EP 022 There Are No Wrong Notes!

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A Conversation with Karen Baker

Hi all, and welcome back to The Workbench Podcast!  We have a great episode today, but before I jump into the details, I want to let you know that I have started a weekly newsletter that includes tools, ideas, and thoughts to move your own work forward.  It’s called The Wednesday Workbench and I invite you to sign up. Head on over to Kristinaau.com to check it out. And stay tuned for a few other changes in the works that will be unfolding over the next few months. 

Now – on to today’s episode!  This is a conversation I had in December with my Mom, Karen Baker, and I am thrilled to be sharing this with you. 

One of the reasons I’m psyched about this is because she’s willing to share her process with us – while in the middle of creating.   

Many of us feel we can’t share our work with the world until we get it to a certain point of doneness and perfection for others. We fear judgment or ridicule or apathy or any of the feelings that can deflate us and open the door to the self-doubt that lives just beneath the surface of our consciousness.

Resolve, Energy and Risk

It takes a lot of resolve and energy to risk creating something for the world, and it doesn’t take much for this resolve and energy to scatter and to wane. One of the essential elements of our work here at The Workbench is supporting others in their creative process, encouraging creativity in all of its forms, providing the right type of encouragement and feedback, and allowing the process to unfold. And again – interest and encouragement.  It is so helpful to hear “You Can Do This, and It’s Going to Be Great!” 

In today’s episode, Mom shares a song that she has been writing and how this process has unfolded for her. She walks us through her thought process of building the piece, the source of her inspiration, and shares the music as it was at that moment, in December. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed creating this for you!  Sending love and light!

Show Notes: In this episode, we talked about:

• The inspiration for this song coming from an image experienced on a walk. The original intention was not to write a song, but the soaring freedom of this bird made a lasting impression.
• Being able to play and have fun with an idea – this is crucial to creating.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.
• Decision making as part of the process of building something. 
• Rhythm in our culture and working with the idea of “making art out of time (rhythm). 
• In creating the song, she considered the four elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and form. 
• How music can evoke feelings that we can’t put into words. 
• A shift in her process and her thinking about perfection – using her recorder to capture ideas as they emerge, not fully formed.  Accepting the feedback from the process
• Telling the Committee of Critics in our brains to take a hike, how self-critical thinking gets in the way of the creative process, and that “mistakes” are feedback.  Take them, make new decisions, and move on.

Thanks for listening! More episodes coming soon!

Shout out: Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash