As you work with your space and your binders, be thinking about the fact, that this is a metaphor for how you interact with the music you play.

We’re so used to trying to ‘fit in’ to what’s already there, instead of thinking about what WE really need to feel comfortable or creative.   So in the same way that you’re changing your SPACE to make it more conducive to practicing, playing or experimenting – you can also think about what you need to do to the MUSIC to make it more conducive to YOUR way of practicing, playing or experimenting.

I was amazed, the first time I looked at my compositions after orchestral musicians played them.  The pages were FILLED with scratches and scribbles, including the names of notes written above the notes.  At first I thought, “Wow, I thought they were real musicians! Real musicians shouldn’t need to write in the names of notes.”  Then I realized they were truly SERIOUS, committed musicians, who do WHATEVER THEY NEED TO DO to make it easier for them to play the music.

I realized they were doing this as a service to the composer – me!  They were taking creative responsibility and assuming leadership of their own performance by doing whatever they personally needed to do to give the best performance they could.

Here’s an example of the 1st violin part.  Notice how they’ve written in the beats on the 3rd line of page 4 to make that measure easier to count, and how they’ve written the note “Eb” on the top of page 5, to make it easier to see what note to play.

The finest musicians in the country do this. These notes might have been written by Boston Symphony players or Baltimore Symphony players – because both orchestras played this music and each player added to it – which made it easier for each subsequent musician to read.

We all need to do the same. In service to our own creative expression:  Whatever we need to do to make our music more playable for us. At whatever level.  In whatever way.

This is part of the art of Creating Conducive Conditions for artistic expression.