Episode Podcast and Video Leah Roseman:
Good morning, Megan Jerome.
Megan Jerome:
Good morning, Leah Roseman.
Leah Roseman:
Thanks for joining me. You are a singer-songwriter, pianist, teacher, unusual teacher, I would say. And I'm so glad you've agreed to share some music with us. So can we start with a song?
Megan Jerome:
Sure. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So what are you going to sing for us?
Megan Jerome:
Okay. I'm going to start with Flora, if I make it through the whole thing. And it's a song that I wrote based on a Marc Chagall painting. I always get song inspiration from something visual and Marc Chagall just totally speaks to me. So this is a painting of this lovely lady in. So what I often do is just put the painting right in front of the piano and think, what does it sound like to be here? So that's what this is from. (singing).
Leah Roseman:
Wow. So beautiful. And so whimsical.
Megan Jerome:
Thank you. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. There's so much going on. Was it always easy for you to play such complicated things while you're singing?
Megan Jerome:
Well, I think I really worked on the arrangement for that, probably at the chords first and then figured out a piano part. But I like singing and playing at the same time. Yeah. I think that's the easiest. It makes me more nervous just to play something instrumental. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And do the lyrics come with the melody or does that happen separately for you?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah, they all come together. There's this really nice method, and I had it and then I also took this great songwriting course by Pat Pattison and it's online, I think it's called Writing the Lyrics and he even specified it more clearly, but it's really, I was into it anyway, but it's a really beautiful way to do it. So there's, maybe with Flora, it would be like, okay, what am I feeling? Flora. And then I would just look in the source. What are some of the words? And the source that I use is called Roget's thesaurus. And it's all thematical.
Megan Jerome:
So if you're looking at flowers, then it might be in organic matter. And so then it's like, oh, that's cool. So then that will lead you down something, and then you find something that rhymes and that will lead you down a different path. And so I think all kind of like, yeah, I go around in circles and I record a little bit and improvise what I'm singing and then some melody will come because of some words. And then, yeah. And then I'll just also just sing anything, just if a melody is coming, then just go with the melody and sing anything. Or if words are coming, then just go with the words and find a melody later. But yeah, I think they go together.
Leah Roseman:
What is this Roget the source you refer to?
Megan Jerome:
Do you want me to get it?
Leah Roseman:
No. Well, I'm just curious.
Megan Jerome:
Here.
Leah Roseman:
Wow.
Megan Jerome:
I brought my stack of books. Okay. So it's this guy. I'll put that one there and maybe I'll put these guys here. It's this. And-
Leah Roseman:
Oh, thesaurus! Okay. Yeah, I never...
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. But the way that it's organized is like... So it's in categories, like emotion, religion and morality. Or another category will be reasoning process or something, organic matter. So it really, really sparks all these wild connections. That's what I... Yeah. Yeah. It really inspires a lot of writing. Because it's not just like other words for flower, it puts it in this whole category. So then I think, "Oh, well, maybe I'm really feeling something else." And I meditate on something that i, if a word pops up in a category, yeah, it feels like it's wildly creative a little bit.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Oh, there goes our dog. Okay. Now I'm back.
Leah Roseman:
So for those people listening to the podcast who didn't see, you brought a huge stack of books back to piano, what were the other books?
Megan Jerome:
Okay. So the first person that... Okay, Rob Frayne was our teacher at Carleton and he taught jazz, but he knew that I was a songwriter, even though he was my jazz teacher. So he recommended this book, which is called "The Songwriters Idea Book" by Sheila Davis. And I don't know when she wrote it, but I've barely read, honestly, more than the first 20 pages. And 20 years ago. Somebody told me, "Oh, yeah. I went to a workshop you gave 20 years ago, Megan." And I was like, "Well." And I'm still talking about the same book and the same set of questions. So she has a method where it's like before you write down a song, you've got to figure out all this stuff first. Like who's doing the singing and how are they feeling and where are they exactly? Describe the room. What are they wearing? What are they eating for lunch? Who are they talking to? Who's there? You really place yourself.
Megan Jerome:
You don't have to say all those things, but once you've answered them and then some other amazing tips, like your whole song should be able to be summarized in one easy sentence and then keep it everything simple. It's the same principles as writing anything. And a friend of mine was telling me that it's exactly the same stuff that anybody practicing for a monologue do, an act would do. You just get really, really specific and then it really helps you. So often what will happen, so that's that. I have a rhyming dictionary. So this is not cheating.
Megan Jerome:
Well, this is the new version of the thesaurus. And I also just have a regular dictionary, the Oxford Canadian Dictionary. So I love, I mean, I used to take dictionaries on my ski trips. I just, I love, love words. I've always really loved words. So this course, the Pat Pattison course, it took everything even a little bit further. He was saying, "Say, you want to..." I could sing the song for you later. It's called "Home Brew". So I took this course and it was a bunch of titles and you could choose one and "Home Brew" seemed way out of my comfort zone, not what I would usually write about. But okay, I'll take that up.
Megan Jerome:
So then you choose some themes like home, so then I look it up in the thesaurus. So it's like resting place, nesting. And it's like, "Oh, that's so beautiful." And then brew like a golden brew or a honey brew and then light. It would go in that direction. So then what are other colors of light? And then you can choose some songs that or some words that are going to be thematic in your song. And you can find words that rhyme with that. And then the words jump out. Anyway, so all of this stuff, nothing makes me happier than sitting around, looking up words that I might be thinking about and then waiting for a feeling of like, "Oh, yeah, that. Oh, that'll be beautiful. Oh, that. Definitely that." And then just work them out, and what's the story that you might want to say or what's the... Lots of my songs are vignettes, I think. The visual aspect. I find it so joyful just to really pinpoint what is it that I'm seeing? Or what is it that I'm feeling?
