I wanted to share a great little conversation I had recently with an adult student and a little bit of a follow-up about that conversation.

This student was getting out his instrument and we were just talking about practicing and how it’s been going and he was mentioning that he really loves to play and he loves music, and then it doesn’t feel like a chore which he really appreciates, but he also wishes he would practice more.

And I was first of all just encouraging him and saying you know it’s so awesome that he loves to play and it’s really great that it doesn’t feel like a chore and that’s absolutely the right perspective because music should never feel like a chore. And I suggested, what if we didn’t think about music as something we have to do, even practice? What if we thought about music and our instrument as a relationship?

You know we all have relationships and sometimes we have significant obligations around those relationships. But most of the time hopefully if we’re in the right frame of mind and heart we’re not thinking about those things as obligations, we’re thinking about them as responsibilities that come with the relationship but we know that the more we invest in those relationships, the more we’re there for that person, the more time we spend together, the more we enjoy each other, and the more wonderful memories we create and just the wonderful good things that can come out of a relationship.

Music is the same. In so many ways. We all as musicians have a relationship with music and a relationship with our instrument. How we approach music and the instrument will drastically affect our ability to play that instrument and create music in joy, wonder, and fun, and not begrudgingly.

And he was like, man that makes a lot of sense. Well fast forward to yesterday when I saw him a week later, and you know it was the best I’ve heard him play yet in over a year. He played his instrument really well, he played his weekly assignments really well, and he was in a great mood and he was happy.                                                                                    

Food for thought