The One Thing That Most Musicians Don’t Do Well
There’s one thing that musicians all over the world consistently do not do well: have hobbies.
I recently saw a video put out by an orchestra where someone went around and asked its members what their hobbies were. They answered with a blank stare or a confused expression, clearly stumped by the question and I laughed out loud with recognition. “It’s true,” I thought, chuckling to myself, “we don’t have hobbies because we spend all of our time practicing!” (Truth be told, I don’t spend all my time practicing, but I have fallen into the camp of believing that I should spend all of my time practicing.) And that alone has led me to not think much about having hobbies. So, today, I sat at my kitchen table and made these felted, sleepy mice and made a few discoveries.
Here’s why hobbies are great:
You don’t have to be good. Bringing judgment into your practice session is not good for the learning process anyway, but it is so much easier to leave judgment behind when you are doing something where you don’t have any expectations. The possibility of me making a bad mouse was not a threat to my ego (or my job) in any way. In fact, it was so freeing to do something that involved my mind, creativity and problem solving skills that had no consequences.
How you do something is how you do everything. That same tension I sometimes feel in my shoulders when I play the oboe was also present when I was crafting at the kitchen table. Once I noticed it, however, I thought about my joints and where I wanted to bend from. I also thought about where I could release tension while still being able to stab away on my mouse. A hobby gives you an easy, low-stakes opportunity to practice paying attention to how you want to feel in your body.
It gets the creative juices flowing which helps with problem solving! When I was felting my mouse, I didn’t have pink wool for the tail and feet. So, I began experimenting with mixing and blending colors. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it was interesting to see if I could figure it out.
It’s fun! Have you ever forgotten that playing your instrument is fun? I have. But I had a great time making my little sleepy mouse today. The outcome didn’t matter. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I enjoyed the process and I learned a few things about the craft and myself. Connecting to the joy and curiosity of a hobby can help us remember the “why” of why we became musicians in the first place.