Megan Jerome:
And so Pat Pattison, it was so beautiful to take this course because he was saying, "Yeah, these are the tools of your trade as a singer-songwriter." And I hadn't really taken any singer-songwriter courses. I'd taken classical piano, I'd taken jazz, piano, and I've made my way as a singer-songwriter, but it's only a few summers ago that I took that course. And I thought, "Oh, my people." So yeah. So those are my... They're all around me when I write.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. And so actually it'd be great to hear "Home Brew", but you can do that later-
Megan Jerome:
Okay.
Leah Roseman:
... too, whenever you'd like. If it's on your-
Megan Jerome:
Sure. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
... mind. Do you want to just give us Home Brew. That'd be cool.
Megan Jerome:
Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Home Brew. I'll have a little coffee, a little home brew. (singing).
Leah Roseman:
Gorgeous. Thank you so much.
Megan Jerome:
Thank you.
Leah Roseman:
You've written a lot of love songs for your husband, Mike Essoudry.
Megan Jerome:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And that song was particularly evocative for me having... We're living through this pandemic now where we've been confined to our home so much.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think so. I just watched this really beautiful talk by this woman named Sonia Choquette through this association called Alternatives, which is in the UK and they're presenting all these teachers that I really enjoy. And that's what she was saying. She was like, "Yeah, yeah. We needed it." I think she was almost saying we needed it to get into our bodies and get into our homes and create.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Now this piano you're playing on is very special to you.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. My parents gave it to us when we got married. It was there. I grew up on it, and yeah, when Mike and I got married, they gave it to us.
Leah Roseman:
So what were Sunday nights like in the Jerome household growing up?
Megan Jerome:
Fun. Really fun. My mother made a roast beef every Sunday, big roast beef salad, bread and butter. And anybody could come. If the winter, if we were all skiing, you could come or in the summer, if we at the cottage in Sudbury, it would be like if anybody was on the dock you'd just come in and sing. My dad played piano for hours. He played by ear standards, American songbook standards. And my mother loved to sing and my brothers played guitar and everybody sing and danced and cried and drank and ate like a big family. Family hoedown sort of. Not a hoedown, but yeah, something like that.
Leah Roseman:
Your dad was a politician. In fact, he was a pretty well-known Speaker of the House for a while, but music was obviously huge for him.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah, it was. He loved piano. And that's what he did at home. He didn't even have an office at home. He was the Speaker, he was a lawyer and then he was an MP in Sudbury and then he was Speaker of the House of Commons. And this is the piano that he played. Every night he would just pour himself a scotch and have a cigar and just play for hours. And yeah, my parents gave me piano lessons when I was really little.
Leah Roseman:
So because you learned by ear in the family, was learning to read music a little harder or did it come really naturally to you?
Megan Jerome:
Well, I think it's all in context. I think I started when I was little, like five and it was easy. Right now I teach a lot out of students and I can see, and Mike is the same, he teaches a lot too. And I know you teach too. So I think growing up when it's easier for you, and then you teach a lot of people, you realize, "Oh, okay. It was easier for me than it was for a lot of my students." There's middle C, and then I knew middle C for the rest of my life. I don't think I had to review what note was what, it was just really easy to remember what was what.
Megan Jerome:
And that's definitely not the case for a lot of students. But then if I think about, say when I was in university and I was hanging out with the people who go on to become classical pianists, I'm nothing like that. You know what I mean? That spongy, absorbing, memorizing. It always took me a year to learn the pieces that I learned from my Royal Conservatory. So it was not that easy, but easier than the kids who never do Conservatory. You know what I mean? It's all relative. The friends that I had at Carleton who were real classical pianists were playing all of the preludes and fugues. And I could play one or two, maybe.
Leah Roseman:
The continuum, I think, like a lot of things.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. I think so too. Yeah. I think so. And I think it's... It was certainly enjoyable. So the nice part about the way that my family was with music is that the home stuff was all just songs that we sang, and it was all playing by ear. And then as far as my parents were concerned, reading was just gravy. That was just great. They were just so excited about it. And my dad used to say, "Megan, you should teach piano lessons because you can teach people to read. You can teach them to sit down and play. This is what people really want to be able to do." So I think that was the really special part is that they liked both, and they thought it was really nice to have both. That it was really, yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And you do love teaching?
Megan Jerome:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And if I understand correctly, you made a conscious choice instead of trying to be a touring musician, which you did a little bit of, it was like, you know what? I'd rather be a homebody and just produce my own albums. Is that correct?
Megan Jerome:
It is. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is. My parents were in their 40s when I was born. And they both died when I was in my 30s. And now I'm in my late 40s. And so I think that I had a sense that I didn't want to leave them. I wanted to be close to them. And I was like, "Yeah, that's right." By the time I was 37, I think my mom had died and my dad had already died before that. So it was I didn't want to be away from home very often. I had a feeling that my time with my parents was going to be limited. It was going to be more in the early half of my life than later on. But I think it's also in my nature. I think it's totally in my nature to be more homey than toury.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I think so too.
Leah Roseman:
And you also play accordion?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I haven't played in a long time.
Leah Roseman:
Okay.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Is it easy for pianists? I understand it's similar enough. I've never tried myself to play the accordion.
Megan Jerome:
Oh, yeah, the function. Yeah. The right hand is the keyboard. So if you do nothing in your left hand, then this is exactly the same. That's not hard at all. And then when I had one, I went into Dominic's who was selling accordions at the time and I said, "Well, I'm great in piano. Where should I start with the accord He was: "At the beginning." Doesn't mean anything, but it was really, really fun. So I got all the, yeah, just the books for kids, beginner accordion books. So you're playing middle C. And so it was really, really fun to work it up. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So why did you stop
Leah Roseman:
... playing accordion?
