guitar piano ukulele

Just because you’ve done something a certain way and that chapter has closed, it doesn’t mean you can’t experience it in other formats or levels.

I used to play a local open mic every single Wednesday. It was pretty niche and awesome for its niche, and I played a pretty standard type of music within my range. My sound was pretty consistent.

I was also a studious and diligent guitar student for many years.

Then I became a music teacher and taught piano, guitar, and ukulele for years… even now, those three words — piano, guitar, ukulele — roll right off the tip of my tongue, almost faster than I actually say them, because they just belong together in my mouth and my mind. The three instruments were spoken and explained jointly, countless times, in every introduction and every initial personal, social, or business question. It was such a big part of my story and my identity for so long.

I am, often, too limited, rigid, and black and white in my thinking. I don’t want to be, but it’s a challenge in the structure of my hardwiring.

For a long time, I thought those rolls — especially Music Teacher, guitar piano ukulele — would last forever. I really did think I was going to run my music lesson studio into my old age.

Eventually, I changed my mind, and even after my heart and soul were trying to let me know the season was shifting and I was ready for something else, my brain fought my gut, so it was a very difficult decision to come to. I finally accepted it, and I closed my business and went out happily in search of new experiences.

(Your gut usually knows. YOU KNOW. And you can trust yourself. Listen up.)

What a surprising twist in the story!

So when the roles ended — first weekly open mic performer, then music teacher/studio owner, guitar piano ukulele — I think I started to subconsciously believe it just wasn’t for me anymore. I didn’t know my place anymore. I always believed music would never stop being a part of me, but it kind of felt like it had, and I didn’t know what to do next or if I wanted to do anything next or how to. I was also afraid.

Time. Time is good medicine for some things.

Now I am learning music is vast, and it is plenty large to accommodate whatever new path I feel the pull, interest, and love to take.

Now I am learning I can be anything.

I am learning the roles don’t always serve us. When they don’t fit anymore, shake them off, and don’t let it slow you down.

I am learning I can do something entirely fresh and new, unrelated to what I did for so long.

Just because I’m done with what I did — where I played, what I played, how I sounded, the time I spent teaching — doesn’t mean I’m done with music.

We are always growing.

Maybe you no longer fit into what used to be just right.

That’s okay. It’s supposed to be that way.

Keep exploring.