Moderation – Quick Practice Tip

[The tune I play at the beginning of this Quick Tip is called Dewdrop Hornpipe. You can listen to it here.]

Hey everybody, Vi Wickam here with your [my] Talent Forge Quick Tip of the Week.

Today I’m going to talk about moderation. This was a suggestion from one of my fiddle friends, Katie Glassman, when we were at the Colorado State fiddle contest a few weeks ago.

She said, “Vi, I’ve been listening to your Quick Tips, and I think what you’re doing is great, but what you really need to do is a tip on moderation!”

And I thought- wow! Moderation, huh? Moderation for musicians? Moderation for creative types? Moderation for humans in general?

We kind of stink at moderation! Especially those of us who are kind of creative types.

So, at first, it took some thinking to figure out how do I do a Quick Tip about moderation when moderation is not something I’m inherently good at?

Well I think that’s a good thing to think about because it’s not something I’m naturally good at. It’s not what we musicians are naturally good at.

So considering the possibility of moderation are kind of important.

Now, what I came to was not that moderation is what we should try to hit. Because we just aren’t good at it!

I’m no good at moderation, and you’re probably not either, if you’re a creative type. So, rather than going for moderation, what I’m going to suggest is that you try for balance.

When I say try for balance rather than moderation- what I mean is, I know that you’re going to stay out late playing music with your friends. Because that’s what we do!

But maybe the next day, you take a rest. And you don’t stay out late, and you go to bed early the next night! Or maybe you burn the midnight oil for 3 or 4 days in a row.

But if you don’t find that balance and you don’t take yourself to the place of balance, your body will show you that you need to find that balance.

We can find that balance in all sorts of areas in our life. Finding that rest when we need rest is an important part of that balance.

Finding the time with our family when we need to find that time with our family is another important part of finding that balance.

But know that we’re going to do things in extremes. We will find days where we play our instrument for 6 or 8 hours. But our body is going to need a rest after that.

So, take the time and try to find those places of balance, and don’t judge yourself when you do something extreme! Because you’re human, and you’re a musician! That’s kind of what we do…

Have a great week! I’ll see you next time!

PS. To find more balance in your life, try out Yoga for Musicians.