Megan Jerome:
I think it hurt my shoulder.
Leah Roseman:
Oh, okay.
Megan Jerome:
It hurt my shoulder. So it's uncomfortable. The accordion that I have is heavy. And I think too, it was just sort of, even if my songs are simple, I have a lot of facility and tone on the piano, which like we said, it's a real continuum, but it does take your whole life, for me. To develop your sound on your instrument. And so at a certain point, I thought, "You know what? I think this is really where I'm expressing what I really mean."
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
It's just one of those things where it was like, I don't want to practice. This is really where I'm from, I think.
Leah Roseman:
Do you still have your Wurlitzer?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I do. Yeah. Yeah. It's from the '60s, 1962 or '64 or something. Yeah. And that's great. That's what I play when I do gigs outside the home. I play on this Wurlitzer that I have.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So your band, The Together Ensemble, first of all, what a great name for a band.
Megan Jerome:
Thank you. That was Fred's idea. Fred Guignon.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yeah. There was an election going on. It was just on an election sign to get together on a song. It was: "Together, Ensemble!"
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Right. Of course.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So you've produced six albums and they're almost all your own songs. Is that right?
Megan Jerome:
They're all. Yeah. All my own. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. That's really something. Are you working on a new album?
Megan Jerome:
I am, yes. I am. I have all the songs written. And "Home Brew" will be on one.
Leah Roseman:
Okay!
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yeah. "Home Brew" is new. I've got all the songs. I've got all the... Yeah. I'm just waiting. Yeah. Yeah. I think a recording is totally in the works. I wanted to wait. Because it's like I'm homey, my CD releases are a total big deal to me. So I just wanted all this COVID and all the concerts being canceled and everything. I don't want to do it because I just want to wait and have a nice concert.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
When everything is a bit clearer.
Leah Roseman:
But into terms of performing during this pandemic, you've done some pretty unusual online shows, haven't you?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Well, I just did one with the Ottawa Dance Directive, which is a contemporary dance company. And that was really fun. And that was really fun. There was a cocktail instruction and then we watched a dance film and I played some songs. Almost like a cabaret or something. Yeah. I've done some private shows for people that have asked for concerts and then just, I filmed some little videos on my own. Yeah. Yeah. Irene's had online concerts. Yeah. I've tried them.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And do you jam with Mike in the house? Is the Wurlitzer downstairs with his drum set, or?
Megan Jerome:
No.
Leah Roseman:
No. (laughing)
Megan Jerome:
No jam. No. No. Do you guys play duets? Do you and Mark play duets?
Leah Roseman:
We did a bunch at the beginning of the pandemic because we did some online and porch concerts and then we stopped. It's like, yeah. We're just doing our own thing for sure.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. We do like when Mike... He'll come in a songwriting process. I often show him a song when I'm nearly finished it. And he has great ideas about... And because he is an artist too, he doesn't say something like, "Well, that sounds dumb." He has a really good sense of where, when you show someone a sketch you have to be so careful about who you show. We collaborate in that way. And then I'll be... But in terms of like a... No, we don't really jam together. I'm not an improviser.
Leah Roseman:
You do improvise though, don't you?
Megan Jerome:
Not really. I mean, I went to school for it, but no. I don't really.
Leah Roseman:
Well, okay. Let's say not in a jazz sense, because I know you don't consider yourself a jazz artist so much as other people, but you make stuff up all the time. You're constantly creating.
Megan Jerome:
Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. It always just depends. Yeah. It just depends on the context. Yeah, that's right. That's right. But in terms of yeah, like we don't just go down and work out ay on a chord progression.
Leah Roseman:
Standard.
Megan Jerome:
... or something.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So in terms of your creative routine and keeping your sanity, especially during this time of isolation, has your routine changed at all or is it what you had really worked for you through this time?
Megan Jerome:
Well, in terms of it's hardly difficult. Other than the difficulty that obviously is happening for people in the world and the reason for it. I don't mean to discount it, but in terms of being at home, doing my thing, it's like heaven basically. It's really easy. So I think creative pursuits are so nice for that. I think the thing that changed in terms of my routine, is that I started to take online courses by Julia Cameron, who is the author of "The Artist Way", which is a book that I love, love, love, love, love. So I found the same people who just presented, Sonia Choquette also have a link to Julia Cameron. So that's been different. I've taken maybe four online courses with this woman who I hadn't really considered going to New York or going to somewhere to learn from her, but I've really, really enjoyed that leadership because sometimes that's where I'm seeking lessons from now.
Megan Jerome:
Not necessarily piano lessons or... I've had some. But sometimes it's more like that. Not religion, but a creative thing. She really links spirit and creativity. And that really suits me. So it just deepens that. But no, all those other interests are like I love doing things around the house. And so does Mike. So we love cooking and I guess we started eating dinner together every single night, lighting the candles and making it nice. So that's really nice, instead of something, that's been really, really... So just fleshing it all out. Making our house feel nice, eating dinner together, trying new recipes. We've been branching out creatively.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
But practicing is true. It just feels so nice to practice.
Leah Roseman:
What does your practice routine look like as a pianist?
Megan Jerome:
Well, it's really varied. It depends on what's going on. Right now I'm practicing my Bach, the Inventions and some Mozart, I love Debussy. And that feels really nice. I haven't practiced classical piano in a long time. That feels really... And I mean, when I practice, I'm really, really, really specific. I practice in six minute segments for no longer than 20 minutes at a time, take a break. Because it's really focused. And I write songs the same way, no longer than half an hour at a time, but usually 20 minutes at a time. It's kind of light. In terms of hours at the piano, whether I'm songwriting. So then if I have a gig I'll be working on my songs, but it's still just a little bit. Just 20 minutes and then I'll take a break and read or watch a film or something, go for a walk, come back. So it's not heavy. I keep it really, really light and really clear. Am I playing or am I practicing. Does that make any sense?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I'm curious with your students, do you have older, teenage students that find it hard to balance schoolwork and practicing? What advice do you give them?
