The soul-stirring music I’ve
shared with 20 beautiful music teachers this past week mostly came from people
not working 9 to 5 jobs. Whether by choice or cultural exclusion, these folks
had a lot of time on their hands. Time to do something as useless as playing
music. And with enough time and sufficient boredom, they began to change
whatever music someone else composed, to find their own way to express
it. Or to compose something new.
Try it sometime. Play a song
over and over again until the nervous system finds it intolerable to keep
playing the same old thing. Or else stumbles into a new idea because you made a
mistake. And that’s when things get interesting. You follow the fingers or the
ear’s or mind’s inclination to explore a new detail and if you don’t have to
rush off to an appointment, you keep following it until it crystalizes into
something new and worthy of notice. So you remember it or record it or
write it down and voila! the world is refreshed by yet another chronicle of
human emotion, imagination and intelligence.
But amongst those key
ingredients is time— time to follow those impulses and develop them, time to be bored
and see what comes up, time to just try stuff out. And if you have a group of
more than one with time, then it starts to take off. And if you have a whole
culture that values these kinds of activities, well, then you’re really in
luck.
Go thou to your local
Youtube and type in “Amazing jam session—three random guys sing together” to
see how this works. Note the people who just pass by on their way to their
important work or off to the next store. Meanwhile, this guy spends his day sitting
on the sidewalk playing his guitar and then another stops and listens and begins to add something from the wellspring of his own imagination and yet later, a third joins the party with his point of view. Art forged by time and
boredom unfolding in front of your eyes and ears.
Does anybody in Music
Education ever suggest these two key ingredients for success in your students?
Leisure time and boredom?
Well, I just did.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the result of leisure time and boredom. (I wouldn't call my experience boredom, but rather, inspiration and freedom). I am a nonstop worker, and your post reminds me that I can place value on leisure time, for the sake of cultivating my creativity as a musician, teacher, and thinker. Thanks for creating the opportunity for us!!!