John Salvatier on How to Avoid the Musical Rut

Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here. Enjoy!

“If you wish to not get stuck, seek to perceive what you have not yet perceived.

John Salvatier

John Salvatier has an illuminating article titled “Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail”. In it, he discusses the myriad details of anything and everything in the universe.

Actions we take to be commonplace and simple, may not be. Instead, we’ve mastered the process to a level that we no longer think about it.

Driving a car, brushing our teeth, or playing a “C” chord on the guitar… Each of these was at one point a series of individual steps. We learned each step. We practiced them one at a time.

Over time, we stopped thinking of the individual steps. Instead, we lumped all the actions into one master idea.

And here is where we run the risk of becoming stuck.

We may take the same path to work each day. Or we may have the same interactions with someone every time we see them. When we do it the same way every time, we become effectively blind. We stop looking.

And the same holds true in our music. When we play the same pieces or use the same techniques for long periods, they become easy for us. This means there is no challenge.

And without challenge, our primal survival systems turn our attention elsewhere. (Perhaps to look for predators or mates.)

In music, we often call this “being in a rut”. And it is very common, especially for players of non-composed music. With composed pieces, we can choose a harder piece, and the challenge renews.

Still, we can also become stuck in the cycle of ever-harder pieces.

And in doing so we may remain blind to the musical possibilities of less-difficult music. Here, we only challenge our fingers, and ignore other challenges. We fail to notice challenges of phrasing – dynamics, form, rhythm, etc.

So how do we avoid becoming stuck in the musical rut? As Salvatier suggests, we seek to perceive what we have not yet perceived.

We can look more closely, assuming we’re missing something. We actively search out the fine details in our music. We ask questions. We get curious.

And with the deeper investigation, we become more interested. We discover new ideas. We regain the thrill and excitement than comes with novelty. And so our joy rekindles, and our music soars.