Tap your toes, clap your hands — in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, learn to express yourself joyfully, with music. A seventy-eight-year-old cellist extolls the virtues of "amateuring" and jazz pianist Joan Wildman gives Judith Strasser a lesson in improvisation. Also, Peter Gay on the life of Mozart.

Joan Wildman, pianist and professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin, talks about the importance of improvisation, then is joined at the keyboard by Judith Strasser for an improv lesson. Also, Judith Strasser provides a commentary on learning to hold the bow as an adult beginner on the cello. And, amateur cellist Wayne Booth is professor emeritus of English at the University of Chicago, and author of "For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals." He tells Steve Paulson why he took up the cello, and why it's important to play for pleasure, not profit.

Pianist Russell Sherman tells Jim Fleming why it takes more than fingers to play the piano, and why some of the older pianists play Chopin with greater sensitivity than technically proficient modern tyros.

Novelist Vikram Seth ("an Unsuitable Boy," "An Unequal Music") tells Steve Paulson that he had to learn a lot about how string quartets operate to write his new book. He also reads an excerpt. Also, Peter Gay has written the life of Mozart for the Penguin "Lives" series. He talks with Jim Fleming about the importance of Mozart's father, Leopold, for both good and ill, in the composer's life, and says Mozart is a genuine genius.

Distribution dates:

• week of 6/17/2001 - hour 2
• week of 10/17/99 - hour 2