Every Note is Beautiful

Confidence Concepts from The Creative Cycle Method

Here’s a quick note on how to find the real magic in your playing.

We’ve all heard those players who can make just one note sound like magic.

We’ve also heard those players who can play a thousand notes a minute, and yet they leave us cold with little sense of any mood or picture coming from what they are saying.

Why do some players have so much feeling? I hear you ask…

The answer is simple, literally.

The player that makes one note sound like magic is a musician, and the other is a technician.

The musician is immersed in all the beauty and nuances of sound in the one note’s “little universe”, and the sensations that come from it. 

They have opened the emotional door by finding the beauty in the smallest of things, and being fascinated by it. Their spellbound state is what the audience feels as they play.

These players have a connection with their instrument from within that unifies them with the audience.

How you can get that deep level of feeling into your playing?

You can choose right now whether to be a technician playing a thousand notes a minute, or to be a musician who makes that deep connection with their audience. You don’t even need any playing experience to begin.

All you need is an open mind; a mind open to the beauty of things, no matter how small.

Take just one minute from your 1000 minutes of awake time each day to concentrate on one thing….

Play a note on your instrument and let it ring.

How does it sound in the room?

Can you hear other notes (harmonics) within that one note?

Can you hear the body of the instrument?

Is there a particular tang or, or a certain softness or warmth in parts of the sound?

Does the sound bring a picture to your mind?

Does the sound change as it rings?

Are there different elements you can hear when you play a short note?

What else can you hear in it?

What else can I do to really connect with my music?

You can still learn to find the beauty in many things if your instrument is not handy…

A flower…

A piece of bark…

Sand…

…anything simple and natural, it’s up to you.
Once you are engrossed in the moment by the beauty in just one simple thing, you will; find your journey to becoming a creative musician has already begun.

Till next time,

Your friend in music,

Richie Robinson.