Megan Jerome:
Well, yeah, one dad told me that he gets his two little boys to practice for two minutes every day. I know. I mean, they're not going to make it to the NAC. But they've got ADD, they're these young little boys, they've got tons and tons and tons of energy. But their dad teaches, I don't know, astrophysics or something. Really, really bright parents. And so I think what he's finding is just a routine. All I want you to do is set up a routine. And if you focus... And then they practice and they learn and they're motivated and they come to the lesson and they want to show me. It's like that. The people who come to me, it's really, if I sense that they're serious about classical piano, I send them right away to somebody else because I'm not steeped in that world. And the people who are, it's such a beautiful community and there's a whole other... When I was a younger teacher, I used to say, "Yeah, yeah, we can do classical. We can do whatever." And then the older I get, and when the pandemic started and I started looking at who else is teaching online? Because any of my students can go anywhere in the world. And so can I.
Megan Jerome:
So then I started realizing, "Oh, it made it easier to go, oh, no, the people who are teaching classical are so into it." If they're doing the exam route, they've got these really well thought out strategies, but how do you get 90 on your exams? I never got 90 on the exams. Or how do you get ready for a university audition?
Megan Jerome:
So the students who come to me are often the kids of parents who had classical themselves in something strict and they've all quit. So what they want, that's my niche. The kids who come, the parents just want their kids to have fun. They just want to have a foundation. So to answer that question, I'm very, very, very light on it. But I do try and get just anything. Just anything at all. Because if you practice, then you won't quit. And if you don't practice, you definitely quit.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
I don't know. How do you manage it?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, it's interesting. I tend to teach students that get pretty advanced, but they don't go into music. But my goal for them is exactly not to quit so that they will have this wonderful memory of violin lessons, and hopefully it'll stay with them their whole lives. Because violin's a very social instrument. You can play chamber music, orchestras, so I hope that for them. But I don't teach different styles. I teach classical and I just find, I don't want it to get stale. So even if they're not practicing enough, which they rarely do, is just always try to give them something new to try. So to keep it moving and lots of performance goals as well. So that's my strategy for keeping it bubbling along. It's hard though.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. No, it's the same. That's what I find too. I play a long game with them. So there's a whole bunch of students that I've had that start when they're eight and I leave them, they leave because they're going to university when 18. And then what they can do at the end often is they can play Moonlight Sonata and they can play the classical hits, they can play something from the radio. Some intermediate piano thing that they can download. They can copy something from YouTube. They can learn something by ear. They can improvise. Yeah, I shouldn't have said that I don't improvise. I do. I do improvise. Just not in a jazz style.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. You're right. I'm totally making up stuff while I'm talking. That's improvising. So I get on my... They have that. And so absolutely, there's tons of... My mother used to say, "Now, for the love of God, Megan, do not be one of those angry piano teachers." My parents were really... She was like, "Listen, nobody wants piano lessons. No kid likes piano lessons. You're just going to make their life worse. You're not going to make them practice. So just at least, make it fun." So yeah. So there's lots. I totally go in that direction. If it's going well in the book, then we go for the book. But then we just add a little, okay, let's do a little bit of improv. Yeah. A little bit of a whole bunch of things and keep it... Yeah. I do the same. Very, exactly... Keep it moving.
Megan Jerome:
So that's what I find, it's like at the beginning, I'll just say, "Play anything." And of course it just sounds like they just do anything. But that's what a five year old drawing looks like too. And then you keep doing that, and by the time they're 18, it sounds like an 18 year old's feelings. As you just teach them skills and you go, "Okay, well, here's a C chord. Put the pedal down." And then like, oh, oh. The ones who love it are like, it is beautiful. Chords are beautiful and music is beautiful. And the pedal is beautiful. So yeah. Yeah. That's good to know.
Leah Roseman:
So you said you use visual inspiration and it sounds like storytelling is part of that. Do you use that with your students as well?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Yeah. So one of our, this is a great trick that our friend learned, Peter, who's the artistic director of the jazz festival now. So he and Michael and I all met at Carleton in the jazz program. And Peter went on and he did a Masters at the New England Conservatory in Boston in jazz. And one of his teachers there, they were talking about intervals in ear training. And he was saying like, "Don't..." Okay. So there's your major second. So don't just think, na, na, na, na, major second. Think raindrops falling from the cloud or like a man in a blue coat on a red bicycle. What's the image that comes to you. So I turn that into a game with my students play an interval until you have a picture and for lots of them, that's like, " could be "Rah". Okay, so then growl. You feel like a growl. So then they draw a little picture of a growl and then they'll put the growl up on the piano. And then now you growl on the piano using seconds. So yeah. Yeah. Or the-
Leah Roseman:
Really... So cool. I didn't mean to interrupt, keep talking.
Megan Jerome:
And then it's so fun. It's so personal. Then you, "Oh, that sound. That feels like that to me." And then how do you... Yeah. It's so fun. I mean, it's so fun. Because then you can do second, third, fourth. And then they have a suite basically. There's seven pictures across the thing. But that can be anything. We can do that with triads. We can do that with... Or it can be like, I give them all just blank books. We call them creativity notebooks. And so one thing might be just go home and for a week, pick up anything you love, it can be a gum wrapper or a pen or a leaf or something you can touch that you really like, wrapping paper. And then you put it in, wrapping paper at the top and then make some wrapping paper music. And they do, they really do.
