Sunday, July 22, 2007

Completing the Circle

There's something off-balance about practicing music all the time in your house and never getting out to perform, even at a jam. The same is true for writing and never publishing, or painting without ever exhibiting. It is important to complete the circle of art-making by sharing it with an audience. We need both legs to walk, and if we only develop muscles in one leg we'll be forever off-balance, dragging the weak one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the thought. i've been so depressed this month that i haven't even been able to get to RI. (even though that's a bigger issue than one would think) It always feels so good to know that people are sharing in the artistic experience.

Rachel Nguyen said...

Yes,

Playing out is important. After two years of taking piano lessons, I finally mustered up the guts to play in front of people. I was supposed to play a hymn at my old church. I froze, terrified, and couldn't read the music.

Now I am playing the djembe and actually started playing in public before I even owned a drum. We play about once a month on the front steps of Grace church at 9:00 on Sunday mornings, waking up the hapless customers at Hotel Providence. My drumming teacher is threatening to invite us to play out with him sometime, if we ever get over our fear!