Tune Yourself on Piano

A tuning practice through improvisational sound

Living out of tune

Can be so painful.

But you don't have to know.

You can play a different note

and listen for your song.

Not as a technique to master, but as a way of orienting to what’s actually present.

Tune Yourself on Piano is a structured, improvisational piano practice that supports listening, trust, and authentic expression over time.

The Threshold

A place to pause

Before choosing anything, you’re invited to slow down.

Not to evaluate options or decide quickly...
but to notice what’s present.

What you’re carrying.
What you’re drawn toward.
What feels steady, uncertain, or quietly asking for attention.

Rather than asking which path is better or more advanced, we begin with a simpler question:

What kind of support are you needing right now?

This isn’t about who you are in some ultimate sense, or who you should become.
It’s about this moment along the way... and what would feel most supportive as you meet it.

You don’t need the pressure of choosing an “optimal” path.
An honest one is often more liberating.

What are you bringing today as you encounter this page?

"It felt welcoming to me.  Okay.. there’s no judgment here."

  • - Anne M.

New here? Playing the Fields is the shared orientation and place to begin.


→ Piano door (Playing the Fields) 

→ Tune Yourself on Piano: Core

The Shape of the Work

Tune Yourself on Piano uses simple improvisation as an interface for learning how to listen, choose, and create with trust.

All containers share the same foundational approach:

  • listening while playing

  • simple, repeatable improvisational structures

  • noticing patterns and responses

  • returning rather than pushing

Sessions take place at a regular, agreed‑upon rhythm, depending on the container you choose.

A session typically includes:

  • time to arrive and settle

  • playing on the piano

  • reflection and integration

The emphasis is not on covering material or reaching outcomes, but on staying with what’s present.
The structure is steady, so your attention can rest.

At the Threshold

A Note on Learning & Progression

While the core practice remains consistent, the learning does unfold over time.

As the months progress, the relationship between:

  • permission and structure

  • freedom and form

  • simplicity and complexity

gradually shifts.

Early work emphasizes orientation, safety, and trust.. learning how to listen and respond without pressure.

Later, the same listening skills are applied to a wider musical territory. New harmonic relationships and choices are introduced gradually, always in service of presence rather than performance.

Eventually, the work focuses on integration: how musical ideas can be revisited, developed, and carried into longer arcs — in music, and in life.

Nothing is rushed.
Nothing is layered on before it can be held.

This is not a linear curriculum in the usual sense —
but it is a coherent one.

The progression follows capacity, not ambition.

"I became less focused on being correct, and more on listening, feeling, and playing."

Jan

Commitment & Choice

Each container has:

  • a clear entry point

  • a defined duration

  • and a transparent commitment

Choosing a container is not a promise about the future.
It’s a decision to show up within a structure that can support you now.

If one option feels like a quiet yes, the next step is simple.

If you’re unsure, feel free to reach out to me to talk what might be the best fit before deciding.

There is no pressure to move faster than feels right.

To set up a call to chat, you can schedule that here.

Who’s Holding This Practice

I'm Daniel Barber (Two Trees), and I bring to Tune Yourself on Piano decades of experience as a professional musician, band leader, and ritual leader working in a wide range of musical, ceremonial, and community settings. I was also a musician and actor with an improvisational theater company, carrying responsibility for musical and relational space in environments that require presence, responsiveness, and care.

Alongside my musical life, my earlier work in social services, research, political activism, and nonprofit media deepened my awareness into how people navigate uncertainty, transition, and inner conflict. In midlife, while moving through my own period of questioning and loss, I returned to the piano and discovered improvisation as a practical, embodied way to listen, choose, and move forward without requiring certainty.

I am a certified guide with the Rite of Passage Council and an ordained Jubilee! Minister of Music and Ritual. Since 2015, I've been refining these lived experiences into Tune Yourself on Piano, a sound‑based mindfulness practice rooted in listening, improvisation, and trust.

The Containers

Different durations, same practice

Tune Yourself on Piano is appropriate for pianists at any level of experience.

The containers are not sequenced by skill, but by time, continuity, and how much space you want to give the work in your life right now.

Musical territory does expand over time, but always in service of listening and integration, not advancement for its own sake.

Duration reflects capacity and appetite — not seriousness.

Core

Foundations of Listening & Trust

3 months

A place to land

A consistent, grounding container focused on repetition and reliability.

The work returns to a small set of core practices over time, offering a steady way to settle, orient, and reconnect with what feels true.

This may be right if you’re:

  • wanting a clear, steady container without over committing

  • seeking grounding, orientation, and trust

  • integrating music alongside a full or changing life

  • curious about the practice, but not ready for a longer arc

Musical orientation:
Foundational improvisation & physical orientation

This container supports:

  • ease across the keyboard

  • sustained physical and auditory orientation

  • using sound as a steady point of reference

I’m so much more forgiving with myself.
Melinda Toney

$130/mo

Billed quarterly - $390

→ Continue with Core

Steadiness
Foundation & permission

Journey

Exploration — Listening in motion

6 months

A flexible container that invites movement, curiosity, and play within a supportive structure.

The work follows what’s emerging, exploring variation and contrast while staying rooted in the practice.

This might be right if you’re:

  • feeling ready for something new

  • curious about your edges

  • navigating change and wanting support while you move

Musical orientation:
Harmonic fluency & expressive choice

This container supports:

  • developing greater harmonic freedom

  • recognizing and responding to recurring patterns

  • allowing insight to settle through practice

I’m watching something unfold in me that I’ve never seen before.
Danita Banko

$110/mo

Billed semi-annually - $660

→ Continue the Journey

Exploration
Fluency & expression

Quest

Integration — Sound as companion

12 months

A long‑range container oriented toward coherence over time.

Practices unfold across months, allowing sound, meaning, and relationship to mature and integrate into daily life.

This might be right if you’re:

  • seeking depth over time

  • wanting a long‑term relationship with practice

  • interested in the piano as an ongoing companion

Musical orientation:
Integration, repertoire & collaboration

This container supports:

  • playing and adapting previously written material

  • replicating and responding to improvised ideas

  • exploring relational and collective musical contexts

It's natural. I don't have to struggle to find it. It is now part of my way and it's guiding the way I interact in life.
Dana Williams

$90/mo

Billed annually - $1180

→ Engage with Quest

Integration
Continuity & collaboration

Payment plans are available... reach out if a different rhythm would help.

Closing Orientation

You don’t need to decide today.

You’re welcome to sit with this, revisit it, or listen a little longer. Often, remembering what’s been quietly present for some time, is gentler than trying to decide something new.

Whether or not you choose to work with me, there is value in attending to the quieter voices. The ones that don’t demand attention, but don’t disappear either.

You might take a moment to ask yourself why you’re reading this now.

Why this invitation, at this point in time.

It may be that who you are right now, in the context of the world as you’re experiencing it, is asking something of you.

Not urgently.
Just honestly.

The work will still be here.
Steady.
Attentive.
And waiting.