15h (edited) • 🌿 Daily Reflection.
🎵Daily Reflection 015 - My Thoughts Are Images That I Have Made
One of the biggest breakthroughs I've ever had in music wasn't learning a new chord or scale.
It was realising that I wasn't struggling with music...
I was struggling with the story I'd created about music.
I remember looking at the alphabetical system when I first started learning. Before I'd even played a note, my mind had already decided it was difficult. My stomach would tighten. I'd get a lump in my throat. Part of me wanted to give up, while another part was determined to become the hero who could one day say, "This is easy."
Looking back, I can smile at the drama I created.
The alphabetical system was never my enemy.
It was simply one way of describing musical patterns.
Perhaps when it was first developed, musicians naturally thought that way. It may have been incredibly intuitive for them. But our minds often recognise patterns differently today. We use numbers constantly in everyday life, and many people find relationships easier to understand when they're presented numerically.
That's one of the reasons I created the Easy Key.
Not because the alphabetical system is wrong.
Not because one method is better than another.
But because sometimes all we need is a different way of looking at exactly the same music.
The music never changed.
Only my perception changed.
And isn't that true of life as well?
How often do we decide someone is difficult before we've really got to know them?
How often do we assume someone young is immature?
Or believe someone older has already had their best years?
Sometimes we're immediately attracted to someone.
Sometimes we're immediately put off.
But are we really seeing them...
Or are we seeing the image we've created in our own minds?
Maybe every person we meet becomes a mirror, reflecting the stories we're already telling ourselves.
That's why two people can meet the same person and walk away with completely different impressions. The person hasn't changed.
The image each observer has made is different.
Music works exactly the same way.
One student looks at a page of notation and sees confusion.
Another looks at the very same page and sees possibility.
The notes haven't changed.
Only the image in the mind has changed.
Today's lesson gently reminds us that we often mistake our interpretations for reality.
The world may not have changed.
The music may not have changed.
The person standing in front of us may not have changed.
Our thoughts have simply painted a picture over what is already there.
The Easy Key didn't create easier music.
It simply helped remove one image so another way of seeing could appear.
Maybe that's what learning really is.
Not collecting more information...
But allowing old assumptions to soften until what has always been there becomes obvious.
🎵 Today's Practice
Choose one thing that feels difficult today.
It might be a chord.
A scale.
A page of music.
A person.
Or even a conversation you've been avoiding.
Pause for a moment and quietly say to yourself:
"This is an image that I have made."
You don't have to force yourself to think differently.
Just leave open the possibility that there might be another way of seeing.
Sometimes that's where real learning begins.
💬 Community Reflection
Can you think of a time when changing the way you looked at something completely changed your experience of it?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
🎵 Music really is medicine.
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🎵Daily Reflection 015 - My Thoughts Are Images That I Have Made
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