Life as a creative could never be described as dull ! It is an endless process of trying, creating, exploring new possibilities and creating strands that lead to some kind of solvency!(Or not!).
These last few months have been a diligent “doing” of a timetable that has SIX work strands. Each strand has to be created and done by myself alone so it is important to be endlessly optimistic, vibrantly creative and above all, ploddingly diligent! It is rather like making a complex meal on a two ring stove that needs constant turning up and down of heat or adding a new ingredient or two and shifting of pans so they all get a fair share of the heat ! The tasting of the results is a constant process too, leading to necessary refinements!
So, my work strands are : running my music teaching business, starting an HNC in Counselling, a songwriting Kulning project to somehow get off the ground, creating a mentoring programme that explores self development through creativity ( song writing), a mystery crazy gig project which may or may not come off involving endless planning and minutiae and learning the piano for musical /song development. As well as that there are the requirements of crofting a 3/4 acre garden for food and is a required necessity to keep our rent reasonable, along with all the life things of keeping fit and meditatively calm. I am a Jill of all trades and a mistress of none. But, living off one’s creatives talents means a portfolio career.
Self employed music teaching is a delight and I teach such a range of children that it has been a fascinating journey into child psychology and differing needs/neuro divergence as I see music as a means to create growth and confidence in a young being. But, it is not enough of an income so I am training to also be a counsellor. In many ways I sometimes act as one already to the children I teach. Positivity, calmness, joy, playfulness and confidence are the hallmarks of my music teaching so I slide quite easily into this new counselling strand. However, it will still take me three years to qualify. Going back to writing essays and muddling Harvard referencing is a bit of a sigh….
And my various songwriting projects all need money….lots of grant applications. I don’t always fit the success criteria as my progress is slower and more unorthodox than most other musicians. So, I have to practice the art of trying with non attachment. Success is never, ever guaranteed. Grant bodies want success to be quantified in ways that are measurable and accessible but my growth is not that. I can not gig or easily collaborate and my use of I.T means my digital development is haphazard – mirroring my use and understanding of it! And grant forms require everything to be primed and ready to go so one can work away at something and spend hours applying for it, for it to disappear into puffs of smoke.This is the art of slowly creating allowing directions and possibilities to arise, abide and disappear and only sometimes come to fruition.
I am also developing a mentoring/creative development programme for people with the aid of xponorth. I hope this comes to pass as I will need a production assistant to help me with the technology required to make, film and edit the course I have designed. The mentee will leave the course having learnt to meditate, have deepened their self knowledge and self worth and will have a created a song in this process. Music to aid transformation. Music as personal alchemy. This will be a slow project. The Art of Slow is becoming a decided work theme!
And then there is learning the piano. I have now had online lessons for just over a year. I occasionally get to use a real piano courtesy of the kindness of the village hall. Learning as an adult is a humbling slow process for someone who is a bit dyspraxically clumsy and also left handed. The Art of Slow again!
None the less I have written my first song on the piano with chords I have chosen. Of course the arrangement could be more sophisticated and there could be a lovely instrumental break but I feel proud of my first effort. The song is about our human condition and how we love. We feel the separation of having an individual ego and in that alone- ness we reach for love . But love is a beautiful, fleeting thing that both heals our aloneness and compounds it. However, we are born from the mystery of life which I believe is love and we go back to that. We are never really alone and we can live our lives wrapped in that love co creating our reality with love as a modus operandi.
Here is the song: Spring is in my Heart
Alone, alone
On a sea of uncertainty.
My heart is hoping, waiting, loosening
For the return of sunlit spring.
Chorus
Spring is in my heart
When you are near me
Like the blossom on the tree.
Hope is in my heart
Eternally, my love
Shivering in hope for you.
V2
Beating together
Our hearts, in synchronicity
Love binds together, meeting, parting
Hoping for eternal spring.
Repeat Chorus.
V3
Souls will take eternal flight
Forever on the wing
Returning to the heart of love
Where all can breathe, breathe as one.
It is in F major, exploring all the chords in that family of chords….when I have better fingers it could be arpeggiated and have a lovely instrumental break playing around with the melody. But, I can now accompany myself in the most basic way! You can hear a reel of it on instagram under abi.songwriter
The Art of Slow again!
Abi's World of Music 