Happy Friday! Here are a bunch of quick thoughts before I get to work on a big freelance assignment:

First, I wanted to show you what my piano practice looks like, keeping in mind that putting a camera in front of anything changes it slightly. This is Mozart K332 mmt 2 Adagio, the same piece I played for you last week, but WORKING ON BEING EVEN MORE SPECIFIC:

In this video you can hear me trying to identify the problem with the ornament, but I still haven't figured out the central issue. (This is where some musicians make the choice to "just play it over and over and hope it gets better.")

In this video you can hear how much cleaner the ornament is after I identified, isolated, and addressed the primary issue (I needed to lead towards the penultimate note, which was getting blurred because I wasn't giving it enough time or emphasis).

Next up is that trill, which is still a bit smudgy towards the end.

SECOND THOUGHT

Have you read Roy Scranton's newest essay? It's called I’ve Said Goodbye to ‘Normal.’ You Should, Too. The piece will cost you a NYT click if you don't already have a subscription, but it's worth it.

(It also made me think that The Biographies of Ordinary People was now a book that described the past instead of the present. Their world — the world we all lived in prior to 2016 — will never come back quite as it was.)

(Which could also be a good thing, depending on where we go from here.)

THIRD THOUGHT

I don't know what to do about the comments yet

I am reading them

I am not responding to them

I feel bad

Feeling bad is a sign that something needs to change

Do I remove the ability to comment?

Do I set the expectation that the comment section is for you to respond to the ideas presented in each post (and for you to have conversations with each other) but that I will rarely comment back?

Do I build in time in my schedule to reply to comments?

WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO GET OUT OF THE COMMENT SECTION

I GUESS THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO LET ME KNOW

(I mean, there are probably many ways to let me know, you could email or Tweet or direct message me, but the joke is that you'll have to leave a comment)

(I am sure we all got that joke)

(let's move on)

Here's where I got published this week!

Bankrate

Why are there different types of credit scores?

Both FICO and VantageScore offer different types of credit scores depending on what information lenders are requesting and which credit score model is being used.

Haven Life

How to watch the big game during COVID

How to come together for the big game while still staying apart.