The greatest and arguably the funniest(?) thing about being a music major might be that one of my ways to “de-stress” is just to indulge in more music related activities. Since I am studying classical music in school, so much of my time outside of classes and practicing tend to consist of non-classical music related things.

1. Listening/Discovering.
I would say my music taste is extremely diverse- my current favourites include but not limited to Disclosure, Lianne La Havas, Mutemath, Gabriel Fauré, Kendrick Lamar and Sondre Lerche. But one of the things I love to do during the week is going through my “Discover Weekly” playlist on Spotify, which is a personalized playlist for each Spotify user updated every Monday. Despite being curated by a magical algorithm, it’s always interesting to see what the playlist has cooked up for me. Another way is just simply perusing through Youtube, Soundcloud or other music streaming services. Last year, I discovered Tradiio, a music app that essentially helps users discover new artists and by “investing” in their songs through virtual coins users can help the artist grow in the Tradiio “market”. (There used to be various “missions” that users could complete and earn badges and more coins but it seems that the feature is no longer available in their new version.)

And one can’t forget the good ol’ fashioned way of finding new music- through means of friends with great music tastes. It’s even better when they have different tastes than you, or when they’re going through a phase that is completely different from your current music obsession.

2. Reading.
Because listening and hearing music isn’t enough, I have to read about it. I do love reading, and so when time permits (usually during holidays and breaks) I will try to pick out books to immerse in some more music literature (which are actually geared towards classical music… or jazz!). But mostly, I love vulturing on my Feedly app. Feedly lets you collect and organize blogs, articles and/or websites into categories of your own choice and updates you on any new “feed” that the source may have posted. Some sites I try to follow closely with are: NPR Music, Cuepoint on Medium and MindShift.

3. Improvising.
I find that it’s just as important to learn improvising as a musician as it is to master the next etude or Beethoven sonata. I am not good at improvising, but it is definitely something I’ve been exploring on my own the past year. Some of the best times I have with music actually happens to be when I’m jamming out to some of my favourite songs or trying to compose a short piece on the spot within the comfort of my own home or in a practice room. That being said, one of my favourite practice rooms in the music building happens to be the one with the Yamaha AvantGrand where one can control the volume to the quietest possible if one desired. From time to time, it just feels so refreshing to see what I can CREATE as a musician rather than trying to interpret a hundred year old music.