Kate Paine: Discovering Music

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Kate Paine: Discovering Music

Practical skills, resources, lessons, and encouragement: newsletter, online & in-person lessons

29/05/2026

Some creative projects are like the spiky tree in front of my window, the one I need to prune before it starts to attack us instead.

They start out manageable but then slowly become impenetrable, stretching out in all directions, and eventually becoming so overgrown I can’t find a way back in.

I have two strategies for bringing them back to life, and both require a willingness to get out my metaphorical gardening shears and make some cuts.

For more, check out this week’s Creativity Helm newsletter. Link in bio.

27/03/2026

I sit down at the piano, play a chord I like, and then try something different.

It's a gloriously unpredictable process, and, occasionally, in the middle of all that uncertainty, something gives me the chills.

Chances are I'll never be able to play whatever it was the same way again. But it was there, and I'll remember the feeling, if not the notes.

This week, I'm writing about goosebumps, creativity, and why the best moments are so often the ones you didn't see coming.

Link in bio!

20/03/2026

My Kindle has about 1700 books on it and it always weighs exactly the same, whether there's one book on it or a thousand.

The same is true of people and the invisible library of ideas each of us has in our head. From fragments of music, sentences that stuck, half-remembered conversations, to things that moved you for reasons you couldn't quite explain.

This week's newsletter is about that invisible library, and why creativity is about trusting what's already there as much as coming up with something new (link up top)

20/03/2026

When my daughter was a baby I made up songs all the time because it was fun and I loved seeing her face when I sang to her.

Around the same time, the ‘Mozart effect’ had parents everywhere playing classical music to their babies in the hope of making them smarter and more creative.

But new research suggests babies don’t need a head start at all. Our brains may arrive in the world already tuned to rhythm, play, and creativity.

This week’s newsletter looks at what this means for all those adults who don’t think they have a creative bone in their body (link up top)

06/03/2026

When I was in grade five, my teacher Mr Jones taught us the most effective way to use coloured pencils.

Start very lightly, he said, because once you’ve gone too dark you can’t go back to light again. It’s the difference between steering your creation and just letting it happen.

These days, his words often come back to me when I’m teaching students about light and shade in music and creativity.

And this week’s newsletter is about how his advice still influences how I take responsibility for the trajectory of everything I create.

(Link in bio)

27/02/2026

The temptation when someone asks me to play or sing something is to dive straight in.

Too often I'm halfway through the first melody before realising, even as I'm playing, that it's too fast, too loud, too something. And it's also too late.

This week's newsletter is about how I’ve learnt to pause before the first note or the first step, and why taking a moment before you begin can transform the way you create (link up.top!)

20/02/2026

I have a habit of playing far too many notes when I first sit down to create something at the piano.

They spill from my fingers, float up into the air, fall into my lap like crumbs, threatening to flow out of the music room door and down the stairs into the kitchen.

The urge to fill every gap is strong, as if more notes mean more certainty, as if I can control the outcome simply by adding enough.

Even as I'm doing this I know it's too crowded, but I also know this is just part of the process. And I know I’m getting close when the music can breathe, and so can I.

This week's Creativity Helm newsletter is about what creativity looks like before it's finished (link up top!)

13/02/2026

We've been watching the Olympic ice skating.

Comfortable couch, peppermint tea, watching with awe as they glide, twirl, jump, pirouette, spin...and fall.

When they fall we scream and cover our eyes. But they're usually up again, often with the next breath, back into their routines as if nothing happened.

Falling isn't failure, not when you manage to get up again.

This week's Creativity Helm newsletter (link up top) is about how that ability to move on from a fall is exactly what I work on with my music students, and why creative confidence isn't about avoiding mistakes but about trusting you can stand up again when they happen.

06/02/2026

When my brother and I were kids, we had a Humpty Dumpty game.

Big blue plastic blocks and a cheerful, chubby Humpty. Build a wall, place Humpty on top, then take turns removing bricks until he falls off.

These days I talk to my music and creativity students about brick walls quite a lot, but this time it's all to do with building them instead of knocking them down.

I tell them to think of whatever they’re creating as a wall they're building.

Slapping bricks together won’t cut it, but choosing to work on individual bricks will.

This week's Creativity Helm newsletter is about building music and creativity one brick at a time, and how agency appears when you choose what to work on and how (link in bio)

30/01/2026

He bursts through my door, up the stairs two at a time despite my protests.

'Kate, I practiced it slowly, just like you said, and it worked!'

We high five, do a little dance, and get on with the piano lesson, but inside I'm buzzing.

Students think the goal is to play as fast as possible, like a race to the end. But when that's the goal, there's no room for choice.

Speed takes over, all agency goes, and creativity has no space to breathe.

This week's Creativity Helm newsletter is about the power of slowing down, no matter what you’re creating, and allowing space for skill, confidence, and creativity to grow.

(Link kn bio)

Adresse

Meilen, Kanton Zürich, And Online
Meilen
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Webseite

http://www.discovering-music.com/, https://katepainediscoveringmusic.substack.com/

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