Yes, I mean “New” not “No”. I’ve been playing violin for almost 40 years; these strings are already firmly attached.

While I love being recognized as “that guy who plays violin on YouTube” or “that tech guy who Wreck-it-Ralph’s through problems”, I don’t want to limit myself to these identities. My career is maturing; my kids are watching. Both are getting bored.

So how does mastery in one domain speed up learning in a new one? Can decades of violin discipline accelerate piano, Mandarin, even cooking?

New Game Plus is gamer shorthand for starting a quest over with all your accumulated skills intact.

That’s what I’m testing: how existing skills transfer to fresh, new domains — starting with piano.

String: Piano

I started teaching myself piano during COVID lockdown: five years of daily practice, propelled by violin discipline. When my parents gifted us the family grand piano earlier this year, I thought I was ready. My dad bought that Steinway in the ’70s: the same keys my siblings played Chopin on, the same bench I sat on as a kid, unable to keep up. Turns out, ivory keys require much greater sensitivity and balance than electric ones.

My ear transfers perfectly; I can tell immediately if the notes are right, just like with violin. My practice routine transfers: break the piece into measures, play slowly, adjust. But my hands? My left fingers are stronger than the right, sometimes causing the accompaniment to outshine the melody.

Sightreading is brutal; reading two clefs simultaneously is no joke. Muscle memory exists, but it’s fighting against 40 years of string tension. I have to unlearn violin habits while building new ones. Four decades of mastery — but on piano, no one can tell. The strings are attached, but they’re waging a tug-o-war.

Piano is a natural second quest for me. Mandarin is, too, but for a very different reason.

String: Mandarin

I grew up hearing my parents speak Cantonese with each other, but never with us. I felt left out visiting relatives, got teased at school for not knowing “my own language.” The shame stuck. Four years ago, I decided to finally learn — starting with Mandarin on Duolingo.

I can hear the different tones clearly, the musician advantage. After hundreds of hours of input through podcasts and Netflix, I’m starting to recognize common patterns by ear, like 真巧啊(what a coincidence) and 杀死我了(scared me to death) which have direct English equivalents…

Read the full essay on Substack →

This essay continues with sections on Cooking and Writing, exploring how violin-trained discipline transfers (and doesn’t transfer) across completely different domains. I publish the complete versions on Substack, where I document experiments in skill transfer, New Game Plus thinking, and building in public.

Subscribe there to follow the journey.

Originally published October 3, 2025 on Substack