top of page

The Music Within


I've finally reached the conclusion that music is life and that life is love and that there is something innately divine about the whole process.

What do I mean?

I mean that within each of us is a simple, honest desire to create. A desire to do. To make. To express. It's not about a talent for music per se, or a predilection. It's about being human. It's just something that is there.

Music is simple - it's sound made by life itself. Whatever sounds take our fancy. But what I didn't realise for many years was that the only place that music is actually made is on the inside. Not within the body, but within the mind. You could even say - within the soul. We create, compose, experience and perform music from the inside-out.

Let's take a famous example. In 1824, Beethoven was so deaf that a singer had to let him know that the audience was applauding when his famous ninth symphony, 'The Choral', was premiered, by touching him on the shoulder. When I used to tell students about the circumstances that Beethoven had written the symphony under, many of them were flabbergasted. 'How did he do that?', they would always ask. I'd tell them that he struggled with depression that he contemplated suicide because of his deafness. But that for some reason he decided to live. Something within him had to come out, and deafness or depression couldn't stop it.

The truth is that though Beethoven's hearing apparatus, in the mechanical sense, failed him, like every other musician, the creative process only ever took place within. He heard melodies, had ideas, found inspiration, made decisions to noodle at the piano, but all on the inside. The symphony came into being in his inner world, and, from the inner world, a world of infinite potential, the formless took form. The nothing turned into something. And the something got jotted down on paper. What a truly magical process --- the process of creation --- taking place continually within the mind.

So stop and think about it for a moment. Is music (or any experience for that matter) ever truly created any other way, other than internally?

Can you ever experience music outside of Thought?

An idea might become an action. A feeling might become a movement. Inspiration might prompt a conversation. All made out of pure nothingness. What prompts it all - the spiritual energy of Thought.

Where does inspiration come from? Who could say, but I do know that it's worth following its lead.

The world wants to hear the music of your soul, so when it taps you on the shoulder and invites you to sing, be brave. Do it!

Speak soon.

Nick

 
Get Involved

There are several ways you can get involved in the growing community of flourishing, happy, healthy musicians and performers who are awake to the future of performance psychology.

Featured Posts
Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
No tags yet.
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square
bottom of page