One thing that'll never cease to amaze me is listening to musicians play the most complicated phrases, donning a nonchalant face, seemingly effortlessly guiding us through the highest highs and lowest lows of a composer's imagination.
Of course, as someone who grew up with guitar teacher parents, I'm well aware that this effortlessness is something that didn't come about naturally.
It requires a high amount of discipline and countless hours spent practicing.
"The greatest artist gives free rein to his enthusiasm with maximum discipline"
- Yehudi Menuhin
If you think about it, playing an instrument seems like a deeply inefficient pursuit. Most of us won't ever advance to levels that will earn us a living or high esteem in our close circles. It doesn't contribute to productivity, nor GDP.
Music education is usually the thing (alongside arts) that's first to be dropped from principal education whenever budgets are limited.
And anyway, nowadays, we can just generate music at the click of a button, right? Why bother trying to master an instrument?
I remember when I was doing an internship at a music store at the age of 15, they had one of those pianos in the showroom with countless songs pre-programmed. That meant, by just pushing down one key, you could play Chopin's Nocturnes.
Effortlessly. No practicing nor understanding is required.
This piano is a good metaphor, in my view, for what we're doing with all the automation and our focus on making everything that used to be hard - frictionless, effortless, only one click of a button.
Still, when I contemplate 2024 and what I'm grateful for, the guitar and my ability to practice at nearly any time come to mind.
Sure, I spent quite some time torturing myself there, picking pieces outside of my comfort zone, challenging not only my cognitive ability to figure out what the note means on the scoreboard but also simply my physical limits as someone who does not have hours a day to practice.
In a sense, I'm pretty lucky. I don't remember the painstaking process of learning to read sheet music because it happened so early in my life. I have a very easy time translating the abstract notation into concrete movements of the finger.
I am also blessed with pretty solid fingernails without having to resort to cutting up ping pong balls to provide much-needed stability to them.
All of that aside, it's not like every time I sit down to practice I'd be having an easy time.
I think it was Segovia who once said something along the lines of the guitar being a moody mistress. It's not every day the same; sometimes things flow, and sometimes it's a struggle.
But that's good because at least you get to feel accomplished when you get through it, your fingers warming up to it. Eventually, you even play the difficult phrase after weeks of unsuccessful attempts without thinking about it consciously.
It's anything but effortless.
An overenthusiastic Silicon Valley engineer could probably develop a robot that can play just as well, minus you needing to do anything.
Is it worth it, though?
I doubt it.
The older I get, the more I feel that I get the most fulfillment from things that are difficult and don't just present themselves to you on a silver plate.
One thing I love about the guitar - and I assume the same for all the other analog instruments - is that you are what makes the sound. It's not just an auditory sensation; it's also a haptic one.
"Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart."
Andres Segovia
And yet, everything in Big Tech seems to push the other direction. Taking away more and more "work" from us, supposedly liberating us from effort.
What if it's that effort, the labor required to pay close attention, that is making our life feel worthwhile?
By extension then, could it be that our lives feel more shallow because we've forgotten about that?
The researchers studying flow found that it's only a state we experience when we're tackling a task that's hard, a little beyond our current abilities.
What if the constant pursuit of instant gratification and easy hedonism ruins you for the deeper joys of profound experiences?
Maybe it's part of the reason people don't like to read anymore (let alone old books with language they aren't familiar with).
Maybe it's because we define everything about us as a drive toward more achievement, where leisure time becomes but a box-stop to prepare for another spurt of work.
And maybe that's why we fill it more often than not with bouts of passive consumption, seemingly relaxing, or as the current lingo goes, rotting.
"Friction can act as a catalyst, pushing us to a fuller awareness and deeper understanding of our situation."
- Nicholas Carr in The Glass Cage
When more and more of our lives are taking place in the confines of our screen, less and less of our whole being is engaged.
Maybe Heidegger was right then, dismissing typing in favor of writing on paper.
I have to type, but nothing keeps me from sketching out all my ideas, the quotes I want to use, and the general flow in my head and then on paper.
Because, you know, Heidegger also said that thinking is indeed handwork.
So is playing an instrument.
It's not about reducing effort as much as possible.
If anything, the difficulty in acquiring something might just be correlated to the joy you get once you reach it.
"Quite often, I have to work hard to improve my technical capacity, if you will, before the demands of a new work come within reach. And I find that very stimulating."
- Julian Bream
Thanks for reading 💚