Megan Jerome:
And then as long as you keep doing it... And food is another one. Kids really relate to food. So one girl, the ice cream, yeah. I mean, her composition was... And she wasn't, what I find too, if there's one aspect of teaching that somebody doesn't do week after week, I used to, when I was younger, I used to just let that go. And now I realize, "Oh, no, they just need more help with that." So sometimes that'll be composing or sometimes that will be somebody just they're like, no, no, I didn't make a song. I didn't make a song. So then we do it together.
Megan Jerome:
And it's like that's what I find too, is that I'm more consistent in my teaching than I used to be. I used to think, "Oh, maybe the shy kids don't like to improvise or they don't like to sing or something." But I think everybody, I'm more consistent, personality... Because I find it's not such a predictor. Lots of quiet kids like to sing. They just need a little bit longer or they sing so quietly, you can't hear them. But eventually they sing a little bit louder if they want to. Especially if you don't ask them to sing louder.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
One girl I have right now, every time I ask her to sing louder, I don't hear for the rest of the lesson. I have to make a little note, "Do not say the word loud." I mean, as long as I don't say it, she'll forget that she's singing. But yeah. Food. So yeah.
Leah Roseman:
How has your teaching changed that you've gone online for that?
Megan Jerome:
Not at all. Totally not at all. At first I thought, oh, we're just... I mean, online, I was placing the little ones, their hands more often. So that's definitely hard because they're right and left. That's what I'm working on. A lot of the little kids up, down, right, left. They're getting turned around. I find that. I find the little kids right now are disoriented. They're like, "My right or your right? Backwards for me or backwards for you?" Because I guess it's not all mirrored. But at first I was thinking, "Well, you can't be creative over Zoom." And then I just started saying, "Well, that doesn't seem..." I maybe at first we just needed to get used to it. So I was really, really focusing on the notes and then they had to get oriented on their own instrument. So that is actually a real benefit because I hadn't seen where they were playing before. So that's really an advantage.
Megan Jerome:
Reading is great because now I had to say, "Measure one, measure two. Line one, point to it." So there was a lot that I had actually taken for granted that I was positioning them. But now they're, it feels like a real slow down, but the truth is they needed this information anyway. And then I just decided, "Well, I'm not going to wait until..." I guess at first it was like, "Well, if this is only going to be three weeks, why will we even bother?" But then that's really not the way. It's been so long. But I thought, "Well, I might as well just do what I always do." So I've been doing it, just even if there kids that I've never met I just say, "Okay, now tell me a story about..." Often even if they're wearing something, I've got this new little boy and he'll be wearing a shark, "I'll tell me about your shark t-shirt." And then, "What does a shark sound like?"
Megan Jerome:
And then sometimes there's just delays over Zoom. So it's like there's the delay when you finish asking them and they absorb it. So it seems like they might not be about to make up something, but often they're just thinking about it. So he's telling me stories on the piano about a shark and the shark eats the grass and the grass is growing taller because now it's in the belly of the shark. Or hockey. They're in a hockey jersey, we play a hockey game on the piano, one team's here and one team's here and then they meet at the ice and who's dominating.
Leah Roseman:
Wow.
Megan Jerome:
Anything like that. You can look around their room, what's important to them. Tell me about that painting. Did you make that painting? Did you... So really, in the end, I haven't... The only thing I think is that if I have a student that I've never met in-person, a sense of trust is harder on Zoom. It's easy in-person. The second they come into our home, I'm sure it's like 90%. You know what I mean?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
I'm on their side and they can trust me, they're not going to get in trouble at a piano lesson. So sometimes that takes longer, the personal. Not always. Some kids are totally there right away over Zoom, but there's others that it takes longer to build trust, that's what I find.
Leah Roseman:
Have you had older students come to you who are a bit traumatized from their previous experiences?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I mean, I guess everybody who was coming back still loved it.
Leah Roseman:
Music. But maybe with the... Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. Or they could do a whole bunch of exercises, but they don't really know what they mean. There's a student that I have now in her 60s, and she's so excited to learn what the harmony is behind the thing. And then there's a whole series of books by this guy, Forrest Kinney, and it teaches improvising and arranging, right from the start. Not like you need grade eight and then a jazz degree, and then. Literally the first lesson, just on black notes. So she's really, really excited about that. But I don't think she has... She doesn't have a bad memory of classical. She loved her classical lessons. She just has now come back as an adult and it's just like the way it happened, that somehow she found me and the way that I teach is this other way, that includes these other... And she's really, really...
Megan Jerome:
And also she's got a bunch of arthritis. So playing faster, harder pieces, that's not what she's about right now. It's just more like, but she's really excited about that. Or like "Happy Birthday" or like, "Oh, Suzanna", how do I make up a left hand to go with something?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. So she wasn't... Yeah. I don't think she had a bad experience, but I think she's really excited about a different way.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So it sounds like you took your mother's advice really to heart, no one is scared of their piano teacher. And when you lost your mother, you went to New Orleans for a whole month, right?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah, I did. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
I'd be really interested to hear about that trip. It's such a unique musical culture.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. It was so Rob Frayne, who taught us at Carleton, came to the door one day. I mean, he's a friend of ours, he just dropped in. And as I opened the door, he said, "Megan, I think you'd like it in New Orleans." Okay. And then not long after that, my mom was dying and the nurse and I were in the room with her. I mean, not imminently, but just my mom was sleeping and the nurse and I were just in the room reading our books and she looked up and she said, "I'm reading this book about New Orleans, Megan. And I think you would really like it." And then I went out for dinner that night and my cousin and Mike both showed up wearing t-shirts that said New Orleans on them.
