Vince Pecore, Contributor
vpecore@capital.edu
“Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise.”
– George Gershwin
I think there is so much value in what Mr. Gershwin is saying here…I’ll try to explain the way I see things as simply as possible. As humans, we fear the unknown. This means that we fear the future, because the future is, of course, unknown. Also, as humans, we try to make sense of the unknown, in hopes that we’ll become less afraid of it. This means that we try to make sense of our future, charting it out to a tee; our parents and teachers pressure us to do so from an extremely young age.
However, charting out what is next and not valuing what is now almost always leads to living mentally in the future…and it’s quite commonly accepted that living mentally in the future, rather than the present, leads to chronic anxiety…so you’re back where you started: fearful.
Don’t be afraid to *not* know exactly where you’re going in life. Have an idea, like any jazz soloist would have when approaching a solo. But no need to have it down to a tee. We’re young. It’s still time to explore.
George Gershwin himself, a man considered to have mastered the piano, was not supposed to be the ‘family musician.’ Rather, his brother, Ira was. Ira and George’s parents provided Ira with piano lessons from a young age; he was to be the family prodigy. George experimented curiously with the instrument in his free time and ended up going down in history as one of the most skilled pianists of all time.
I’ve played piano since I was little, and Gershwin has always been an inspiration for me because, while I learn fastest when improvising and exploring, but I trip over my own fingers trying to read what someone else has already written for me to play. Even if you don’t play piano, you might be surprised with how helpful this strategy is in life. Improvise and explore…do not try to read what someone else has written out for you.
