Music on My Mind: Keep Your Options Open

Despite the multiple challenges of the pandemic, creative opportunities await the 21st Century musician. During the pandemic musicians found a way to make music and to reach out to the public in novel ways ( programming, interacting with audiences, collaborating with non musicians ) and to play at unusual venues (garages, malls, webinars/online programs). Musicians were versatile and resourceful and brought pleasure to many listeners at home who were tuning in to concerts and music lessons on Zoom. Music brought emotional relief and pleasure into our living rooms and introduced us to performers up close who often spoke with us about the music they played . Webinars became available for teaching and other programming. Even some Zoom conferences and meetings were scheduled when in-person events were not possible. Many musicians were able to use their creativity to work in their chosen profession in this strange new environment. Musicians rose to the occasion of sudden lockdown to share their lifelong investment in making music and rising to challenges in performance and teaching. Music became an important healing resource for musicians themselves and their audiences in a way we never anticipated.

A Personal Reflection

By way of a personal introduction: I am a psychologist and psychoanalyst who began my career as a performer and teacher of piano and who also taught vocal music in public school following graduation from Juilliard. Since childhood. I never dreamed of doing anything else but pursuing music as my career. Had you told me I would return to graduate school post-Juilliard, and pursue additional graduate education in psychology and social work and later psychoanalytic training that licenses me to be a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, and to publish articles and books about stage fright, music and emotions, and career choice in music I never would have believed you. If you had suggested that I would be a psychoanalyst. I would have replied , “what is a psychoanalyst?”

I experienced stage fright from my early years, never understood it, and, fast-forwarding, I now work with people to help them understand how emotions and life events interfere with doing what they love and are trained to do. I help people learn to pay attention to why debilitating emotions surge during performances and have a negative effect on performances (and vice versa)—when talent, competence, and hard work are contrary to one’s sense of self is diminished.

I am passionate about music even though my career took an unexpected turn. Music is part of who I am and what I value in my life. Music has always evoked emotions in me as a performer, teacher, and listener—and became more apparent as I started to combine music with my career in mental health. For many years since my career “change” to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, I have combined music in my thinking, in my clinical work, in my writing, and most recently, in advocating that musicians become “Cultural Ambassadors” who share their talents on and off the stage to become more involved in their community and in society. Over many years, I have modulated far from the performance career I envisioned.

Or have I? Yes and no.

Keeping Your Options Open: Using Your Musical Skills and Talents

I recall my high school choir director wrote the following message in my yearbook when I was a graduating senior and headed to Juilliard. I had accompanied the choir all through high school. He wrote, “Keep your options open.”

I felt deflated since I interpreted his comment to mean I could not make it in music so I should have back-up choices. Now, many years after my high school graduation, I realize how spot-on he was about musicians realizing that there are multiple options to express their musical training and talents. How incorrect I was in my interpretation of his message!

It was by keeping my options (and mind) open that I have been able to find great pleasure in what I do that combines my work in music and my interest in understanding and helping people address issues that include stage fright and career choice. My music training enabled me to think analytically, listen carefully, look beneath the surface of a melody to discover the counterpoint and understand deeper musical structure - the same listening sensitivities I use in my work doing psychotherapy. For example, my work as a psychologist/psychoanalyst has enabled me to use my musical training to listen and tune in to the thoughts and feelings of my patients of which they may be unaware and help them resolve or cope productively with emotional issues that interfere with personal and professional pleasure in their work. I help them explore creative, satisfying options they never realized were available. Both music and psychology share some basic concepts about looking beneath the obvious surface of what is written (words and music) on the printed page and underneath feelings buried in our mind.

Now more than ever we need musicians who share their multiple talents to perform, lecture, write, teach, and become involved in their communities. Music teachers also can influence their students of all ages in the current and next generation, to take an expansive view of making and sharing music with others. In fact, I have discovered in my patients that the idea of “sharing” music rather than the pressure of playing “perfectly” (whatever “perfect” means to the performer) helps reduce performance pressures and anxiety.

Musicians of the 21st Century can consider themselves “Cultural Ambassadors” on stages, in teaching studios, and in communities, and boardrooms of arts organizations who share ideas and collaborate with others to be advocates for the healing power of music. The opportunity to interact with non musicians, including with people in mental health professions, also provides an expanded opportunity to reach out to others and demonstrate the power of the arts. Now, more than ever, teaching and playing music relies on our ingenuity, boldness, and resourcefulness to promote and share music’s enduring and endearing values.