Don’t Die With Your Music Still Inside You
By Terry Mack, player of Native American Flutes and owner of Peaceful Spirit Flutes
As children we are full-fledged explorers, delighting in the sounds we make and curiously examining anything that comes across our path, blissfully unaware of time. As we grow, people with the best of intentions at guiding our development discourage us from this exploring and the process of silencing the creative voice within has begun. The inner critic has been born.
In my case as in the case of thousands of others, a bad musical education experience as a child, kept me from the joy of exploring the creation of my own melodious sounds. Yet another common experience happens to many children as they are instructed to color within the lines or to make your purple cow a regular cow color. This too keeps us from actively participating in something that feeds your soul and gives you great joy.
Whether it be music, art, movement, building, acting or any other passion that moved you, you may have tucked away a dream so far in the back of your heart and soul that you can’t even find it any more. Yet those dreams whisper to you. The person who loves music and would like to make their own music instead buys lots of music CD’s, goes to concerts enjoying music as a spectator and mutters, ‘the only thing I can play is the radio.’ The person who is pumped by great art goes to galleries or supports the work of artists’ friends and mutters ‘I can’t even draw a straight line.’
I know you are out there muttering.
I have heard you. I have heard hundreds of people muttering those " I can’t" statements at my tables where I introduce people to the beauty of the Native American Flute or as they stop by to chat with me when I am out playing at the parks or beaches in the Nanaimo area.
In December of 2005 I was still a mutterer myself until I received my first Native American Flute. It has become the key that unlocked the door to that secret corner where I stashed my dream of making music and set that dream free. As a person who secretly wanted to make music, I would sit on the sidelines and quietly mutter to myself " in my next lifetime, I will come back as a singer songwriter". This statement has run through my consciousness for over 47 of the 54 years I have lived on this planet.
With this beautiful flute in my hand the awakening had begun. As I tentatively started coaxing sounds out of the flute (some nice and some not so nice) I began to ask myself ‘ who is this critic that for 47 years of my life had stopped me from creating my own music?’ Who says that I have to read music just to play the music I feel inside of me? And I began to wonder how I had let this "you can’t do it’ messages ingrained from years ago have so much power over me.
Awareness began creeping into my consciousness. I no longer had to listen to this critic. If I wanted to play, I could just sit with the flute and find the beautiful sounds. In fact without the ability to read music and without any formal musical instruction I began to create sounds with my flute that were pleasant to me and felt like my own music. I was empowering myself to overcome the limiting beliefs acquired throughout my lifetime. And all this was happening because of the flute. The flute was becoming my teacher, and mentor, a voice that was silencing the inner critic and inviting me to listen and participate in my life in a new way.
As I go about my day connecting with people through the flute music at various locations, I continually hear those self-limiting comments and reasons about not being able to play music from people. I can feel the longing from some who truly want to play music that comes from themselves. Speaking from my own experience, I know this can happen. I know that if you let yourself embrace that inner longing and listen to the whisper of your soul, you will find a way to listen to your own music, feel your own art and dance like there is no tomorrow.
Noted inspirational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer has said, "Don't die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul." I whole heartedly embrace this concept and encourage you to consider freeing the music/passion (whatever form that takes) in your soul. Let yourself listen to those whispers from your soul and your passion will begin to tickle its way through the maze of self-limiting thoughts and make itself known. If you have one of those " I have always wanted to do…..statements running through your head, don’t wait. Silence the inner critic and JUST BEGIN.
Those tentative and fragile first moments as you begin to explore your passion are both frightening and beautiful and involve trusting your self and your inner wisdom to nurture your exploration rather than judge it. As I teach people how to connect to a flute, I have witnessed people burst into tears from the shear joy of those first few pretty sounds coming from through their flute. This is a truly moving experience in which I am privileged to share as a person connects to fulfilling a long hidden dream of playing an instrument.
As you take that first step toward the creation of your own music (or art or any other passion) you will find notes that don’t sound right; rhythms that stutter, fingers that just don’t want to move the way you want them to and you may let that stop you from going on. I hope you don’t. Those little experiences are helping you to find your way through to the sound and rhythm that is part of you. They are part of the journey, part of the fun of exploring and an important part of the path to freeing the expression of your soul. And sometimes those little less than perfect blips teach you more than immediate success does. I have learned to welcome the sour notes as I explore my music and my life for it means that I am continuing to embrace my dreams instead of sitting on the sidelines.
