I just recorded the intro to my upcoming album “INDIGO” - it’s a short instrumental improvisation on the harmonium. It was very important to me to record the first take. I want to capture what happens when a completely novice player with no training (me) makes contact with the instrument.
We celebrate artists who have mastered their craft, and deservingly so … but there is a childlike magic that happens the first time we come into contact with something that captures our attention. The first time we try a new instrument or art form, we are fully innocent, with no expectations or mental frameworks of how to “do it right” getting in the way between us and the medium. It’s a pure attempt to collaborate with the world.
All too often when we start gaining skill (otherwise called “talent” by people who haven’t yet figured out that becoming a good artist - like everything else - is a simple process of gaining skill, and not some mystical quality bestowed upon the chosen few), we can lose that original innocence in favor of wanting to be as good as our idols, wanting to be a master of our craft.
It’s happened to me with music. It’s why I took up drawing as a hobby this month, and why I’m recording myself noodling around on a beautiful sacred instrument that I have absolutely no idea how to play. It’s an attempt to reintegrate that original innocent wonder into my creative process.
{the fruits of my second drawing class^}
The only difference between a master craftsman and a master artist is that the artist has found a way to reintegrate her original innocence into her mastery. And it is that reintegration that makes the audience feel something. This is why not all great teachers of art are great artists themselves, but why all great art can teach the audience something about themselves.
I actually feel that true creative mastery is the process of getting our skill to such a high level that we can consciously forget about technique and fully immerse ourself in that “beginner’s mind” again, trusting that our body can carry out the process at an extremely high level of skill.
Lots of love,
Sheesh