Many people tell me that they are not creative.  That they aren't musical, artistic, or inventive.  Then, almost always, in the next sentence they tell me of something amazing they designed.  This always makes me smile and I always point out that they just told me how creative they are.

These "non-creative" types often are creating in huge ways and don't even know it.  They create entire well-thought out designs and plans.  They can orchestrate the flow of point A to point B.  They can take a vision and implement it at the highest level.  Sometimes the tool of creativity is a spreadsheet and not a paintbrush.   But don't let that fool you.  There is still creativity flowing through.

The same thing happens when people say they aren't "musical" and that they "don't have a musical bone in their body."  That the only instrument they are good at is "the radio."

Do you know that you are a literal, walking instrument by...

Hi!  Laurel here from Drunken Fiddles.  After teaching adult beginners for  years I've noticed a common thread in students who give up on their fiddle dreams too early - people who come to the first class and maybe the second and then I never see them again.

The number one destroyer of fiddling: Perfectionism.  

The phrase "Practice makes perfect" has always been floating around in our group consciousness, implying that "perfect" is the end goal to what we are trying to do here on the fiddle.  But if you really think about it, perfect doesn't even exist in music.  You can always play something a little better, cleaner, faster, more expressively, more in tune, more rhythmic, etc.....  You'll never get there.

Perfectionists are easy to spot.  After one lesson they tell me they aren't cut out for the fiddle.  That they can't get it to sound good.  That they aren't up to speed.  They are used to be good at things, right...