Hey Indiana,
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -Wayne Gretzky (or was it Michael Scott π)
Many of you don't know that I grew up playing hockey. As a son to Canadian parents it was essentially a given. I played up until I went to college.
But while I liked hockey, I was never a big sports person. As in I didn't get really into teams or spend my time watching a lot of games.
As you know, I was a music guy! I would way rather spend my time playing my guitar or listening to music. That's pretty much been true for most of my life.
Well, back in February my parents flew over to the New York area for my daughter Magalie's 1st birthday, and my Dad wanted to go to Madison Square Garden to watch the New York Rangers play (a bucket list item for him).
And while we were at it we booked another game at the Prudential Center to watch the New Jersey Devils.
Now, I'm not sure if it was nostalgia kicking in, but after that week of watching those two hockey games, something changed in me and I got hooked!
Suddenly I found myself signing up for ESPN subscriptions so I could watch all of the games, and for the last several months I've been watching hockey almost every night.
My wife hardly recognizes me anymore! Although, she supports my new hobby (I really needed one).
Anyway, all of that to say (and I promise there is a lesson in here), I was watching a hockey game the other night - a playoffs game between the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes. A very high stakes game.
For those who don't know, in hockey there are 3 periods of 20 minutes each. If the game ends in a tie, then they go to "sudden-death overtime" which means they continue playing periods of 20 minutes until the next team scores.
This particular game went on to 4 overtimes - making it the sixth longest game in NHL history. You could see how tired the players were. They were essentially canceling each other out so they couldn't make any plays.
But eventually with 12 seconds left in the 4th overtime, the Florida Panthers scored the game winning goal.
How did they do it? They just kept shooting the puck at the net. If it was a bad shot, good shot, or anything in between, they just kept shooting until finally something went in.
And guess what? It's kind of like that with music sometimes.
Back to the Wayne Gretzky quote:
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
When you go to practice or perform and start improvising, all you can do is start taking shots - that is to say, trying musical ideas and seeing where they go.
Sometimes they will be "bad" ideas. That's okay because you just need to make a slight adjustment and try a different one.
I go into much greater detail on this on this week's podcast episode. Hope you'll give it a listen!
>>>Learn how to take more musical shots for more success<<<
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.