Music chose me at a young age. I remember playing the piano in the library in grade school (an odd place for a piano, don’t you think?) My parents both play the guitar and I remember singing my first harmony with my mom when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. I remember the first moment someone I had just met thought I had a “good voice,” at Ala Moana Park when I was a teenager. But I never sought it out, it just picked me, and I have all of these very vivid memories linked to my journey with music.
When I was 10, I bargained with my mom to get piano lessons. I joined the middle school band and loved it. I bought my first guitar in Southern California when I was 17. Fast forward to today. I’ve been leading live music performances and worship for 2 decades now and I can look back and see how leading and playing in musical groups has taught me so much about life.
Rehearsal is the act of forming patterns, over and over and over. Practice is about forming and deepening the folds in our brains. When we rest, the things we dwelt on and practiced the most throughout a day seem to stick with us (listen to this amazing podcast for more on that). Unfortunately, we often never get past the point of rehearsal being a rote thing I do, just to “make it through” the performance. Yes, if we’re sick or having an off day we can still execute well if we’ve rehearsed well. But in an ideal world, rehearsing does more than that: the diligent training of our deeper memory — found in our muscles and subconscious — during rehearsal frees us to enjoy the actual moment. Not that I don’t enjoy rehearsing. But it’s very different than living in the music or the art because suddenly, if I’ve rehearsed well, I’m not worried about the next note, the next line, the next move. We’re free to go with the flow and follow the conductor, the story line, our instincts. And now just think of the additive power of whole groups of people doing this together. I used to tell my bands, “I know I work you hard at rehearsal, to learn the music, to stay together, to run your race as a musician . . . I push you to do all that because come (the concert/performance/Sunday morning) I hope you can just enjoy it.”
I’m learning ways to incorporate that into the other arenas of life too. If the discipline of keeping the house tidy frees me to really live in my house, it’s worth the discipline. If the discipline of stretching allows me to dance without hesitation, it’s worth it. If the discipline of hitting a thousand forehands frees me to mentally get into the game, I can win against someone who is just thinking about whether the ball is going to get back over the net or not. If the discipline of living within a budget means I know that I won’t have to go into debt, I live in financial freedom.
Maybe the power of rehearsing kindness and gentleness is just the kind of additive power our society needs today. What kind of liberty comes from that kind of practice?
I like to think that my whole life is like one long rehearsal that will someday purchase for me freedom that is long, full, immortal, unbroken, and uninhibited.
Rehearsing kindness and gentleness in our everyday lives…now that is something to strive for, expecting nothing in return…how simple yet how difficult…but society can be changed should we be able to actually adhere to this practice. What a wonderful goal to strive for! Thank you for a simple yet profound thought.