The 2026 Winter Olympics are over, and team USA did very well! I'm not a hockey fan, but even I was cheering for mens and womens hockey over the weekend. 

My attention during the winter games has always been drawn to figure skating. The combination of beauty and athleticism is fascinating, and it doesn't hurt that it is one of the few sports set to music. 

I was especially interested by Ilia Malinin, the 21 year old from Virginia who excelled in his short program and then fell (literally) during his next event, and finished in eighth place overall. He told the press he let the pressure/expectations get to him, and you can see a distinct difference in the tension in his body between the two programs. 

​

Is AI poised to put all singers, songwriters, recording artists, and musicians out of work? 

The internet has been buzzing this week with the news that the #1 song on Country Music Digital Streaming was created entirely by AI, and it is rumored the “artist” is also an AI creation. 

What does this mean for country music, and music in general?

I started listening to country music when I was a teenager, and WIVK out of Knoxville was one of the few stations we could get that did not have a lot of static. My formative years were spent listening to Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, and Eric Church, to name a few. 
Simultaneously, I was discovering the beauty, depth, and richness of classical music, but I’ll save that for a different blog post. 

Over the years, country music changed. Country artists began doing collaborations with pop/rap artists, and it became commonplace for artists to have rap verses in their songs. Many artists (or perhaps the producers) began adding the pre-recorded drum/snap tracks, and soon the songs all began to sound the same. Fewer and fewer artists needed to learn to sing, because the voice could be digitally manipulated to correct the pitch or fix mistakes.

Country music lost its uniqueness because it is easier to use a pre-recorded drum track than to pay a drummer. It is easier to auto-correct a voice than spend years learning how to sing properly. And it is easier to insert prompts into ChatGPT than spend weeks, months, and years exploring how to craft your thoughts and emotions into thoughtful, insightful lyrics. 

Consider this song by Johnny Cash as an example.

​

If you just listen to the chorus, it is a peppy tune about how life keeps moving forward. But if you listen to the verses, you will quickly realize that this song is talking about Vietnam veterans who returned home to a country that largely abandoned them, leaving them to deal with PTSD all on their own. 

Or consider this song by Kelsea Ballerini

​

Musicians. producers, recording artists- everyone who is in the music industry- this should be a huge wake up call! 

Stop taking shortcuts and producing low quality junk that can easily be duplicated. Do the hard work of learning to play your instrument, learning to sing, learning to write lyrics.

Produce something of quality that cannot be replicated by an algorithm. 


Emily Morgan is a Suzuki trained piano teacher who teaches real people how to play a real instrument in Jamestown, NC. She also teaches a music class of parents and babies.
​Email [email protected] for information about lessons 

​

On December 2, 2022, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Yes, you read that right. Dolly Parton- country star, business woman, entrepreneur, children’s literacy advocate, is a rock star? 
 
Not so fast.  The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is not necessarily exclusive to rock & roll artists. Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins and The Beach Boys are also in this hall. So the real story isn’t that Dolly has now joined these ranks (although it is a huge honor) but that she was inspired by this honor to record a rock album, appropriately titled Rockstar. 
 
One of the nine original songs on the thirty track album, “World on Fire”, was released on May 11 to promote the album, and was also performed live at the ACM awards show.
 
As far as modern songs go, it has a lot more substance than most. But I’m not sure it lives up the standard we expect from Dolly.  This song lacks the anguish of “Jolene” and the upbeat perkiness of ‘9 to 5’ and instead lands somewhere in the middle.

The song opens with these lyrics:
Liar, liar, world’s on fire, what you gonna do when it all burns down?
 Fire, fire burnin’ higher, Still got time to turn it all around.
 
The lyrics go on to describe the problem (politicians lie, people have turned away from God, frustrated people mistake protesting/activism for actual change).  All that is a true assessment of where we are in this country. My frustration is with her call to action:
 
Show some love
Rise above
Make a stand
Lend a hand
Heal the hurt
Let kindness work
Be a friend
Let hatred end
 
Reminding people to be kind to their neighbors is always a good thing, but Dolly has been a lot more direct in other songs, so why did she hold back this time? It is no secret that Dolly is a Christian. If she truly believes that a relationship with Jesus Christ is what saves a person, why not encourage her listeners to attend church, or at least read the Bible?

