Mistakes

Man, as a teacher of music, the subject of mistakes ALWAYS come up! I have this terrible joke I recycle over and over again. And usually it wins laughs. It goes like this.... A student, at some point, will look at me all freaked out and say "What if I make a mistake???!!!" And I will say with a straight face... "Well then I will have to quite being your teacher." They always laugh when they realize I am joking and get it... that mistakes are not the end of the world. Well the other day I pulled this on a 7 year old guitar student and he started crying!!! I felt soooo bad!!! I must have given him 3 hugs to reassure him that I was totally joking! Oh man.. it is time to put that joke in the garbage can...


But seriously, the mistake thing comes up a lot. Today I was improvising on the piano with all of my windows open, because it's really hot here in Los Angeles right now. My neighborhood is busy, so I am certain people can hear me play. When I improvise alone, I make mistakes. A lot of them. When I thought about the windows being open and the thought that someone might hear, I got a little insecure. I thought, Oh no.. they are probably thinking, "She's a piano teacher?? Eww.." Then I thought "Screw it." You cannot invent new things without making a few mistakes. That's how you discover new possibilities.

So this weekend, when you create, make a ton of mistakes and let it lead to creating something awesome.