to an important idea in striving for an artistic image: what does it mean to believe in something v. what does it mean to be convinced about something?By James Hurley and Michael Lee

You'd never say it but we love the sound of silence. Today we touched on some pretty important topics of piano pedagogy, talked about our experiences with silence in music and had a nice few minutes together. Most impressively: we managed to keep our weekly meeting!By James Hurley and Michael Lee

It’s official! Michael is in Medical school. James and Michael meet in person to speak together for the first time in the same room. Sort of. What does Michael think makes music lessons very special ? How does a musician who has achieved a Doctorate in Piano Performance pivot towards a completely new career path? How will he stay connected to his p…

We have a wide ranging discussion today from Algorithms to fog machine parties in the piano studio, to absolutely losing the ability to enjoy a thing. From David Foster Wallace to Horowitz to the practice room: and also James's gleeful ignorance of some of the core of piano repertoire. There might be some screaming children in the background as wel…

Today is James's birthday! This was meant as a silly episode to talk about some theme music for the Podcast. But it ended up starting serious due to the actions of James's students. In any event, we had a fun time together and hope you come along for a nice bit of together time.By James Hurley and Michael Lee

We continue to express our opinions and thoughts about learning, memory and experience. And paying attention to our mothers! Always listen to your mom. Appropriate that this comes just before Mother's Day! (Happy Mother's day Mom!)By James Hurley and Michael Lee

We continue to explore new territory of conversation. The "signal hill suite" is visible as a playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3FqBkc9kBVoGiiAlzOJBeU?si=ffb3b245233a43fc all the songs can also be found on the Youtube Channel https://youtube.com/@PiuPianoMusic --- The artworks we discussed which were created by Duncan Major can…

It has been 3 weeks since our last episode because of travel and Eastertime! Today we discuss about learning music, teaching music, online groups - the value of community and transparency as well as some cool books and resources about how to optimize your mindset! https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn Hopefully Mike is inspired to tu…

James and Michael discuss teaching, pieces they enjoy teaching, and approaches to doing it. Also about how they selected their paths forward and realized that they continue to be complete opposites in how they approach important decisions in life. Overall a nice conversation.By James Hurley and Michael Lee

James and Michael meet on a Saturday (M had a bunch of Rehearsals come up on Friday) - to discuss Beethoven. Sitting at their Pianos, they have a discussion about meaning and practice and different approaches to playing classical piano music.By James Hurley and Michael Lee

James and Michael chit-chat about travel and moving, then James shares an improvisation from a recent recording session - which is followed up by planning the next few episodes to be about practicing some Beethoven.By James Hurley and Michael Lee

This episode is about transparency, mostly. And other things.By James Hurley and Michael Lee

Michael and James are back to talk about their week and discuss music and how to share audio on Zoom. The conversation hovers around the creative process, has some musical examples. Featuring the beautiful voice of Dean Power - and the words of Duncan Major! We also love Steve Lilly. recorded 3.3.2023 This podcast will develop over time. If we wait…

Michael and James join each other for the first time in a long time to try and record a conversation and post it on the internet. We did this last year but never got organized enough to post them. This time around, we just are posting whatever comes out. These first ones are pretty wild, but eventually we'll have nice production. I'm not apologizin…