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Between the Notes: Essays on Living With Music

A collection of essays drawn from articles originally published on The Cross-Eyed Pianist and A Piano Teacher Writes… between 2010 and 2026.

What does it mean to live with music?

For musicians, music-making extends far beyond the notes on the page. It is found in the solitude of the practice room, in curiosity and frustration, in our relationships with teachers and repertoire, in the rituals surrounding performance, and in the lifelong process of learning, exploring and returning to the music we love.

In Between the Notes: Essays on Living with Music, pianist, writer and former piano teacher Frances M Wilson (AKA The Cross-Eyed Pianist) brings together a collection of essays exploring the inner life of the musician.

Drawing on more than fifteen years of writing about music and music-making, these essays consider practice and performance, interpretation and artistic autonomy, perfectionism and failure, the pleasures and challenges of amateur musicianship, and the intensely personal relationships we develop with particular pieces of music.

This is not a book about how to play the piano. Instead, it asks broader questions: Why do we make music? What does practising teach us beyond technical accomplishment? How do we develop an interpretation that feels genuinely our own? What does it mean to perform for others? And why does music become such an enduring part of our identity?

Written with warmth, curiosity and the perspective of a lifelong musician, Between the Notes celebrates music-making not simply as something we do, but as something we live with.

Frances Wilson…one of the best writers blogging about classical music

Rhonda Rizzo, writer & pianist

an important voice in the piano world

Peter Donohoe CBE, concert pianist

For professional and amateur musicians, teachers and students, and anyone curious about the life that exists between and beyond the notes.

Written with warmth, curiosity and the perspective of a lifelong musician, Between the Notes celebrates music-making not simply as something we do, but as something we live with.

Available in paperback and eBook.

BUY THE BOOK

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This site celebrates its 15th birthday this month, a fact I find slightly hard to believe. It began as a kind of online practice diary for me: a few years previously, I had returned to playing the piano seriously after an absence of a quarter of a century, and by the time I started writing this blog, I was taking lessons with a master-teacher and preparing for a professional performance diploma. I used the site to ponder issues and challenges around piano playing which I was facing myself, in the hope that others might find the articles helpful. Alongside this, were articles about repertoire, piano teaching (I started teaching in 2006), concert and CD reviews, and other more esoteric musings on the piano and those who play it.

Since then, it has evolved and developed into a kind of online magazine, with what I hope is an interesting variety of content, by me and by other writers.

But it’s not just about the articles. Through this blog, I have forged meaningful connections and friendships, both online and In Real Life (you know who you are!); I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of the great musicians of our time, at their concerts and other events; and, perhaps most interestingly (because this was never an intention), my blog has led me to my current role as a publicist working with classical musicians and music organisations – a role which has come about entirely through the reputation of this site. The blog has also given me other writing opportunities – as a reviewer for Bachtrack.com from 2011 to 2018, a contributor to The Schubertian (the journal of The Schubert Institute UK), Classical Music and Pianist magazines, a regular writer for InterludeHK (since 2015), teaching notes for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College London, and, more recently, programme notes for the Barbican and Bridgewater Hall. But it is this site where the writing journey began…..

I am enormously grateful to everyone who reads, shares, comments upon and contributes to this site. Without you, I would probably just be shouting into the ether…..

You have been an inspiration to others of us, and your site is rightly established as a leading page for classical piano news and views

PIANODAO

If you would like to contribute a guest article to this site, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you again for your support of The Cross-Eyed Pianist

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Music by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange

 

A big thank you to every one who reads, comments upon, shares and contributes to this site

Wishing you a very happy and music-filled 2025

Frances

The Cross-Eyed Pianist