Life plays a Note, and we dance to the rhythm; but the style we adopt in dancing to the notes played decide what side of life we end up. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about change, loss, companionship, and finding one's way through the dark, the author cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. The stories in "The Notes They Played" are linked by a unity of theme and by precise, elegant verses that elevate everyday occurrences into short, perfectly rendered tales that resonate. Joiya Morrison-Efemini, with her precise, punchy verse, and a brilliant use of metaphor, in stories such as "The Piano", "Our Drowning Gene", "π = $3.14", "The Summer of the Four Humiliating T-Shirts", writes with flat understatement about the struggles and disenchantment her protagonists face, and the effect of their choices. The unforgettable characters that populate the pages of "The Notes They Played" are vividly and lovingly infused with the author's signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic story telling. Lyrical, elegant and moving, these stories cohere into a superb collection.