Day 258: Life lessons through Music – Specificity

 

 

Lately I have started practicing piano and currently I am working on a classical song that is very difficult for me. The thing about playing piano or any instrument is that to be good at it you need to be very specific in terms on finger placement, finger speed and velocity. If you are not specific in it you are going to make mistakes and play the music wrong.

What I do is learn the song one section at a time – once I am able to play it without mistakes I move on to the next section. Now, there are many sections in this song and what I found was that as I progressed I tended to rush through the sections. There are a few sections where I always make mistakes at the exact same place every time I play the song through.

This got very frustrating, but I finally realized why. When I first learnt and played those sections and when I first made the mistakes – I did not stop to correct them effectively. I kind of just skipped it because it’s such a small point I rather want to get on with the next section so that I can learn the whole song. Now what has happened is that I formed a habit and that mistake is actually now part of how I play the song. All because I did not stop and correct it the moment I made the mistake – I was not specific enough the first time I played it. Now I have to unlearn the mistake by repeatedly playing it correctly over and over until it sinks in.

And this basically related to life as well. We go through life and we make mistakes along the way. We learn how to deal with events in our lives and how to deal with things. For example as a kid somebody said something nasty to me and I took it personally and became angry – From that moment whenever a similar events plays out I do the exact same thing, because when it first happened I did not stop for a moment to realize that taking things personally is not necessary – I am the one who creates the reaction within me.

There are so many examples of how we all made mistakes in life and never really learned from them, but instead created a habit to repeat those mistakes and that has become part of who we are. And to change that behavior requires us to consistently and repeatedly correct it whenever it comes up. For example with me and taking this personally – whenever I took something personally I to stopped and breathed and let go of the anger and reaction. Eventually over time this behavior faded away – I had to unlearn it.

Sure it would have been easier to stop the behavior as soon as it happened, but we are not taught or shown how to respond practically and effectively to situations in life.

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Born into Music - Projecting Your Desires onto your Children

 

I read a blog called “ how to create a child prodigy” that is about what choice children have for themselves to choose a life direction in a very young age. For example some parents force their children into taking lessons for an instrument at the age of 3. The movie “ SHINE” is an example of a parent who wanted his son to be a master pianist and pushed him into it his whole life. In these cases it is the parents projecting their desires onto their children.

This all led me to question – why am I a Musician?

My mother played the piano her whole – she played it when she was young and throughout the years. She played while she was pregnant with me and when I was born she played it still. There was always that link between my mother and the piano so I was naturally inclined to the piano as my first instrument. And I really liked playing the piano. I was never forced into it, It was not like I went for lessons at a young age or forced to sit and practice for hours and hours on end, I liked playing it and wanted to learn more. I was always quick to learn and people always said I was talented.

Back then I did not understand the reason why I liked it, but now when I look back at the reason it was because I wanted to be appreciated/valued. Every time I played for people they would cheer me on and say how good I am so that was my primary motivation – to be liked.

So for me the reason why I became a musician was because I was born into it, It made people appreciate me and it reminded me of my mother and that’s the reason I liked playing the piano.

Within all this I would say I’m lucky, because I have met people in my life who were forced to become better and better with a particular instrument and who had to practice many hours all to fulfill the parents dreams and ambitions. I did not have to deal with all that crap.

Music is self-expression. Something you do because you truly enjoy it. It is not something you should force onto a child. Too many parents want to shape their children according to the parent’s desires. The parents made mistakes in life or regretted not doing something and thus want to try and live through their children. Here is a quote from the blog above:

“A child should have the opportunity to explore and investigate and experience as much as possible so that they can find out what it is they do like - in this way the child has the best opportunity to make an informed decision for themselves. - See more at: http://activistsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2014/09/day-591-how-to-create-child-prodigy.html#sthash.2u6n0m5t.dpuf’’

Word.

I am a Musician

 

Forgive me listeners for I have sinned - It has been a while since I released a song...

I have been involved with music my whole life. From playing the piano to playing bands to forming Robot Virgins and producing/writing songs with various other Artists. It has been an enjoyable journey thus far.

It takes allot of time and patience and dedication to write and produce a song - Some songs took me days and most took weeks and even months. It is very satisfying when A song is done. These days I mostly listen to my own songs and songs I have produced. Lately is has become increasingly difficult to write music. I have a few songs that I wrote, but they are not good enough. So I write this blog to find the reasons why I am struggling to write music these days.

My first question to myself is why am I a musician? Why do I write songs? Why Am I doing it?

My first reason was that my mother introduced me to music by teaching me the piano. As a young child playing the piano I noticed that people were amazed by me playing it - I was being appreciated and got attention for doing it and so that was my reason. As I got older and learnt other instruments and played with friends they appreciated me and I got attention and was fitting in. Which became my drive to improve my skills and become better at the instruments I was playing. I started writing songs and formed bands all the while getting attention and being appreciated. In a Nutshell - I was a musician to be appreciated and get attention and to fit in - got good at being a musician and simply continued doing it. All this was sub-couscous - I was not aware of it until much later after I became a part of the Desteni Process.

Before We started Robot Virgins I had a collection of songs I wrote through out the years - most not particularly good, but I enjoyed the process of writing music. It is creating something out of seemingly nothing. Using sounds and notes, shaping and structuring into a flow and you have a song. I mostly did music only - always had a difficult time with placing words to music. That was the one part of music I really enjoy - writing music and then listening to my own music.

Robot Virgins formed. I learnt how to produce music on a computer by myself which was awesome, because now I can write songs, record songs and produce songs. The first official song I recorded and produced  was Robot Virgins - Your Truth which turned out to be an All time favorite. As I was writing the song with help from Cerise I wrote it with other people in mind - meaning I was writing it for people who experience was the song is about. Only later after a few months of release did I realize The words are specific to me - I wrote the song for myself. It was interesting.

So Why Am I a Musician now. It is something that I am good at. It is a method to get a message across to assist and support people to realize something about themselves they have not yet realized. My starting Point within All this was still writing for others and not doing it for myself as well. I used to play guitar and drums and piano for the sake of simply playing because I enjoy it, but I have not done that in a long time - to play for myself. I started a few days ago to once again just play on instruments for myself.

I will continue this on the morrow as I go into more detail how I looked for my Muse and realized my Muse was me all along.....