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Forest for the trees
Sep. 28th, 2015 06:16 amAs a growing musician and performer, one of the things I've been learning to take to heart is the idea (one shared by lots and lots and lots of performers) that there really is no substitute for hard work and long hours at the craft.
Being that music is not how I sustain my financial well-being, I take that to mean that my long hours of practice and study are not consecutive. But all the same, I have been making a regular effort to put in time into my musical studies. Even if it is 20 minutes here or there.
I think one of my frustrations that I'm learning to overcome is the fact that I feel so far behind. I have the privilege to spend time with LOTS of very talented and incredible musicians of various flavors, and I get to regularly witness the fruits of their labors and I sometimes take certain things out of context and get frustrated with myself that I feel like I have so little to offer and so much work to do to be even a quarter of the musician that these people are.
It's stupid, really. Most of my musician friends have been playing their instruments and performing since they were young kids. Presumably non-stop or at least in and around it to some degree. They have put in their time (and still are). It is useless to compare myself even trivially since I have not had all that time put in. My dedication is relatively new, and even though I came to the latest table with some skills (guess those years of piano lessons weren't a total waste!), I still have lots of time to put in. But I still have to remind myself that it doesn't make me less. It doesn't mean that what I have to offer is valueless.
Beyond that though, the comparisons at all are still useless. I am on my own musical journey. It is a path unique to me as are the paths of those friends of mine. As with most things, the goal is less about how fast I traverse the path and more about how much I absorb along the way. And I feel fortunate that I've been regularly given a lot of nifty things to absorb, and that my journey of late has been pretty damn awesome. :-)
Along the lines of hard work, I recently reminded myself that it is useful to not get too focused on any one thing for too long within the greater whole. By this I mean that I have been working on a piece I started some 20 years ago. I've talked before about the fact that by in large, I had learned most of the piece except for about 16 bars of a middle section that for some reason, I never made the time prior to learn. Up until recently, when I would start to play it, I would just stop when I got to that point. But over the last year or so, I decided that with the availability of a keyboard and space to sit down every day, I was going to knock out those 16 bars and finally finish something that I started so long ago. And little by little, I have worked out that little section, and can mostly play it reliably. Unfortunately, what I realized the other day is that I had stopped putting in time to play the REST of the piece, and when I tried to play it end-to-end, I struggled with the rest of it. XD
It isn't all gone or lost. But I definitely need to put in time to play the whole thing now that I've come closer to mastering the missing middle bit. And that aside, there are a few other little spots that need polishing up.
When I chose Gershwin's Prelude #2 so many years ago, it was because I really enjoyed Gershwin, and of the three, the second seemed the least technically challenging. I would say today that I still agree with that assessment, and it has been fun getting to finally pull it all together. It also means that I've actually willfully decided that I'm up for more challenge and want to tackle one of the other two.
That, and there's this Rachmaninoff piece I've been really wanting to put to bed. And maybe a little Chopin. And definitely more Beethoven.
To say nothing of Brubeck, Corea, Hancock, and then all the other little things I want to pull together.
And that's just piano. There will be more drum stuff too. And guitar. And mandolin. And definitely violin.
Like any other impassioned musician, I'll be putting in time until I'm dead. Good thing the genes say I should be around for a long long time. :-) I'm gonna want it!
Being that music is not how I sustain my financial well-being, I take that to mean that my long hours of practice and study are not consecutive. But all the same, I have been making a regular effort to put in time into my musical studies. Even if it is 20 minutes here or there.
I think one of my frustrations that I'm learning to overcome is the fact that I feel so far behind. I have the privilege to spend time with LOTS of very talented and incredible musicians of various flavors, and I get to regularly witness the fruits of their labors and I sometimes take certain things out of context and get frustrated with myself that I feel like I have so little to offer and so much work to do to be even a quarter of the musician that these people are.
It's stupid, really. Most of my musician friends have been playing their instruments and performing since they were young kids. Presumably non-stop or at least in and around it to some degree. They have put in their time (and still are). It is useless to compare myself even trivially since I have not had all that time put in. My dedication is relatively new, and even though I came to the latest table with some skills (guess those years of piano lessons weren't a total waste!), I still have lots of time to put in. But I still have to remind myself that it doesn't make me less. It doesn't mean that what I have to offer is valueless.
Beyond that though, the comparisons at all are still useless. I am on my own musical journey. It is a path unique to me as are the paths of those friends of mine. As with most things, the goal is less about how fast I traverse the path and more about how much I absorb along the way. And I feel fortunate that I've been regularly given a lot of nifty things to absorb, and that my journey of late has been pretty damn awesome. :-)
Along the lines of hard work, I recently reminded myself that it is useful to not get too focused on any one thing for too long within the greater whole. By this I mean that I have been working on a piece I started some 20 years ago. I've talked before about the fact that by in large, I had learned most of the piece except for about 16 bars of a middle section that for some reason, I never made the time prior to learn. Up until recently, when I would start to play it, I would just stop when I got to that point. But over the last year or so, I decided that with the availability of a keyboard and space to sit down every day, I was going to knock out those 16 bars and finally finish something that I started so long ago. And little by little, I have worked out that little section, and can mostly play it reliably. Unfortunately, what I realized the other day is that I had stopped putting in time to play the REST of the piece, and when I tried to play it end-to-end, I struggled with the rest of it. XD
It isn't all gone or lost. But I definitely need to put in time to play the whole thing now that I've come closer to mastering the missing middle bit. And that aside, there are a few other little spots that need polishing up.
When I chose Gershwin's Prelude #2 so many years ago, it was because I really enjoyed Gershwin, and of the three, the second seemed the least technically challenging. I would say today that I still agree with that assessment, and it has been fun getting to finally pull it all together. It also means that I've actually willfully decided that I'm up for more challenge and want to tackle one of the other two.
That, and there's this Rachmaninoff piece I've been really wanting to put to bed. And maybe a little Chopin. And definitely more Beethoven.
To say nothing of Brubeck, Corea, Hancock, and then all the other little things I want to pull together.
And that's just piano. There will be more drum stuff too. And guitar. And mandolin. And definitely violin.
Like any other impassioned musician, I'll be putting in time until I'm dead. Good thing the genes say I should be around for a long long time. :-) I'm gonna want it!
