I listen to music too rarely. It's a function of playing it too often, I guess. Instead, when I run I listen to podcasts. Today's was particularly interesting, and even a little inspiring: Norah Young talking to Seth Godin on making the workplace meaningful, taking initiative and risks to make things better. Good stuff.
And It got me to thinking about how lucky I am to have music and especially suddenlyLISTEN as one of the centres to my life. There is nothing more meaningful and risky than listening and trusting. the core of any music making is listening to the music more than yourself, and trusting the others around you to feed you information and inspiration. The musicians amongst you know what I'm talking about. Music listeners probably have a memory of a concert or a moment in a concert or recording when that was happening, because we all really notice! That's when everything slows down and the musicians can start to really PLAY the music. In scored music it's when we see new subtleties in the score, or we can use the score to express ourselves more than ever.
In improvised music it's when we inhabit each others brains and hands and make music in total harmony (or perfect disharmony!). That is what I'm always trying to achieve in all my music making, but especially in my work as an improviser. To me the risk leads to a profound personal joy, like mining our soul and finding a vein of new gems. Great rewards, (and questionable prose!)
But THAT is worth a million bucks, and we performers are practically giving it away. This is the 'emotional labour' that Seth Godin talks about in his interview. The "work" that we do that makes our jobs and our music meaningful. Check it out at a concert near you!
Or at suddenlyLISTEN's show Timeless Pulses on Monday, Feb 8 in Halifax, Canada.
www.suddenlylisten.com or on this blog below, for more information.
and please check out this podcast, in audio and transcript at http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/01/spark-97-january-3-5-2010/
As always let me know if you're reading, and what you think!
Jan 28, 2010 at 12:17