What gets your attention when you are looking at art? Or magazines, or books, or blogs? Isn’t there a hope that you’ll be surprised? A desire to be impressed by something that is new-to-you, or something that is clever, or inventive, or just different. You want to be surprised. We all get bored from seeing more of the same don’t we?
I read an interview yesterday (or was it the day before?) with my favorite rock star and he was talking about going back into the studio and what keeps him inspired. As a musician, who is also a fan of many kinds of music, it was a simple thing to say….."I want to be surprised by a melody I haven’t come across yet."
Isn’t that what we strive for too? Not a melody, but a something. We want to be surprised by something we haven’t come across yet. Notice he didn’t say he wanted to go into a music store to hear something he hadn’t heard before….he’s going into the studio to discover that melody – that combination of notes that might be the next hook or lick. Eight notes and time spent at the keyboard or on the guitar. Experimenting, exploring, unearthing, failing, succeeding.
In the studio. THAT is where you will make your discoveries, the best-learned lessons. Putting in the time with messy hands and dirty brushes is where you will find the most rewarding surprises.
Now that my taxes are done (whew!) I can being the final preparations for my upcoming workshop. This is the funnest time (yes, I said funnest). I rehearse in my head all the things I want to remember to share with the artists. I scribble notes, make playlists, overpack supplies, and try to contain my giddy-ness that I am about to spend studio time with other seekers-of-surprises. Each artist will learn something different, and hopefully surprising, depending on their accumulated experience…..and no matter what is on my lesson plan, we will all learn something from one another.
Here’s hoping you plan some surprise time for yourself this week.
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