Member-only story
Why I lost faith in my musical abilities and the dangers of constructive criticism.
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I could never do anything right.
No matter how hard I tried, things would never go my way.
I remember my first look at my brand new saxophone when I was eleven years old. Boy how time flies. I named it Agnus and I remember when I first played her. It was the most sublime sound and I couldn’t put her down.
I always had to hear one last note after the other and eventually I’d play with her the whole night…that is…before things got sour.
Fast forward a few years and I’m still playing with Agnus. My love for music grows…blah blah blah…and then I hit a plateau. Even though plateaus are normal for creative and artistic people to have a mental block that stifles their creativity, I don’t think this plateau was all self inflicted.
The dangers of constructive criticism are are always swimming around in a sea of negative connotation.
