Being a mainly self-taught musician comes with a huge set of challenges, ranging from limited resources to lack of fundamentals. I taught myself how to play advanced classical repertoire, mainly by watching others better than I was, experimenting with A LOT of patience, and internalizing it into my own playing. When I was 7, my piano teacher said she was unable teach me and wanted to send me off to study with a piano professor at Rutgers, which never happened. When I used to think back to that time of my life, there were MANY “what if’s.” What if I went to study with that professor? What if I grew up formally trained? What if I walked that traditional classical route? Would I succeed as a classical concert pianist? But here’s the thing. I was playing Chopin Études and piano concertos, but I didn’t know what a C major chord was. During my Berklee 2020 audition, I didn’t know how to play an F major scale. This shocked the Berklee professors, and I assumed I didn’t get in 😅 Despite how others felt about this, my experiences growing up self-taught contributed to many feelings of inadequacy; I not only had to fight through a very disadvantaged upbringing but didn’t even have a proper instrument to practice on growing up. I felt I’d never have the time nor resources to reach the level of musicians I admired, most of which had formal training most of their lives and attended conservatory. Little did I realize that this realization would push me to continue polishing my classical chops over time, but more importantly to explore improvisation and developing my own unique style. It can be so difficult to see the hope or the light at the end of the tunnel when we’re knee-deep in the moment. Just know that there is a reason for certain things that happen in life—the key is to learn how to embrace even the curses that are actually blessings in disguise. Never give up on your art, please promise me Video 10 -Ted talks We captured the most extensive and detailed rendering of piano playing in HISTORY.” 🎹 It still feels UNREAL that I played any part in this study and decided to post that video back in July. It is my hope that my data as well as that of other pianists will provide significant insight towards injury resistance, movement, and playing-related injuries for the years, and perhaps generations to come. 💙 I am proud of Hannah @haq.py for her resilience and passion towards not only music, but the sciences and how the two disciplines are more interconnected than we think. So much painstaking work put into turning this study into a reality and for not giving up on the idea. Pitching research ideas are not easy, getting funding is always a challenge. I can empathize with some of what that’s like from my time doing STEM. My friends inspire me each and every day to continue fighting for what I am passionate about, and to work to better the lives of others. Hannah’s full talk, “Conquering Movement: How Math Can Help Us Become Musicians” is on YouTube!! She will explain everything way better than I ever could!