Leah Roseman:
Wow.
Megan Jerome:
And then that week I went to the Heart & Crown on Preston Street where I'd been going with my friends for every Thursday night, there was an R&B band, Jeff Rogers and the All Day Daddies. Actually, I don't know the name of his band, but Jeff Rogers for sure was playing. And this funk band on Preston in this Irish pub was so great. And Cirque du Soleil showed up. Members of the circus showed up at midnight at this pub, and they started dancing on stage and they were in town, rehearsing for the circus. And one guy was just a friend of the circus, traveling around with them. And he said, "I think you'd really like it in New Orleans, Megan." I'm like, "Come on. All right. All right, I'm going, I'm going."
Megan Jerome:
And so then when my mom died, I was so sad. And I mean, I had obviously super oriented to my parents. And I thought, what am I going to do? So I wanted to put something, I recorded all the songs I had written, because I thought, "Okay, well, the songs that I write after this would be different for me." It was a really... And I wanted to put something to market because it was really different. And then yeah, so I went for a month because I had never done anything like that. I'd never traveled by myself for a month and I'd never... And all these people said to go and I was at the hairdressers and I was like, "What am I even going for?" And he was cutting my hair, he goes, "The food and the music." And it's just such the perfect place. I stayed with this woman at her house, in her Airbnb and every morning we had coffee and she really knew her way around and she lived in this really arty neighborhood.
Megan Jerome:
So she would just drop me off downtown in the morning, and she knew all the cooler places to go, but it's just like, you don't even have to have a plan. You just walk out the door and something is happening and you're going to meet somebody and they're going to be, "Oh, you should hear this." And then you just go hear that. Or if you walk into a bar, the bartender's going to talk to you or the waiter's going to talk to you or you walk into it. I mean, it's maybe all different now. That was like 10 years ago. But it was just soothing.
Megan Jerome:
And there's somebody else who did the same thing, after her divorce. Another artist. A writer that I know, who at a cocktail party, we were just talking and she told me, "Oh, yeah, after I got divorced, I went to New Orleans for a month too." I said, "What did you do?" And she's like, "I don't know. I just wandered." "Oh, yeah, me too." It's a very, very spiritual place. Super musical. And the people that are friendly are so warm and this one time... And it's not big. So it's not big at all. There's Frenchman Street and there's Bourbon Street are the two big music streets. Frenchman is a little more independent maybe, and Bourbon is a little more commercial. But Frenchman Street is just a few blocks along. So you can just walk around. It's not long before you see the same people over and over, especially if you like a certain scene or something.
Megan Jerome:
So I remember this one guy, I was walking along the river and I was like, "Oh, I don't want to keep walking by the same people because I don't really feel like talking to somebody." And he saw me the next day and he pulled me aside and he said, "Listen, I've seen you. And you just look a little sad, are you okay? Do you need anything?" Are you serious? He's like... "Because I've got friends, we have a backyard if you need it." Just like that. Just, oh my gosh. You can't believe that kind of care and grieving.
Megan Jerome:
So the Sunday thing that you were asking me about, when we were young, my brother died. He was 22. He was in a motorcycle accident. It was Canada Day, which is my mother's birthday. Really sad. Very, very sad. My brothers and sisters were all in their 20s at the time and I was 12. Because I'm younger. But that idea of music, the weekend after he died, somebody lent us their cottage and we went and... I mean, we had always grown up playing music, but we did also play music as a family after Joey died as well. So that's part of that Sunday thing for my family is we were laughing and or crying. It's both. It's both together. And Joey's wake, we were laughing and there were drinks and there was music and we were... And crying. You can be sad and really happy at the same time.
Megan Jerome:
And I feel like that's the spirit. I feel like that's also the spirit in New Orleans. That's a city that knows a lots of grief. Anywhere in the South knows a lot of grief. But in New Orleans there's also that music and there's a real connection between living here while you are in the moment, remembering the people that have passed and you're grieving while you are alive, so you're going to celebrate. But you're also sad. It doesn't make you miss the people who've gone any less, nor does it make you sit around. It's like, "No, I'm going to party and I'm going to cry and I'm going to laugh and I'm going to enjoy myself."
Megan Jerome:
I mean, every single, almost every Sunday, there's a second line, even now. And it's like for hours, five hours, you follow along brass bands. You can just clink your bottles and people are bringing drinks and you walk for, I don't know, 40 minutes, then you take a 20 minute break at some little corner bar and then yeah. And then you do it all around the city. So every Sunday, people play music and sing and dance and cry and walk on the cars and the trees. And it's amazing. It's amazing. So it really feels like living. It felt so good. And then we went back. I mean, Mike and I have been like eight or nine times since then.
Leah Roseman:
Okay.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
We nearly bought a house there, which I don't know. I don't know if we should have or not. I don't think so. We're very, very, very happy to be here. But yeah, we loved it. We loved it.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I was finding out more about the... I knew it was the birthplace of jazz, but this thing, that it was the Spanish and the French. So the slaves were treated horribly, but they did have this freedom on Sundays to keep their traditions from Africa alive in Congo Square. So that was really interesting to learn about that.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. And I think that's the... Yeah, there's a real mix. That would've happened too, I would say to someone, "Well, I'm from Canada." And they'd go, "Oh, you speak French. Oh. I didn't expect..." So there's a connection. There's a connection to French. Yeah. Spanish. And there's a real Caribbean feel. But yeah, I think so too. I think it's looser in terms of, that's right, in terms of a spectrum and ...It still wasn't... Still a terrible situation in terms of racism, but it was more common for White people and Black people to mix and be together.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
And I think it's always been a friendlier place for gay people. I think it's much more liberal. I think it's always been in that feeling.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. And that's like... We have a friend there and I mean, I've had so many, so many, so many amazing experiences. The first day that Karen dropped me off into New Orleans it was just after a small hurricane, it wasn't a big one. People were coming back in, but it was pretty empty. The French Quarter was empty, right after Labor Day. I went for the month of September. And I was wandering around, and at first I was exhilarated, I'd never done anything like this. And then I was in a bar and it was like, okay. I was listening to a singer-songwriter, she was fantastic. It's like US, the talent just of somebody singing in a bar in one of those musical cities is like, "Whoa." It's pretty. That's my experience, very mind blowing. I've come across mind blowing musical talent in the most humble situations.
