When you wish upon a star...

Hi! It's been ages.

So I heard someone say this earlier today: 'Spending all that time wishing I was different was preventing me from getting to what I was actually meant to be.'

WOW! What a thought! How often in music do we sit for ages listening to others and wish that we could play the way they do?

The listening and admiration are not problems - in fact they are part of every musician's process - but what usually happens is that we listen, wish, and then either get discouraged because of the gaping divide between their music and ours, or we simply forget about it and go on with our daily lives unchanged.

I think the central problem is that 'wishing' requires no action... No 'output' after the 'input'. Wishing allows one to take it all in and then walk away. The attitude that we need to adopt is one of WANTING. You see, a wish has a dream-like quality that puts it in the realm of the impossible, where all a want requires is a way of getting the object of our desire - and we all love getting stuff! This leads to a process of observation, followed by inspiration, followed by ACTION. So I observe something that I want, this inspires me, and the inspiration causes me to ACT to get it - to get one baby-step further across the great divide that separates me from what I want or where I want to be.

The process may be long and require effort, but isn't it worthwhile to know that instead of dreaming something you are actually moving toward it?

I think so!

So when you wish upon a star... it DOES make a difference who you are... because any dream your heart desires has to be ACTED-UPON if you really want to make it happen, and only certain people (usually the minority) actually do that.

PS... this is not just a music issue, it's a LIFE issue, and who you are in music is who you are in life.

Take care
Andrew

Why do you keep doing it?

Where does your inspiration to 'keep going' come from? Why do you practice your instrument every day? What makes you love music?

The answers to these questions are different for everyone, and everyone NEEDS to answer them. If you do, you will never have a reason to be discouraged or negative for very long, because whenever you feel like that (and you will at some stage) you can go back to the things that make you happy and get your purpose back.

I have certain songs that just plain make me smile... and some that make me laugh with enjoyment. I listened to something today and couldn't help shouting out because the MUSIC was so happening that I had to acknowledge it, and my LOVE for music. I am still feeling energized by that one song... Four minutes of music has changed me for hours... It made me want to PLAY - like a little kid with his toys. Pure enjoyment and no effort or work involved.

That is why I keep doing it...  

Practice makes... BETTER! (but only if you do it right)

One of the 'catch-phrases' we hear all the time is 'practice makes perfect'. A lot of the time this simply isn't true. Practising something doesn't necessarily make one perform a task 'perfectly', and I have often become discouraged by hours and hours of practice because I do not even begin to get a glimpse of the perfection I believe I am supposed to attain.  

We practice because we want to get better, and that is guaranteed if the practising is done right and done often. 

What is encouraging to me is that getting incrementally better - improving - at a given task is something that can be measured. I find this much more beneficial than getting down on myself every day because the thing I'm working on STILL isn't 'perfect'. I'm very content to just get a little bit better every day because I believe that the process will eventually get me to where I need to be if I stick to it. 

Over the next little while I will be posting tips to the approach to practising that I subscribe to. I believe in it because it has worked for hundreds of years for thousands of musicians, and it's working for me right now. 

I'll end-off this post with a thought from the great Jeff Berlin really makes sense to me. He said: 'Progress in music is like watching your hair grow. You can't necessarily see the growth every day, and then one day you look in the mirror and it's time for a haircut'. 

Be KIND to yourself

The following is a lesson I learned (and am still learning) from Kenny
Werner's book 'Effortless Mastery':


BE KIND TO YOURSELF!


As musicians we have created a culture of competition. Everyone is out there trying to be better than the next guy. This causes us to hate ourselves, and good music in general, because every time we hear incredible music by a talented musician we start making excuses for our own lack of ability. We end up harbouring resentment for the musician who is better than us, and get down on ourselves for not being better.


The TRUTH is this... There will always be someone 'better' than you... And MUSIC is not going to stop if you get upset with it... BUT there will always be enough music to go around for all of us to play and enjoy it.


The SOLUTION... Be KIND to yourself.


In other words, accept that where you are in your development is not a bad place, just another point in a long journey. Be THANKFUL for the giftings of others. Make a decision to learn from them. Remember that they didn't get there through luck. Hard work did it for them and will also do it for you.


The moment you learn this lesson you will free yourself from the burden of competition, and start to build relationships with the musicians who you now respect. And as I have said in this blog before, if music is about anything, it's about COMMUNITY.


The fine print: This only works if you are working at developing your own abilities. If you are not, you cannot learn to be kind to yourself because your problem is laziness and a lack of love for music.