Is it a Note Worth Playing?

I’ve never really played a single note in my life.

For 8 years I played the clarinet growing up. Actually, that’s not true. I took lessons but I’m not sure I actually played the clarinet. I went to hear Michael Tilson Thomas perform with the symphony orchestra. There was a clarinetist playing solo. The first few notes were the middle C, the easiest note, the first note they teach you. I realized listening to that that I had never actually played the clarinet.

I had never once in my entire life played a single note that sounded like that note did. But all the years I was taking lessons -no one sat me down & said none of this matters. None of the notes in the songs and all that stuff we keep piling on for you to do matters if you can’t play a single note that people actually want to hear. I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Why was it? Part of it was that I didn’t care enough. I didn’t care enough to put myself into in a way that would touch another person. The question we must ask is: Will you choose to actually make music?