Legends have inspired emulations and thesis on how to make better choices and decisions to make the best uses of the chances in hand. But what we lack essentially in our approach, is : our ‘perspective’.
The fundamental problem in believing a legend to be a prodigal talent or an enigmatic ascetic takes us far from the man himself. We don’t see the blood stains and the scratches and the twisted tales behind the man himself. A musician need not be a vagabond and disruptive person Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enthralled generations with his ingenuity and raw talent. But what else can an ordinary musician learn from the ecstatic extraordinaire. It is pretty simple and familiar how a little more could mean so much to one’s faculty.
Die many times before you survive the mockery- Though a depressing thought. Remember, no matter however original your scores are they are just unfolded chits of paper from some trash can. Mozart never stopped re inventing lest he becomes a show piece. He had tried his luck at getting flogged and ripped apart with criticism to the point of ghostwriting, but he has not ever given up on hanging up his boots thinking the world cannot afford another harmony.
More interesting is the fact, that as a musician you can be a great liar. You could sell off music calling them your midnight summer dream visions. And, Mozart was in a real catch to play the sleight of hand, but instead he took up sand, and water to burn them into bricks of his foundation; which scholars would dissect on an altar for ages to come.
Can’t get enough- miseries had a listless enamour on the life of the master himself. And you thought your piano sucked out passion out of you? Mozart had seen it all from child loss, tumultuous relationships, death and sickness. But Mozart did not get snatched for so cheap from the world of music. His music could almost uphold an analogy of a mother nourishing a foetus with her placenta.
Practise like there is no tomorrow- It does not matter if you are starting at the bottom or silver spooned at an younger age. Mozart started at an age when we got tired too soon completing our school lessons. If you love your strings let it strum like your fingers are the wind. The more one practices, the more profound he sounds as a musician, for the music seeps down the soil of the surface tensions of low bred feelings and emotions. The more you play the more you unpeel the layers of a piece and eventually there is more heard than sung, you know your music has served its purpose of being the soul connection between the tune and the tuner.
Don’t rest until your creative enzymes have not digested the creation to the core. A genius mind builds his castle when the world cannot see it being made. Mozart woke up early in the morning and delivered the best, what’s your clarion call for the unshackling the rust on your juices. Wake up like it’s birthday and go to sleep believing your ear cells might disbelieve that there is a thing called music in this world.
Genius minds had already been pillars of wonder for us. We have revered and looked up in amaze on the statues of the past, but never for once have we scratched the rock to get the dust under our nails. The big shots like Beethoven and Mozart and the zillions of genius make way for a musical learning that is above the notations and scores on a music sheet!
This article was featured in our June 2017 issue: http://bit.ly/2sjODtM
