Work Like a Musician

There’s more to the life of a musician than the practice room and classroom. He has to do things like eat, brush his teeth, clean, and help friends renovate. My buddy’s recent sanding project deeply encouraged me to apply principles I learned in music to get through a physically and mentally taxing work situation. 

The short setting is: my friend owns an old house. For those who don’t know, old houses mean weird corks. Once in my old house, I found wood chips for insulation, and in my friend’s house he discovered newspaper being used as a vapor barrier on a bedroom ceiling. In order to get to the beautiful wood paneling underneath, we had to do some serious sanding to the dated news and rugged wood. This kind of sanding requires an above the head technique, one where your shoulders start burning within minutes. Not only did the act of sanding hurt, but it seemed ineffective. The newspaper had to be parked just right against the sander in order to get anything done. Simply going back-and-forth with long lackadaisical strokes would not cut it. If I wanted any chance of making quality progress, I had to work like a musician.

One of the most valuable things a musician learns is how to practice well. In other words, they learn how to work. Good musical practice is facing problems and getting solutions. Large principles present in this process are 1) take is slow and 2) work in sections. I sum this up in the mantra “slower and smaller.” Facing a challenge? “Slow and smaller.” Do that so you may succeed early and often. Then, build on that success by steadily going faster and working in larger chunks. My day is spent teaching and stressing this to my students, and then I live it out in all areas of life (not just music)!

My friend’s ceiling was a beast of an etude. Plowing through it was not going to work. I’d be left frustrated and in shoulder pain. Thankfully, another gentlemen I was working with was doing a lot better at achieving the smoother woody texture then I was. That became a blessing to me, because his work became my teacher. You could remove the pioneering insulation! You could get the paneling to be silky smooth! Something in my head clicked, and I started working “smaller and slower.” It only took 4 in. of focused, successful sanding for me to realize what I had to do in order to get the job done. I targeted quarter to fist size pieces of newspaper and fought it with the sander until it disintegrated into dust. Taking out those small sections took seconds of effort. After I finished one goal area, I would bring my arms down, take a breath, find the next one, then ATTACK. This pace was sustainable. This approach was satisfying. And, it was EFFECTIVE. The last 45 minutes of work flew by. Joy, baby. 

So to sum up…“slower and smaller” is your mantra with sweeping, with the night watch, with the exam, with the road trip, with the workout, and with every game of life. Learn like a musician. Work like a musician.