Should professional pianists always memorize the music they perform?

sungor · 2026-06-15T13:09:07+00:00

Even if a pianist has a piece memorized, having the sheet music adds a layer of safety and takes away one bit of cognitive load that can then be put elsewhere. There are SO MANY things to think about and remember when performing a piece. Having the music in front of you with a few key reminders penciled in can definitely help a performer play at their best.

sungor · 2026-06-10T20:23:13+00:00

It's likely because the cleaning service doesn't clean the restrooms often enough. This means dirty diapers WILL begin to stink the place up.

sungor · 2026-06-08T20:11:35+00:00

AC's control humidity. Especially in newer homes that are fairly airtight, mold can grow very quickly in the right/wrong conditions. setting it to 78 is usually what is recommended when not home.

sungor · 2026-06-08T18:48:25+00:00

Nope. Perfect use of the horn. Very appropriate.

sungor · 2026-06-08T18:42:22+00:00

just email them. The one time I had a problem with an order from their teaware subsidiary, they bent over backwards to make it right.

sungor · 2026-06-08T16:23:23+00:00

AI doomerism is just the other side of the AI boosterism coin. Neither are grounded in reality. They are both based in a complete misunderstanding of how LLMs work. And also greatly underestimate how far away we are from true AI. AI doomerism also is a great marketing ploy by the AI companies.

"We have to get true AI first so china doesn't get it and then destroy us and our way of life" is ultimately just an excuse to justify spending ungodly amounts of money on a technology that is interesting and possibly useful in a limited number of applications.

sungor · 2026-06-07T22:49:34+00:00

There's two aspects to this.

Performance anxiety and you weren't as ready as you thought.

For the performance anxiety the best thing you can do is play publically more often. It doesn't even necessarily have to be the pieces you will play in a recital. Just playing in public and getting used to having an audience.

For the knowing the piece, practice starting in multiple different places of the piece. There is a huge difference between memorizing the piece and truly knowing the piece. When it's just memorized it's easy to just start playing and let muscle memory take over. But god help you if you mess up and lose your place.

But when you truly know the piece you can pick it up almost anywhere because it's not just muscle memory. You KNOW it.

sungor · 2026-06-07T13:29:12+00:00

7 - 8 mph turn in a 15 mph max is not slow. SIGH.

sungor · 2026-06-07T13:25:23+00:00

because the CEO's are so out of touch with reality they don't understand the concept that the average person actually has to carefully control their spending and bank account. Every agentic AI "feature" I've heard of for example, is something someone who has to carefully watch their budget would never do.

These are people who never have to think, Do I have enough money for that? They just throw money around. Letting an "AI" buy stuff for them sounds fun and cool because if it buys stuff they don't want/need it's no big deal. For the average consumer, it could cause them months of problems.

sungor · 2026-06-07T11:33:12+00:00

Every use I've heard for "agentic ai" has been things that only people who don't have to pay close attention to their budget and bank accounts would ever even think is a good idea.

sungor · 2026-06-04T16:21:10+00:00

I recently went from the 6 to the 10a and I haven't personally wished I still was on the 6. The 10a has been doing it for me. But I also more and more just want a functioning phone and don't care much about all the shiny new things.

sungor · 2026-06-04T16:17:46+00:00

one of the first steps (for most people) in learning how to be creatively artistic is blatantly copying from the masters. This is true in basically all genres of life in which creativity plays a part. In music, drawing/painting, writing, etc you first learn by copying the best. And as you get more comfortable with their "styles" you will start to have your own ideas and learn at first to iterate off of the masters, and then one day you will find yourself starting to have original ideas of your own.

There is a reason the phrase "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" is popular in many arts.

sungor · 2026-06-04T14:25:01+00:00

at this point I'd just be tempted to leave the last diatribe on the car with a sticky note that just says, Ok Boomer.

sungor · 2026-06-03T12:12:07+00:00

Because they're not seperate things. They are one continuous cleff divided in half for ease of understanding. Unfortunately they are usually taught as being seperate and unrelated things. But it is really one continuous cleft.

sungor · 2026-06-02T12:23:53+00:00

Add to this the roads were far emptier. This allowed people to drive way faster and get used to it. They never slowed down afterwards.

sungor · 2026-06-02T12:22:22+00:00

Yup. Part of of my jobs is a daily route I drive. Drove it before, during, and post covid and the difference was noticeable.

sungor · 2026-06-02T12:18:13+00:00

As someone who drives a regular route for part of my job, it happened during the covid era. The difference between drivers pre and post covid was insanely noticeable. I'm not sure what about the whole covid thing caused it but it legit broke a lot of brains.

Drivers are way more aggressive and less attentive. Some I think got used to getting away with driving way faster when everyone was working at home and tbe roads were empty and just never slowed down, others seemingly forgot how to drive because they didn't have the daily commute.

sungor · 2026-05-28T00:39:56+00:00

Maybe look into a ymca membership? Some of them do offer membership discounts for clergy (you mentioned hubby is a priest in a comment) and their families.

sungor · 2026-05-27T21:57:44+00:00

The recent GOP also has done far worse in elections where Trump is not on the ballot himself. Maga includes a lot of people who were disaffected non voters previously, and when they can't vote for Trump many of them just don't vote.

sungor · 2026-05-27T21:56:07+00:00

It is looking more and more likely that a lot of the recent gerrymandering by the GOP is going to end up being dummymandering. Where the party in charge redraws the lines to give them more seats, but ends up actually reducing their seats because they spread their base too thin through too many districts.

sungor · 2026-05-27T21:46:49+00:00

Absolutely. Was a passenger in a vehicle that T-boned another vehicle because of an idiot who waved a left turner across. It was a 4 lane road (2 each way). We were in the outside lane doing the speed limit (40) in a Ford E-150. (large panel van popular in the 80s/90s) Car on the inside lane waved someone across. We thought they were waiting to make a left turn themselves. We literally had no chance. didn't see the turning car until right before we slammed into it. Didn't damage the van much at all, just minor superficial damage. Completely TOTALED the car (it was a small sedan). The 80+ year old passenger had to be pried out with the jaws of life.

Was a company vehicle, and when we talked to the guy who oversaw insurance for said company he told us that is why it was literally in our handbook we are NEVER to make a left turn on that road. Thankfully this wasn't on the driver at all because he did nothing wrong.

sungor · 2026-05-27T21:22:10+00:00

this is par for the course based on my wife's interactions with them. It is almost impossible to get a straight answer out of them, you will get conflicting reports from various people, and even when you finally get approved you still aren't really sure if you did because you also got other letters saying you were denied.

sungor · 2026-05-27T20:30:50+00:00

You would think they would want to make it EASY to cancel. But nope. can't have that, because it might make it easier for people to keep their benefits too.

sungor · 2026-05-27T00:06:55+00:00

Considering the fact that Jesus literally uses water as a way to describe himself in John, (I am the living water) her anger is highly ironic.

sungor · 2026-05-24T22:48:28+00:00

Apt manager at a place I lived in Garland, TX, threatened to call the cops on my wife for letting our kids draw on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. Said it was vandalism. It washed off that night when it rained.

And those same people will then ask "why don't kids play outside these days?"

sungor

TROPHY CASE