Today I did my first Instagram livestream – I interviewed the wonderful violinist Sandy Cameron and we talked about life and music both on and off the stage.

I’m not showing you this as any sort of promotional gambit (it already took place!) but more to show you what I’ve been working on outside the blog (which is, frankly, a lot.)

I’ve been on social media fo years, and while I’ve been mindful about keeping in touch with fans and friends and colleagues, I’ve not seriously spent time on my online presence until the pandemic. All that changed when I suddenly had nothing to do, and I needed to find ways to be creative, to keep me focused on possibility rather than loss.

So I’ve done what I’ve considered doing for a while, but never had the time to do: migrated all of my Facebook followers from my profile to a newly created Artist Page, mastered the basic elements of iMovie video editing software, learned how to use various platforms for graphic design, started 2 YouTube channels, and began an interview series on Instagram.

I can’t believe I just wrote all that because 2 months ago I could do NONE of those things.

I was in conservatory when cell phones started to come to common use (to give you a frame of reference of what was normal to me in my formative years!), and technology continues to grow in ways previously unimagined. I would not have called myself in any way tech savvy, and wouldn’t quite say that I am even now, but I’ve learned a hell of a lot since all of this started.

I surprised myself with my willingness to learn, to feel awkward and incompetent as I worked on new skills, to fail multiple times at something until it made sense and I got it right. These are not things I’ve had to contend with for a long time – I was within a busy but familiar comfort zone of work and travel, where by and large I knew how to do everything.

But continued learning is crucial to me, and to all of us – it’s the only way we can keep interacting with an ever changing world. We all adapt, adjust, find new paths. And it turns out that you CAN teach this old dog new tricks.

Have you mastered a skill or learned something out of your usual experience since quarantine?

My task: friends, I’ve failed again. It’s 8:30 and I’m just now blogging! But my second task for myself was to get some sunshine today, and I managed a run in the park this afternoon (done!)