Megan Jerome:
So she was amazing. Her words are clever, her time is fantastic. Her singing is so good. There was three or four of us in the bar and it's like 4:00 on Monday afternoon. I'm laughing, and she's so great. And then suddenly I was crying. I'm like, "What the hell? Megan, it's 4:00 on Monday and you're at a bar, by yourself what are you thinking?" So then I was crying, I'm like, "Well, I'm so lonely." And then the chef comes out and the waiters gather around and he explains the dishes that he's going to make that night. And he's like cares so much about the sauce and the butter. And then I'm like, "Oh, they're so creative that I'm so happy."
Megan Jerome:
And then I go out in the street and then it's raining. I was so lonely and crying. And then a band pops up and they start playing. And there's like three of us on the street and a brass band is playing and it's raining. And it's amazing and I'm on the street dancing. I was like, "Okay, there's a lady. She really gets me." So I feel like I have this moment with this lady across the street, understands me and we're dancing, and then I look closer and it's like, "She's homeless. I'm going to be homeless." And just like, woo. These crazy, crazy, crazy up and down.
Megan Jerome:
And I had written a friend of mine who lives there, who is a fringy character, but a very talented musician. And in this moment of distress going like, "What is going on with me? What am I even doing here?" And he said, "Do not worry about it. Just be you, no one is going to be... Be your crazy self. Do anything you want, it's New Orleans. No one is going to judge you here. No one is going to..." There was this beautiful feeling of we've got your back and it's okay. We've been there. It doesn't matter what you're going through. We've been there. We've got your back. And then he had these other expressions that he would share with me like, "You have to get ugly in order to praise." That was an expression that he's like, "That's a real New Orleans thing." That it's like you can't be your whole self if you're trying to look your best all the time. And that's that looseness. I think it goes in with that. There's a looseness that feels good.
Leah Roseman:
Did you do any jam sessions there or open mics or anything like that?
Megan Jerome:
Well, no, not jam sessions. I played a couple of songs once in the afternoon, at this bar called The Spotted Cat. But no, not really. No. I mean, I guess maybe... Yeah. I mean, I played with some friends on the doorstep of their house. That was really fun. A neighbor and some friends. Yeah. Yeah. But it wasn't really musical. I mean, I was dancing all the time.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I mean, it's so good, the live music all... Yeah. So I mean, that's what I really did. I just went out dancing constantly. From 4:00 in the afternoon until 2:00 in the morning or something. For 30 days in a row. It was really fun.
Leah Roseman:
And when you came back, was your songwriting influenced by all the music, that style of music?
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. I think part of coming back was sad. Because I'm not from there. So I guess you can move there. I mean, within the States, I think it's a lot easier for people. Obviously it's a lot... I think it is easy. I think-
Leah Roseman:
Oh, okay.
Megan Jerome:
The people that I talk to, the way that they talk about moving is like, "Well, maybe I'll try this or maybe I'll try this." They move around. And I think it's quicker. What changed when I came back? Yeah. I think so. I mean, I think I wanted to make sure that I was paying attention to groove and paying attention to rhythm. And the bands, the albums that I recorded after that, yeah, that's when the band started with Don on the Hammond organ and guitar and yeah. So a fuller sound and a conscious effort to ha... Yeah, totally, a conscious effort to have a groove that somebody could dance to if they wanted to. That I would enjoy dancing to. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
But also, yeah, it caused deep artistic questions. Like what's the difference between a Canadian artist from Ottawa and somebody born in New Orleans? We sat around this one time and talked to a guy in one of the bands and I said, "Oh, how did you choose trumpet?" He's like, "Choose?" He didn't even understand my question. He said, "My brother has a trumpet."
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
First of all, there's no choice. You just, I don't know, like you're born playing... Everyone in your house, if you're going to play music, there's music everywhere in your house. There's music all day long. So even a sense of choosing an instrument, it's not even in this guy's radar. It what we have at home. Or it's what my brother does or it's obvious. That's different. That's really different than for me. I mean, we had a piano and my parents gave me piano lessons in a way. I didn't have an array of instruments to choose from, but there was a like a born into it. So it's like, "Okay, well, I can't copy that."
Megan Jerome:
So Mike and I went through a real thing, and he went through that too. He had a brass band. Mike had a brass band and he was composing music. And at one point his brass band opened for a brass band from New Orleans in Newfoundland. And he said it was exhilarating and also a turning point. Because when you're there and you realize, "Oh, these kids have been playing together since they were like five or six and they practice on the street. This is their play." So they're playing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, every single night they're playing together all together. So it's really, really cultural. But I guess that's also part of the thing about the choice is, it's not even a choice.
Megan Jerome:
So then how did it influence my music? It was like, "Okay, well, who am I? I'm not that. So I don't want to try and be that. I'm Canadian." So we also have European influence. We have American influence and we have European influence and we're new. So I felt like that was like, I can draw on that, but I don't have to try and be that because I can't be that. I can only be... So yeah. Those are some of the artistic questions like, "How do I exist now as an artist after I've seen that?"
