I recently heard an interview with Keith Urban on Dax Shepherd's podcast where Urban talks about his beginner's mindset approach to creating music. He points out that, as a musician, he's never let go of the word "play." He enters the studio like it's a playground and he's at a brand new park. He plays guitar, he plays a set, he plays with the band. And every time he approaches his work as play, magic happens!
If you don't know anything about his style of country music, you should at least know this. He spent years making music that wasn't like his mainstream country contemporaries. He was strange and obscure until he grew a following who wanted to hear him PLAY. When driven by curiosity about musical sounds, his perfect art was made!
Well, the dictionary definition of perfect, at least! Maybe society has led us to believe that perfect means without flaw, but in its truest, original sense, it simply means whole.
And what could we use more than wholeness right now?
I'm not sure about you, but Covid 19 sucked a lot out of my desire to approach anything with playfulness. When facing the coronavirus pandemic, who's thinking of playing around? But it wasn't until I understood the curiosity aspect of it that playing began to feel so much bigger than I gave it credit for. And perhaps the deepest thing we need to focus on.
Playful curiosity may be the thing that allows us to find solutions we are desperate for.
Because no one we know has lived through this before. We're all just winging it. So grab a guitar, a paintbrush, a keyboard, a computer, or whatever it is that makes you curious and start playing a little.
What if we hold the perfect solution to meet a need someone has right now, but will only discover it if we take the time to play?
Let me know what you're playing these days! I'd love to hear from you!