"Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter
Play It Like It's Music
the cultivation of small delightful actions
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song: “Natalie” by XVSK (Trevor Exter & John Morgan Kimock)

press play above or listen here.

When I play one note, it’s a simple action with some part of my body that generates sound, and I'm instantly delighted.

To play one note is delight. Do I need the world, an audience, to hear it?

No.

Obviously the presence of an audience amplifies and multiplies the delight, but the delight in its purest form already exists independently.

Practice is the cultivation of these small delightful actions in quantity and order: creating and inhabiting patterns of delight.

We smooth out our movements: a sour note here, a lopsided rhythm there... we feed our attention and love into the ongoing action and the rest takes care of itself.

We must remember to breathe. And not to judge, only shape.

(Shaping it allows for more delight, judging cuts it off at the neck.)

Connect to the delight, and protect that connection with your life. God speaks through our bodies and the audience shows up to witness.

Sometimes you’ll break a string.

See you again next Wednesday.

Love,

Trevor

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"Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter
Play It Like It's Music
Purists may whine that the best days of music are behind us, that capital “M” music has seen its peak and is no longer relevant. But here at Play It Like It's Music we believe the opposite: not only is the act of musicmaking an essential life skill with a lineage stretching back to the beginnings of human history, but the vocation of the professional musician is more vital today than it ever has been. Once a month, join musician, songwriter and producer Trevor Exter as he drops in on working musicians from every genre.