​It wasn’t too terribly long ago (2018) that Dolly’s music was the soundtrack for the movie Dumplin, which featured previously recorded songs and songs newly written for the movie. One song in particular, “Dumb Blonde”, has the line “just because I’m blonde don’t think I’m dumb/cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool”
 
Now that is a clever lyric.
 
I’m hopeful that Dolly’s other original songs on Rockstar contain similarly witty lyrics. Time will tell.

 2022 was a year of reopening. 

It was not as if the January 1, 2022 came and the bells rang out and a voice announced " the world is open again". The reopening happened little by little. 

Looking back, I could really feel the shift in March.  We had Federation Festival in person at UNCG. It was so wonderful to meet teachers and students in person, and the halls of UNCG buzzed with the excitement of being together. (I noted with appreciation that hallways/rooms in the UNCG music building are clearly labeled, which made it relatively easy to navigate)

In April, I started singing in choir again! I am part of Gate City Voices, a volunteer choir that sings with the professional ensemble Bel Canto Company. We had two wonderful concerts in May, and two concerts in December. Singing in a choir is life-giving and energizing, and singing with this group and this director in particular has been a good challenge for me. It doesn't hurt that we rehearse in a beautiful church that has amazing acoustics. (On a side note, I'm thinking of starting a travel blog so I can write about all the beautiful churches in this area that I visit for piano/choir events) 

​
My dad and I also got back into beekeeping this year.  We set up two hives at the farm connected with Church of the Redeemer. Sadly, we lost both hives over the summer, but we during the process we met many local beekeepers and started attending the monthly beekeepers association meetings. We learned much about how different this area is from the coast in regards to plants, growing season, and pests, and we will be much better prepared for beekeeping next year! 

Summer was a combination of pool time with my niece and nephew, teaching, reconnecting with friends from TN, and a family beach vacation! 

Once the fall semester started, the leadership of North Carolina Music Teachers Association hit the ground running in preparation for the NCMTA conference, which was held in person for the first time since 2019! Now that I am part of the leadership team, I have a greater appreciation for the amount of work that goes into planning the conference, but once we were there (in person), we all remarked how wonderful it was to see everyone and not deal with Zoom fatigue. Video conferencing technology has allowed us to collaborate in some pretty incredible ways over the past few years, but there is a wonderful energy and buzz from being in person that cannot be replicated through a screen. 

Also in the fall, I had the pleasure of practicing and performing piano duets with two piano teacher colleagues. I was reminded again of the unique collaborative elements of sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone, breathing together, sharing notes and keys and life. 

The year ended with a month full of music- two choir concerts with GCV, piano recital for my students, singing in the Advent choir at Church of the Redeemer, and the Greensboro MTA holiday gathering where I played duets with another teacher.  The house we gathered at for GMTA was way off in the country (in the neighboring county), off the road and up on a hill. It reminded me so much the annual Christmas tea I attended as a child, with my mom and sisters. Every year, we would put on our best clothes and travel to the house on a hill for a time of decadent desserts, awkward conversation, and singing. 

The Christmas eve service almost didn't happen, thanks to a brutal winter storm that drove the temperature down into the single digits (time to move to Florida?) and knocked out the power.  But the power came back on just in time, and somehow the heaters worked efficiently enough that the church was not only warm, it was slightly too warm (but maybe that's because I was wearing many layers). You could almost say it was a Christmas miracle, but that would be too cheesy. 

​
Here's to 2023! 

In the weeks leading up to October 9, 2021, there was great excitement and anticipation in the music and computer technology worlds. These groups were intersecting in a unique and exciting way: a group of musicians and computer scientists formed a coalition to create Beethoven’s 10th symphony. Using sketches from his notebooks, the computer scientists would teach the artificial intelligence to compose, and complete what Beethoven started.  (You can read more about the group here)
 
Like many of my colleagues, I reacted to this news with an equal mixture of interest and apprehension.  I may not be an “expert” on Beethoven, but I have spent a good deal of time studying his life and playing and teaching his music, and I was distressed by the articles published prior to the premier stating that this was what Beethoven wanted, this was the fulfillment of his desires, and that people in the coalition could not discern the difference between musical excerpts composed by Beethoven and excerpts created by the AI. I also found it creepy that  one of the music experts of the team referred to the AI as a student who practices, learns, and gets better.
 
