Interacting with music is like interacting with people

I have recently obsessed over making connections between how I make music with various aspects of how I live my life. Recently, I have narrowed in specifically on the way my relationship with music parallels my interaction with people. This has proved to be one of my more usefully insightful and personally motivational fixations.

Sometimes when I'm practicing piano, I have trouble focusing and struggle to be truly present in my music-making. That is not an uncommon occurrence and was a frequent issue during the school year, especially towards the end as I was starting to peter out. After graduation, I was more interested in spending quality time with friends than black and white keys that seemed to judge my imperfection.

A picture of the synthesizer I played in pit orchestra during the Akhnaten tour to Indianapolis... because I just alluded to black and white keys.

Then, a few weeks later, while I was practicing, it occurred to me that perhaps if I regarded practicing a piece of music as spending time with a friend, I might find myself more present in the music-making.

This led to two interesting realizations:

1) Sometimes I can be a horrible person for being only half attentive in conversations with certain people. Some people are just easier to relate to than others, but there are other people who need me to be present, and I have to confess that I don't always want to be there.

2) I can also often be a horrible musician for being only selectively attentive in my practicing.

That further prompted me to wonder if both skills are exercised by the same muscle. If I can be more present in my music-making, than I can learn to be more present in my interactions with other people, and vice-versa.

It may be the case that it is simply one of my idiosyncrasies to relate my music making so closely to my general way of being, but it is difficult not to think in such a way.  Both in musical and social terms, it is greatly important to me to be a reliable listener, and I think both dimensions are now keeping me accountable and motivating me to try harder to improve myself.

I am curious to know if this is truly just a peculiarly individual aspect of my personality and thought process or if it connects with anyone else. I would like to think that over time my conscientiousness about this issue will lead me to be more engaged in both one on one social interactions and as well as focused musical practice sessions. I think it has so far.

Here is a picture of me holding a dolphin eraser on a small bridge in Indy. Also unrelated to this post.