Attend a live performance to get your mojo back!

What happens when things get hectic and you miss a few nights? Have you ever gone through a difficult time and just didn’t feel like practicing? Whether you aren’t ready to play in a group yet or are a seasoned veteran between gigs, this just happens. How do you boost your motivation when you are feeling just a bit lazy?

Concert Crowd I was going through one of these periods lately when our youngest was scheduled to solo with a local orchestra. Her piece was extremely difficult (Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen), but she was ready…and the orchestra was, too. She played beautifully, and the music made by both daughter and orchestra filled my heart with joy and my eyes with tears. How can we, as musicians, so quickly forget the inspiration our music offers us?

Years ago I read of the motivation that comes from attending live performances. It’s important to go whenever you can, but it’s especially important to do so when you’re going through a “dry spell”. Feeling down? Lazy? Frustrated with life in general? Find a performance and go to it. If it’s your favorite kind of music, that’s a nice bonus…but if not, go anyway! You’d be surprised at the lift it can give you.

Once the performance is over, try to tell the musicians how much you appreciated their performance before you leave. You’ll probably be thinking about it the rest of the evening: the selections, the style(s), any particularly impressive technique, the musicians themselves, how much they appreciated hearing your heartfelt congratulations…and you’ll be itching to break out your instrument to play.

So go ahead! Find a performance, go enjoy it, and then break out that instrument! And let us know when you will be up there next, so we can come see you play, too. After all, we all can use a little inspiration from time to time.

Keep playing,
Mark