Music Is Not About Perfection But Rather Soul

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"The only way to keep a song alive is to never play it the same way twice." —Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones There was a very interesting question asked of Keith Richards, the masterful guitar player from iconic rock band The Rolling Stones. It is a question I think a lot of musicians get asked probably. How do you remember all of those songs? Keith Richards smiled and said, "The simple fact of the matter is I don't. But my fingers do. My fingers know where to go and I just follow them. You have to suspend your thoughts, out there, on stage. If you let your thoughts get in the way, it can really muddle things up. So, I rely on my fingers to show me the way. And they remember where to go and they know what to do." It was an interesting response because I have heard many great musicians, and mostly guitarists, say that they never play the same song the same way twice. And in fact, they say, they can't. Guitar playing is not ever about perfection. It is more about interpretation. And every time a guitarist picks up a guitar and strums a chord or plays a riff, it is something unique that sounds very familiar, but not at all the same as what was the original inspiration for it, or where it came from. And ask any musician about whether they get it perfect every time or what they think about trying to? They have one simple answer. Screw perfection. Because music is about the moment. It is about emotion. And if you are up there on stage just going through the motions, and trying to perfectly capture each note and worrying about whether or not you are a bit before the beat or a bit after the beat, or if the drummer has sped up a bit or slowed down a bit... You might as well not be doing it. Another musician said once, "Even if I make a mistake, the best part is that even though I know it, and the rest of the band knows it—I can be a master of my own screwups and do it in a way that the one person that matters the most doesn't KNOW I screwed up. The audience."