On October 9, I opened Spotify and listened to the two movements the group had released: the third and fourth movements of Beethoven X: the AI project.
 
The third movement, labeled Scherzo. Allegro trio, is a pleasant piece of music. It contains elements of Beethoven, like repeated rhythmic motives, but stylistically it sounds like early Beethoven, not something he was working on at the end of his life. It lacks the passion, surprise, experimentation, thematic development, and chromaticism we expect from late Beethoven. 
 
The fourth movement, labeled Rondo, does not sound like Beethoven at all.  The music is so fragmented it sounds like a sight-reading exercise, and it inexplicably features organ as the solo instrument. The form can only be called a rondo in the loosest sense of the term, and the music jumps from clear quotations of Beethoven’s 5th symphony and Pathetique sonata to free form organ passages. Stylistically, it sounds like college composition major who is completing an assignment to compose something “Romantic-sounding.”
 
Many of the elements of Beethoven’s music are included: abrupt dynamic changes, lyric passages, rhythmic motives,  and sudden shifts in mood, but the music shifts so abruptly from one aspect to the next it sounds like the fictitious composition student is checking off the boxes of required elements to earn a good grade. There are many aspects missing from this composition, but the main thing is something even a team of skilled musicologists and computer scientists cannot recreate: the man himself, Ludwig van Beethoven.
 
This work may be a triumph for AI, but it is not a success for Beethoven, nor should it be labeled as such. 
 

Dear parents,
 
The start of the school year is right around the corner! And as you watch your preschooler play and sing and dance, you are wondering, “Is this the year to start piano lessons?”
 
I know you have many questions about piano lessons.  And, as a teacher who is Suzuki certified and has years of experience working with young children and their parents, I will answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
 
“Is my child old enough?”
 
 Each child is different, but generally  4-5 is a good age to start piano lessons.  The determining factors are the 1) ability of the child to listen and follow instructions, and 2) the ability of the parent(s) to come to lessons and help their child practice at home.
 
An experienced teacher will be able to help you determine if your child is ready for lessons. I am always happy to meet with interested parents and students!  
 
“Is my child talented enough to learn piano?”
 
I believe that every child has the ability to learn music. Dr. Suzuki believed that children are the products of their environment.  Talent, therefore, is not inborn, but it is fostered or hindered depending on the environment.  I firmly believe that every child, if brought up in the right environment, can learn to make beautiful music. 
 
“What will my child learn?”
 
Your child will learn to play with excellence from the very start.   Using the Suzuki method, we will explore the piano and learn to play familiar songs while incorporating theory and good technique before reading music is introduced.
 
 I make sure all students experience, play, and understand music through age-appropriate activities, and I work with you to make sure you understand what is being taught, and what should be practiced during the week. The Suzuki method is cooperative in nature; the parent and teacher work together to support the child. 
 
I will be happy to discuss this in more detail, and answer any questions you may have!
 
 
“What kind of piano do we need?”
 
There are two options: acoustic or digital. The best piano is an acoustic piano. You can find acoustic pianos by looking on Marketplace, Nextdoor, or a local music store.
 I realize that purchasing an acoustic piano may not be possible for every family.  There are many high quality digital pianos that make good starter instruments, but be aware that the quality of the instrument varies greatly depending on the materials used to construct it. And a major factor in the enjoyment of learning the piano is the way it feels and sounds.  If the sound quality is not good and the materials used to make it were cheap, then it is harder to enjoy the instrument.
 
If you decide to purchase a digital piano, I recommend looking for something with this criteria: keyboard built into the stand, weighted keys, graded hammer action, touch sensitive.
 
