Here is, or will be, the main body of this website. I want to share what I know, and what I have observed; how I have felt about learning; how I have felt about the music, and playing; how I have learned; those insights of Lubomyr's, distilled as best I can, that I have gathered, and my own. Studying this music is strange, and (for me) very unlike studying the classical piano. It is lonely, it is incoherent; I have had to patiently wait for, and impatiently clutch and grab, meaning from the keyboard and what Lubomyr has said. In these essais, and piece-specific lessons, I hope to make it easier to get into and maintain hope in this music; I want to make it easier to avoid core mistakes or misunderstandings; I hope to say what Lubomyr has already said but with a different voice, so that you might have a greater chance of picking something up.

This is extremely non-academic. I would almost be embarrassed if someone who knew me from university, or school, would read this. But as Lubomyr and I keep  saying, everything important about this music is slippery and escapes words. It is very hard for me to describe the nature of my own progress to myself, although my progress has been enormous; it is harder still to describe any of this to someone else, one who cannot absorb my feelings.

Nothing said can be understood until it is found in practice. What is said is said only to guide the practice. Also, nothing that is said is absolute. I think it is necessary to learn to hold various "incompatible" ideas in your head at the same time, with this music, and calmly apply them at different moments; in a similar vein, I know from experience that quotations of Lubomyr's can be resisted, because people think he is making an absolute statement or some witty remark meant to stand the test of time, where instead they are just sentiments relevant in a context, and you have to find that context for yourself.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, much of the 'knowledge' of continuous music becomes very subjective, very bound with one's own physical experience, and difficult to put into words - very difficult. I am certain that I will sound vague, and repeat myself, in these subpages. This is necessary. When I first read Open Time, I learned a lot and was greatly influenced. How? To a significant extent, by hearing the same similar ideas again and again, expressed and re-expressed in various poetic and personal ways (from Lubomyr) and gaining an increasing sense of those ideas' importance, so that I might make space, in my own thoughts and practice, to find those ideas for myself; I found those ideas, but I did not find any specific straws to clutch at. What might disappoint you is that continuous music has little in the way of earth-shattering tips (there are some, of course, but even general rules may be broken).

This is also a personal thing, something like a journal. I will try to write as clearly as possible, for a general audience of potential students, but as the loneliness of this task and the music itself are both so very personal I will inevitably put much of myself into these pages; I hope this will not a problem. I fear being perceived as coming off a bit strong, as if I am making basic points overly serious and shrouding myself in obscure language for no reason... Sorry! But I can't do it any other way. Becoming used to Lubomyr's own way of speaking has, in fact, been quite helpful for me as a pianist. Why should language affect the music? Well, let me just say that some people would not find that surprising. Language is thought, and when thoughts are cloudy we require cloudy language; there is a danger is gesturing too specifically, at making a point too fine: nothing is fixed - like I said, there are almost no super-general, sweeping, concrete tips that I can give. As I have learned, I have had to coax myself through (and revisit) various foggy things, and this is what I think you must do as well.

What are the categories?

• There are some standalone essais: "getting started" (the purpose of that one is clear), and some others; the others can be returned to at any time

• The subsection "On Lubomyr's philosophy" contains essais on ... Lubomyr's philosophy, which is a loose thing that is essential to the music, whether you believe it at first or not. These essais are not about specific technique, or even about what you should have in your mind as you play, but more about understanding what Lubomyr means when he discusses more nebulous ideas and spirituality and why it is important to try to make space for this. I think it is less important for a new student to dig into this - it took me years to start to appreciate these points. 

• The subsection "On the two modes" discusses the two main 'types' of continuous play and their differences. Continuous music resists categories, but it does not resist ideas and organising concepts; these two modes, static-position and arpegge, engage the mind in different ways, and the new student should only play exercises and pieces in the static mode. Both sections will contain discussion of their individual techniques, especially the section on arpegge since it is much more difficult that static-position

• The subsection "On the playing of specific pieces" does what it says. I will hopefully get permission to upload some scores of Lubomyr's pieces and discuss how to practice and perform various exercises and full pieces, what one can learn from the pieces and when one might be ready to play them

• The subsection "Miscellany" is the largest one. This is where I put all the essais that randomly occur to me, stray thoughts that I felt (at the time) were important to record; I gather as much of what I remember Lubomyr saying, and as much of what I have observed during my own experience, as I can. Much of the discussion of technique, ideas and misconceptions can be found here