Strumming to the Metronome - Jane Muses on the Value of Practicing

I was counting out my daily dose of pills at the kitchen counter this morning when I heard Jack (my sweetie/significant other) practicing on his new guitar upstairs, the one that Chris, his friend-since-childhood, gave him a couple of months ago. I've been impressed by Jack's commitment and determination, at the age of 56, to try and learn to play an instrument. He loves music, especially blues, and can play a bit of harmonica, but this is his first true foray into learning music. He's even taking weekly lessons.

Hearing him strumming to the metronome made me think yet again about the value of practicing, of having a "practice" relationship with your art. Practicing requires a great deal of faith in the unknown, faith that you will progress, slowly but surely, even though you usually can't see any evidence (or very little) of that progress. But too many people give up too soon. You have to keep going, having faith that you will periodically be blessed with a leap or a bound in your progress.

You will be plodding along, day after day, producing nothing that you love, and then one day something new and fresh and wonderful springs out of you, and you don't know how it happened, you don't feel that you caused or controlled it. It just emerged from somewhere deep within you, somewhere where your inner artist lives and breathes and brews and stews and stirs and prepares for emergence. That inner artist has been working alongside you every day, as you practice; you just weren't consciously aware of it.

So much of the beauty of creativity is, I believe, the lack of control over what you create. Yes, you make conscious steps re: learning your craft, thinking about your art. Yes, you have your hands on the steering wheel, you are the driver. But at the very same time, there is a second driver who just may step on the gas before you have a chance to slam on the brakes.

It's a mysterious process, this creative urge, this longing to create stories, music, paintings, buildings, dancing...mysterious and wonderful. Healing. Consoling. Joyful. Exciting. Satisfying.

***

P.S. - I will be teaching my next Daily Write Round Robin class, now in its seventh year, starting Jan. 22nd.

Comments

[Jill]

I love this.....so true! Wonderful how Jack's practicing inspired your writing!