GAYLA M. MILLS
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Prelude

Picture
Pursuing Your Passion
​
It’s exciting to think about all the rewards of playing. It should be.

You’ll face obstacles, though, no matter where you are musically. If you’re starting out, you may question whether your goals are attainable. If you’ve had a long layoff, you may find it discouraging that your skills are rusty. If you’ve been playing regularly, you may have hit a plateau. And if you’ve had a health setback, you may need a new approach. You’re not alone.

Learning music requires persistence and effort. Playing is a thrill, but we all hit rough patches along the way. It’s no wonder that it’s tough: we’re building calluses on our hands, rewiring our brains, fine-tuning our attention to others, and training our ears to hear things we didn’t notice before. But is anything deeply enjoyed that isn’t hard earned? Voluptas e difficili data dulcissima est. The pleasure from hard effort is the sweetest.

That pleasure stays with us. Playing music is one of life’s great joyrides, one you can take with a warm community to help you along the way.

Join us on that ride.

The rewards will soon come. One day you’ll pick up your instrument and realize it fits against your body like it’s part of you. You’ll play something that sounds like real music, and you won’t believe you created that sound. One day your group will join voices in a song which lifts you up for that moment, suspended. Then you’ll look at one another and laugh because it’s so amazing you did that together.

Next 

  • Home
  • Book
    • Purchase
  • Essays & Features
    • Music >
      • Music Under a Tennessee Moon
      • A Future Imagined
      • Nashville Lights
      • Finding the Right Key
      • Practice
      • 12 Reasons Live Music
    • Family >
      • Opening a Closed Book
      • Powers of Two
      • A Father's Spring
      • The Last Day >
        • Spry Interview
    • Funny? >
      • A Treatise on Farting
      • All Steamed Up
      • Puppy Camera
    • Mortality >
      • Dead Bodies
      • Being Whole
      • Shaken Ground
      • Soft Spot
    • Living Fully >
      • Just One Thumb
      • Everything's in Color
      • Becoming Human
      • The Immortal Years
      • The Cost of Jury Duty
      • Broken Bones
    • Home >
      • Brick by Brick
      • Best not to Know
      • The Bouquet
    • Chapbook Collection: "Finite" >
      • The Buffet
      • Girls in Their Summer Dresses
      • Puppy Camera
      • Deer Hoof
      • The Fireplace
      • Summer Cooking
      • Gardner
      • The Bouquet
      • Sandwiches
      • Rugelach
      • Inheritance
      • Kneed
      • Dead Bodies
      • Snapshot or Video
      • January
      • Phyllis
      • Being Whole
      • The Immortal Years
      • Practice
      • Falling
  • Fiction
    • Enraptured
    • Buried Treasure
    • Soaring
    • Evening
  • Contact