For more information on acoustic vs. digital, read this article: https://www.pianobuyer.com/article/acoustic-or-digital-whats-best-for-me/
 
 
“How often do we come to lessons?”
 
I recommend weekly lessons, 30 minutes in length.  During the lesson we will play the piano, play musical games, and learn about composers.
 
Only you can know if this is a good time to start piano lessons, but I let me leave you with this thought: it is always the right time to invest in your child.

Now that your initial questions have been answered, what is the next step for you? 

Would you like to discuss lessons in more detail?

Are you ready to schedule a trial lesson?

​Fill out the contact form below and I'll be in touch! 
 
​

Today, July 23, 2021, marks the official start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I will be paying special attention to the music this year because I discovered this week that America’s beloved film composer, John Williams, has a special connection to the Olympics, and a special message of hope that resonates today.
 
Before I share Williams’ message, l need to provide some background.  George Gershwin has been the featured composer this month in my piano studio, and I have been talking with my students about his contributions to Broadway musicals and classical music. Naturally, any conversation about Gershwin would be deficient if we did not listen to Rhapsody in Blue! And then I read an article about classical music featured at the Olympic games which mentioned a special tribute to Gershwin at the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles.  Even though the only video clips I can find are very low quality and have significant color distortion, the tribute is still inspiring and uplifting to watch! I know the amount of effort that goes into hosting a recital for the music teachers association and putting on a performance for a community choir, so I have great respect for the people that organized and coordinated the musicians, dancers, and eighty-four pianists (not to mention getting the pianos to the stadium and onto the lifts)!
 
 

After I watched the video of the Gershwin tribute, I discovered a video of John Williams, also from the 1984 Olympics. And I was delighted to discover that the trumpet fanfare that plays when the NBC Olympics symbol appears on the TV is part of a larger theme that was commissioned by the Olympic Committee and composed by Williams for the 1984 games.
 
In an interview with the New York Times, Williams said, “A wonderful thing about the Olympics is that young athletes strain their guts to find and produce their best efforts. The human spirit stretching to prove itself is also typical of what musicians attempt to achieve in a symphonic effort. It is difficult to describe how I feel about these athletes and their performances without sounding pretentious, but their struggle ennobles all of us. I hope I express that in this piece.”
 
The Olympic games has always been a time of coming together, a rare moment of unity when athletes from all over the world unite and compete while the entire world watches. And even though this year the games look different than ever before due to covid precautions, the fact that the games are taking place at all is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. To the athletes who had to be very creative to continue training when facilities shut down last year, and to the organizers working on the ground in Tokyo to abide by restrictions and still keep the events going- well done! The fact that I can watch the opening ceremony tonight on NBC is a testimony to your grit, your tenacity, and your creative spirit.
 
 
And, as Williams expressed in his music, the human spirit has no bounds.

One of the fascinating things about music is that everyone interprets what they hear in a unique way.  My students listening to music of Haydn have had many different reactions. In the January issue of Piano Explorer, the featured composer was Franz Joseph Haydn. My students, especially the younger ones, are fascinated by the way his sense of humor permeated his compositions.  During lessons and group class, I have been playing Symphony No. 4, nicknamed “Surprise”, and asking my students what they heard.
The answers are as unique as the students themselves:
 
-Walking in the park on a spring day
-A rollercoaster
-A thunderstorm
-Winter
 
Of course, I tell them this work is called “Surprise” symphony because of the surprising dynamic changes, and we have a good conversation about expression in music.
Part of my role as a piano teacher is helping students of all ages and skill levels learn to listen with a critical ear and be able to analyze the music, identifying tempos, instrument(s), mood, and dynamics, among other things. Being able to recognize the elements of music not only helps them appreciate and enjoy the music they are listening to, but it also develops the important skill of listening to themselves while they are playing.
 
The surprising thing is the musician who listens to while playing is benefited as much as the audience member. 


​

You may be thinking, "I don't care about the historical background. What about the music itself?" 
The music does not disappoint.  The piece, in a standard ABA form, has all the sparkling cheerfulness we expect from Mozart. 

I'll leave you to listen here while I head to my piano to learn this new music.