In learning the drums, I discover for the first time 'practice' in the sense of "my practice" i.e. "what I do", not just preparing for something greater.
With the saxophone, practicing has almost always included a sense of preparation for the "more real" and fulfilling experiences of playing with friends or onstage. The joy of practice was partly just enjoying the tone, but also comprised a big chunk of work-ethic satisfaction.
But anytime I'm at the drums, I'm just there working, playing, and loving it. In all aspects of the discipline there's the joy of action. So I realize I'm at home. Where I "go" with it doesn't matter.
And I get this glimpse: when the greatest musicians play onstage, they're just giving us a public, intensified extension of the thousands of hours of playing that's a part of them, whether it's alone going over a section a hundred times or playing in a practice space with others. All of that practice was the practice of being a musician.
The luckiest people must be those for whom the work they do throughout the day is like this. I can only try to take that attitude along and apply it where I can.
July 13, 2004 09:52 AM