Pondering, and maybe some photos
Jessica Jones | 7:52 am | May 16, 2010
A lot of musicians ‘in this economy’ have some kind of day job that allows them to continue to pursue their art at a high level. Some have created lives that allow them to just practice and compose, but I have a sneaking suspicion that’s a more rarified situation than we may realize. Even full time musicians likely spend good chunks of their day calling, emailing, and sending out information to people, which is not quite the same as playing music.
So I’m wondering, musicians, how has your day job, or work outside of music, influenced your music? Let me know.
I seem to have fallen into teaching music, which has put me around kids for a large part of my life. I watch their spontaneity and inability to be false, and am inspired. It helps me understand what I’m trying to get to with my improvising and my life. I see them in groups, and the natural joyous chaos that ensues, and have to hone my skills of knowing just when the creativity is ending and the Lord of the Flies is beginning, and be able to snap them back to grid. The innocent questions make me question and reaffirm my understanding of the basics of music daily. Their perspective as both young people and a different generation allows me to leave my own point of view and try to understand something from another outlook. “Something’s wrong with my clarinet, I push the buttons but it doesn’t work” sent me on a long pondering about the video game/computer interface model that kids grow up with, as well as a check in with myself about what effort feels like, and reminder that creating and receiving vibration is a new experience for those who haven’t experienced it much. It snaps ME back to grid, in a Zen Mind-Beginner’s Mind way.
Looking forward to hearing some of the ways your other work affects your music. Check in, people!
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