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
What does it... So I think that's, yeah, a definite intention to have a real groove that I would feel like dancing to so that I could entertain myself with my own band. And then also just those other questions. Okay. But I don't want to try and make a pastiche of a New Orleans style song because I'm not from there. Even though I'm moved, my spirit is from there, but I want to just...
Leah Roseman:
There was one thing I meant to ask you about was why did you do mining engineering in university?
Megan Jerome:
Oh. That was so strategic. It was like... I mean, my parents, when I told... So in high school, I was in high school in the '90s and it was a real women in science push in the name of feminism. So our hallways were lined with posters, women in science, women in science. And I was good at math. I enjoyed math. I liked English. I played the piano at home. It was I took classical lessons and I'm nowhere near a classical pianist in terms of that. So it was like my classical piano teacher, I'm a musical person, but he's like, "I don't think..." He said, "If you thought you would do classical piano, you would know."
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
I took that to mean no. Basically. Like okay. And then it was just strategic. I didn't know what to do. But there seems to be this real underlying message, if you are a feminist, if you think of yourself as a leader in any way, science is the way to go, you better prove it. So that's this twisted message that I got.
Megan Jerome:
And so then I basically found, "Okay, what's the hardest program that I can get into?" Because I thought, "Well, I don't know what else to do." So engineering at Queens, that was the hardest program I wanted to go to Queens. My sister had gone to Queens. I had this real mythology. So I went to Queens for the weekend to visit the daughter of my parents' friend. And she lived in a house. There was someone in commerce, someone in arts, someone in engineering. All girls. And the one in commerce was friendly, but not that fun. The one in arts was bitter, really, really bitter. And that was my impression at the time, my arty friends in high school, they wore black and they were angry and it didn't suit my personality. And the girl in engineering was sunny, friendly, did extracurriculars. I was like, "Okay, that's my..." So it was a personal connection.
Megan Jerome:
And then when I went to Queens, I made all these great friends. And we played music, we jammed. All my engineering friends played Neil Young on the couches, on their porches. And we played in the back and they loved the way I sang and we wrote songs. So it was like the way that they played music, it's my favorite way of playing music, in a casual... Well, it was then. And then the reason I chose mining was just like, I thought I was going to be a lawyer. And it was just like if you're going to go to engineering the easiest, well, it just seemed like the smallest program.
Megan Jerome:
But it was second year, I didn't really... The first year is a general year and it was really fun. Engineering's really hard. And mining, it was just like I was just going to get an engineering degree. I didn't plan to be an engineer. I was just going to get it because it's a great degree. If I thought I was going to be in law, it would stand out. That's what I thought. Had I done a general arts degree, that was just a strategy. And I thought, "If this doesn't work out, I can go to English. But if English doesn't work out, I'm going to hop into engineering."
Megan Jerome:
So that's what happened, I really, really loved the people, but I didn't love the opportunities. I mean, I even worked in a mine one summer. And my parents would call me every day and go, "You can come home anytime." They were baffled. We come from this liberal arts family, nobody... I was just trying to do the hardest thing. That's what I was doing. "What's the hardest thing? I'm going to try that." And then, then I came home and I went to Carleton and it just worked, suited me a lot more. The music department at Carleton then, you could do jazz, piano or classical. And even within jazz, they would let me write my own songs. Now there's singer-songwriters. Now it's really open.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So what advice do you give young singer-songwriters when you mentor them?
Megan Jerome:
Well, I try to really help them connect with their own intuition and their own what do they... And I try and figure out what they want. People like Lynn Miles also, there's different paths. It's the same thing that I do with classical, if I get a sense that there's a singer-songwriter who really wants to get on a record label and tour, then I say, "Well, I don't know those connections." So in that sense, I help them. What is it that you think you want? Let's find somebody that is doing what you want. And talk to them. I think that's the best advice really.
Megan Jerome:
One of my students was so clear about it. She said, "I think all singer-songwriters, the best that we can do is just talk about the way we do things. That's it." And then somebody else you're talking with can go, "Oh, yeah, I think that might work for me too." Yeah. It's pretty loose. And the thing is, what I encourage people to do is, "Don't do the competitions. Don't do anything like that. You can set up a venue in your living room. You can set up a venue anywhere. There's room for everyone. There are so many potential venues. There are so many people who love music. There's so much room." That's one of the big thing, this idea that there's room for one person, this is a real fallacy. It's nothing like that. Artists are friends. We're not competing with each other. We're on the same side. But that's in my view. You know what I mean? Those are the people that work for me. A community really works. Who's your community? Go to their shows. They'll come to your show. Stuff like that. Find a way to make some money.
Megan Jerome:
My happy place, I think is teaching as a living and then playing piano or... What I was going to say about music, and one of the reasons it comes to an end in terms of the engineering part was when I realized that I was like, "Okay, well, I'm not a serious classical musician, but I'm still really serious about music. So I'm learning all my scales and I memorize all the words and I've got all the chords memorized. I'm singing in tune." I want to be with people who want to work this hard on music. It doesn't feel like work. You just feel like listening and immersed. I guess that was probably a real turning point where it's like, "This is really fun, now I want to find the people who really want to be immersed in music. This is where it's at."
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Megan Jerome:
Yeah. For me. And then it's the same. I think with singer-songwriters, I just really, really discourage people from thinking of it as a competition. But I also encourage them to find a way to make a living that feels really great. Because then you have a lot of freedom. Then you have a lot of freedom in your music.
Leah Roseman:
Well, thanks so much for your wisdom and your generosity in sharing your music and all your perspectives. It was really great talking with you.
Megan Jerome:
Thanks, Leah. It was nice to talk to you too. Thank you.
