12/19/24 A Safe Space to Play

In the last blog, I wrote that the key to being creative is curiosity and playfulness.

And, as if to back me up, I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I happened to come across a clip of John Cleese, the comedian from Monty Python, talking about the importance of play to the creative process.

“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

Now, if you think about play, you’ll see why. To play is experiment. What happens if I do this? What would happen if we did that?

What if the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen. The feeling that, whatever happens, it’s OK.

See, you cannot be playful if you’re frightened that moving in some direction may be wrong. Something you shouldn’t have done.

And you’re either free to play or you’re not.”

Make sure you have a safe musical playground where all notes are welcome, not just the right ones.

And once we have our safe space, how do we find our way to great music making and inspired improvisations? That’s coming up next…