What if...?

Sometimes, we're not sure whether we should try something or not. It ends up going like this...

What if I start playing that style of music? Well, I could lose my skills in this one, or I could start thinking differently about music, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I go to that recital in a couple weeks? Well, I could mess everything up, or - possibly even worse - I could be told that I just won the gold medal and I'll be in all the newspapers within a week, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I try taking a solo on that song? Maybe I could try this thing that I learned. Well, I could lose the rhythm that the rest of the band is playing, or I could make everyone think that I'm not a good player, or I could... And then what? So I just won't do it.

I'm not really accusing you specifically of anything. I'm just pointing out that all of us (including me) probably end up doing this at some point. What (will happen) if I do this? Well, I could.... And then what will I do? So I just won't do it.



The problem with what-iffing is that we don't end up opening our minds to new things. If I look back on what I've played so far, there was probably some of that going on when I started doing RCM, when I started playing jazz, when I started playing with others, when I started soloing at performances... and it probably happens in places outside of music too. But if I had never tried, I would have never learned to do any of those things.

It's often difficult to do something that you've never done before, and which you don't know the result of. It might be good, or it might be bad. But this reminds me of a song I played called So What. It's basically saying, "If this happens, so what?" When I listened to Miles Davis' recording of the song, it sounds like the bass plays something, and then the horns play two notes that sound a lot like "So what?" And they always do that no matter what the bass plays. Even when the song changes keys, they keep repeating "So what?"

I suppose that's what you have to say whenever something comes up when you don't know. Going outside your comfort zone is a thing we have to do sometimes with music. And if we never did anything where we didn't know, life would be pretty boring because nothing would be new. Things get iffy sometimes, and when they do, we have to try them anyways. I'm the one who says that music can make changes. So for that change to happen, you have to accept it.

After all, so what? If it isn't life threatening or anything, then try it! I'm going to have to remember this too, so you're not alone. After all, what do they always say? "You never know until you try."

And sometimes (I just have to say something about listening) you never know - like in the case of what a song sounds like - until you listen.

So listen. And try.