Dear Friends,

It's the day after Commencement at Butler University. The past couple of weeks have been filled with farewell rituals and gatherings. Four of my piano students graduated this weekend.

One of them, Cora, will be starting her master of music in piano performance and piano pedagogy at Southern Methodist University in the fall. She had her pick of programs, auditioning at six different schools and getting accepted with full rides at all six!

Another student, Sally, finished with her master's in piano pedagogy last December and has been teaching and working as a collaborative pianist ever since. Bella completed a five-year double major in music education and piano performance, and Michael is heading into a position at a local high school alongside piano lessons, church music, and jazz gigs around the city.

All four of them have shared with me their own plans for continuing to practice and take lessons, and tackle musical projects that will push them to continue growing.

I have seen my students develop over these years at Butler into the assured musicians they’ve become. This commencement weekend, I've been reflecting on the fact that the progress they made was not always visible while it was happening. Hour by hour, week by week, and semester by semester, their hard work and experience accumulated, until - ta-da! Here we are at graduation day!

For most people reading this email, today is just another Sunday in May. Most of you are not ending an academic year this weekend! But there are things to learn here that can apply equally to all students of the piano, whether young or old, experienced or novice.

Based on survey results and emails you've shared with me, I get the impression that quite a few of you feel, on a regular basis, that your practice is not as fruitful as you'd like it to be. You're working away, but your playing is not improving the way you want it to.

As an educator, I can assure you that this feeling is almost never an accurate picture of what is actually happening. Progress at an instrument is not linear, and it is sometimes invisible in the short term. It accumulates gradually, and then one day you play something and it feels different: easier, more natural, more musical. But you can’t point to the moment it changed… because there wasn’t one.

The word “commencement” means the beginning of something. Even though this was a weekend of goodbyes, my graduating students did not finish. The ceremonies marked the beginning of the next stage of their life’s journey. They’re taking everything they have learned here at Butler from me, my faculty colleagues, their friends and their experiences, and carrying it forward into whatever comes next.

You're doing the same thing every time you sit down at the piano. Each practice session is a beginning: a fresh start, where you make a small deposit into the bank account of skill and awareness you're building.

For those of us in academia, this is the beginning of a new season. Summer is here, classes are over, but the fundamental work still remains.

As you’re practicing this week, I invite you to think back to what you were playing a year ago and take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come since then. Then, cast your mind forward another year, imagining what might be possible for you still. And then: commence!

👋 Happy practicing,

Kate

🎹 Stay Connected:​
🎵 I am working on a new scales course for pianists who already know or once knew their scales and want to level up. Click here to join more than 750 other pianists on the waitlist. Now that the academic year is over, I hope to have it completed by mid-July. (Joining the waitlist just means that you're waiting for me to finish creating the course, not that there are people in front of you in line.)
​🎹 Do you know piano students entering grades 7-12? They can come to Butler Piano Camp on the campus of Butler University from June 15-19, 2026. [More info and registration.]​
​📲 Follow me on Instagram. I share updates on my teaching, performing and practicing, as well as practice and technique tips. ​
​📺 Subscribe to my YouTube channel.
🎓 Interested in studying at the undergraduate or master's level with me at Butler University when I return from my sabbatical in August 2027? Reply to this email!