015. Out with the old, in with the old.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and the by-product from one food can be perfect for making another.”
In the house where I grew up we had, and still do have, a room that was totally devoted to music. It is the room where my mother has taught piano for over thirty years. It is filled from floor to ceiling with sheet music. Nothing is digital in here, all tactile and organised in a unique filing system that is only really known to the librarian. This room also has a vast collection of instruments from weird ethnic strings, to ukuleles and percussion toys.
I recently performed a song in this room for the Sloe Sessions check it out here. While we were making some space to shoot I moved an old bass guitar that had been lying around idle for years, so much so that I didn't even see it as an instrument anymore, it was just some wood and metal that had been accumulating dust and cobwebs. Ben (who runs the slow sessions) Suggested that I should give the bass to our close friend and all-around Bass enthusiast Alan to have a look at and see if he could bring it back to life. At first, he thought it was too far gone but a couple of weeks later he told me that with some meticulous care and attention he had worked it back to a playable working instrument again.
I always find that one of the biggest struggles to overcome when trying to create something, is to stop procrastinating and just do the work. In Stephen Pressfield's book The War of Art (I highly recommend it), he maintains, the biggest barrier to creating is what he terms resistance. This resistance is the times when you sit staring at a blank page and can somehow think of everything except what you are trying to do, Resistance is the, "I'll just go on youtube for five minutes first," I'll just make coffee then I'll be ready," You get the idea.
How does this tie in with the old bass I was just talking about? Well, it started me thinking about how often I use the excuse of not having the right equipment as a resistance. I so often say to myself, If I only had this piece of equipment or I can't finish this because it really needs a bass part and I don't have a bass when all along I actually did have a bass I just wasn't seeing it as a bass.
I think my point is that although having the right tools is important actually seeing things as tools is a path to least resistance, so go have a look in your attic or wardrobe and see if there is anything in there to reclaim and start seeing as a tool. You never know what you might have been forgetting about in the quest for the new and shiny.
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