Mindfulness in Music (or anything really)

So I’ve been having a bit of a stressful time recently, mostly brought on by trying to sort out my timetable at a new university and people not having their act together. It’s fine. Anyways, to cope with this I decided to just go practice my saxophone for a while. I had taken a week off for orientation, and then another because I couldn’t figure out the practice room situation, so it was actually a pretty long break for me.

But the thing is, once I got back into that room, I really listened to myself play. Usually I’m in a rush and just trying to get it over with or I’m just doing it out of habit or necessity. But this time I didn’t have anything in particular really to practice and was just there to kill some time, so I really just listened and fully absorbed what I was doing. And I actually liked it!

For once I was able to sit there and think “wow I actually sound decent”. It’s usually all about how to make the music sound better somehow, and very rarely about how good it currently sounds. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to continually strive for better things on your instrument, but every once in a while it’s also good to just appreciate the good aspects of your playing.

It made me realize how infrequently I do that to so many aspects of my life. I’m always focusing on improving, doing more, doing better. I never stop and think that I’m doing well, it’s always about the next thing. 

And I definitely think that taking a break from practicing for a short period of time helped with that. Because I was able to take a step back and just see what I could do after not playing for a while instead of assessing if I was better than the last time. Of course there’s a balance between not practicing for so long that you forget everything and just taking a quick break, and that’s up to the individual really.

Also I experienced this in connection to music, but I bet that it could apply to any number of things in life. Try taking a break from something and then return to it when you want to (not when you need to).

Naturally, this all connects to mindfulness and how beneficial that is. Keeping yourself in the moment without constantly thinking about the future and how much you have to improve before then is much less stressful. I find myself constantly out of touch with the present, thinking about lunch or what I have to do tomorrow, when I need to be present and in the moment. Because the moment’s going to pass without you having appreciated it, and then there goes your entire life. Staying in the moment and enjoying the music of the present is something that’s always difficult, but essential for a life well lived.