Last night I had the opportunity to watch a jazz band play in Sydney. And they were awesome.
The band members (bass, piano, drums) seemed to follow the singer’s lead and to work in with her direction – but without words.
As she made choices, they adapted and changed direction – stringing something out longer, or changing the focus to a particular part of a song… playing that in a different way, or more intensely.
Speaking with her afterwards, I commented how tightly the band performed and that they seemed to communicate through intuition… moving around the music without words or even making eye contact.
It turns out, they weren’t even using sheet music.
They worked off pages covered with a handwritten series of the names of chords!
To my untrained eyes, they looked like scrawls – just the names of the chords …
I wish I’d taken a photo of their ‘notes’. I was so surprised that this simple framework created those magical sounds.
They truly felt their way through the performance.
When WE become a master in our craft (like these musicians had mastered their instruments and performances) we can all ‘play jazz’.
We can go off script, we can meander our way towards our goals – going off track and forging new paths. And we too can create beautiful music.
But, so often we try and ‘play jazz’ without having learned the notes practiced the scales, done the drills, sought mentorship, found the right band.
If we want to communicate our message, and truly reach people with our heart – we really need to start by doing the work to really understand them at a deep level, so well – that intuition can take over.
We need to put in the work to become great, not just good. To get gritty with our work.
Here’s to doing what you love,
Suzi Dafnis
CEO
HerBusiness
P.S. I love what Angela Duckworth says it in her book, Grit.
Talent x effort = Skill
Skill x effort = Achievement
Let’s get gritty. And play jazz.