By Terry Mack, player of Native American Flutes and owner of Peaceful Spirit Flutes
As children we are full-fledged explorers, delighting in the sounds we make and curiously examining anything that comes across our path, blissfully unaware of time. As we grow, people with the best of intentions at guiding our development discourage us from this exploring and the process of silencing the creative voice within has begun. The inner critic has been born.
In my case as in the case of thousands of others, a bad musical education experience as a child, kept me from the joy of exploring the creation of my own melodious sounds. Yet another common experience happens to many children as they are instructed to color within the lines or to make your purple cow a regular cow color. This too keeps us from actively participating in something that feeds your soul and gives you great joy.
Whether it be music, art, movement, building, acting or any other passion that moved you, you may have tucked away a dream so far in the back of your heart and soul that you can’t even find it any more. Yet those dreams whisper to you. The person who loves music and would like to make their own music instead buys lots of music CD’s, goes to concerts enjoying music as a spectator and mutters, ‘the only thing I can play is the radio.’ The person who is pumped by great art goes to galleries or supports the work of artists’ friends and mutters ‘I can’t even draw a straight line.’
I know you are out there muttering.
I have heard you. I have heard hundreds of people muttering those " I can’t" statements at my tables where I introduce people to the beauty of the Native American Flute or as they stop by to chat with me when I am out playing at the parks or beaches in the Nanaimo area.
In December of 2005 I was still a mutterer myself until I received my first Native American Flute. It has become the key that unlocked the door to that secret corner where I stashed my dream of making music and set that dream free. As a person who secretly wanted to make music, I would sit on the sidelines and quietly mutter to myself " in my next lifetime, I will come back as a singer songwriter". This statement has run through my consciousness for over 47 of the 54 years I have lived on this planet.
With this beautiful flute in my hand the awakening had begun. As I tentatively started coaxing sounds out of the flute (some nice and some not so nice) I began to ask myself ‘ who is this critic that for 47 years of my life had stopped me from creating my own music?’ Who says that I have to read music just to play the music I feel inside of me? And I began to wonder how I had let this "you can’t do it’ messages ingrained from years ago have so much power over me.
Awareness began creeping into my consciousness. I no longer had to listen to this critic. If I wanted to play, I could just sit with the flute and find the beautiful sounds. In fact without the ability to read music and without any formal musical instruction I began to create sounds with my flute that were pleasant to me and felt like my own music. I was empowering myself to overcome the limiting beliefs acquired throughout my lifetime. And all this was happening because of the flute. The flute was becoming my teacher, and mentor, a voice that was silencing the inner critic and inviting me to listen and participate in my life in a new way.
As I go about my day connecting with people through the flute music at various locations, I continually hear those self-limiting comments and reasons about not being able to play music from people. I can feel the longing from some who truly want to play music that comes from themselves. Speaking from my own experience, I know this can happen. I know that if you let yourself embrace that inner longing and listen to the whisper of your soul, you will find a way to listen to your own music, feel your own art and dance like there is no tomorrow.
Noted inspirational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer has said, "Don't die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul." I whole heartedly embrace this concept and encourage you to consider freeing the music/passion (whatever form that takes) in your soul. Let yourself listen to those whispers from your soul and your passion will begin to tickle its way through the maze of self-limiting thoughts and make itself known. If you have one of those " I have always wanted to do…..statements running through your head, don’t wait. Silence the inner critic and JUST BEGIN.
Those tentative and fragile first moments as you begin to explore your passion are both frightening and beautiful and involve trusting your self and your inner wisdom to nurture your exploration rather than judge it. As I teach people how to connect to a flute, I have witnessed people burst into tears from the shear joy of those first few pretty sounds coming from through their flute. This is a truly moving experience in which I am privileged to share as a person connects to fulfilling a long hidden dream of playing an instrument.
As you take that first step toward the creation of your own music (or art or any other passion) you will find notes that don’t sound right; rhythms that stutter, fingers that just don’t want to move the way you want them to and you may let that stop you from going on. I hope you don’t. Those little experiences are helping you to find your way through to the sound and rhythm that is part of you. They are part of the journey, part of the fun of exploring and an important part of the path to freeing the expression of your soul. And sometimes those little less than perfect blips teach you more than immediate success does. I have learned to welcome the sour notes as I explore my music and my life for it means that I am continuing to embrace my dreams instead of sitting on the sidelines.