Finding Your Instrument

“Music; the greatest good that mortals know, and all of heaven we have below.” – Joseph Addison.

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to be blessed with the wonderful ability to get music out of just about any musical instrument they lay their hands on? I know a guy who could wring a tune from a damp sponge if he wanted to! Then there are those of us who, though devoted music lovers, struggle to express ourselves even on one instrument. The later is my category – or so I thought.

For those who are left in awe of the musically gifted creed (like our friend Premik, pictured right), we may be doing them and ourselves something of a disservice. First of all, we have not witnessed the many hours of practice that these ‘fortunate maestros’ have put into their music training. Some survive on raw talent but most have to work hard at it. Secondly it is a fatal mistake to compare oneself to others – probably the numero uno killer of inspiration – because we develop the ‘Oh, I could never ever be like that’ syndrome! We are all unique and carry within us the quintessential seeds of creativity. Thirdly, for those of us whose creativity-seeds are still in the early stages of germination, there is the thought that we may not yet have found our instrument – that divine implement that was made ‘just for me’, perfectly suits our personality and allows the creative outlet that we have always yearned for. There is truth in this – I know it for a fact because it took me some four and a half decades to find the instrument that I did not even know I was looking for!

So I write in the hope of encouraging kindred-souls who are still holding to the hope that they may yet get a chance to play the music that they hear and feel inside their hearts and minds. Here is my story…

How I found my instrument (or how it found me!)

In a previous article, I wrote that my parents kept a number of instruments around the house when my siblings and I were young – the object being to encourage us to take up an instrument. Unfortunately our parents were not musically inclined – preferring to enjoy music through the mediums of TV, radio and my father’s record collection. Nothing wrong with that of course, but there is a message here: parents, if you want your children to do something, do it yourselves too so that the kids will emulate you – the old ‘lead from the front’ philosophy.

During my school years I tried a variety of instruments but nothing stuck. Emulating my parents, I started buying records as my teenage years blossomed and the stereo became my favoured instrument through that era. At least I learned to sing along and developed some capacity to learn music by ear. This trait landed me in plenty of trouble during my high school piano lessons because once I became familiar with a piece of music, I would stop reading the black dots, close my eyes and play the music from memory – feeling the music. But in the public education system of the day, das war verboten…

“Music is not just learning notes and playing them. You learn notes to play to the music of your soul.” – Katie Greenwood.

In 1984 I learned to meditate and since then have been subject to the compassionate tutelage of Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual Master and prolific composer of devotional music. His music really resonates with me and I have listened to and sung his songs since that time. Born of meditation, I find that Sri Chinmoy’s music makes a wonderful extension and compliment to my daily meditation practice. Naturally I also yearned to play his music on an instrument and did have a harmonium for a while but decided to sell it one year in order to travel. Listening and singing would have to do…

In 2000 I found myself in Ireland to help with a series of free meditation classes in Dublin. During my stay in the Emerald Isle, I purchased a tin whistle and began playing some of Sri Chinmoy’s tunes on it. My joy and confidence rose in lockstep and before long I was practicing for one or two hours each day with ease. “Sounds like you’ve found your instrument!” a musician-friend commented at the time and that boosted my confidence even further…

“Never get one of those cheap tin whistles. It leads to much harder drugs like pipes and flutes.” – Unknown.

I returned to Dublin the next year after spending time in New York with Sri Chinmoy. He had been based in New York since 1964 and his students from all over the world would gather there at certain times of the year. Sri Chinmoy was a real renaissance man. Asides from composing over 20,000 songs, he also played a wide variety of world instruments and performed over 700 free concerts during his 43 years in the West. Knowing that he was always on the lookout for new instruments, I had the opportunity to ask him if he would be interested in an Irish flute – something that had caught my eye on my first trip to Dublin “Certainly,” he said with an appreciative smile, “See if you can find a flute that is both powerful and sweet.”

Once back in Dublin, I began calling flute makers. Eventually I took a train down to the seaside town of Bray in County Wicklow and met with Martin Doyle whose brochure I had come across in a music store. Asides from being a great flute maker, Martin is also a very talented multi-instrumentalist with a flare for composing music. Very intrigued by the idea of making a flute for a spiritual Master, he immediately committed to making a flute for Sri Chinmoy and also for the New York based musician, Premik Russell Tubbs who has been a student of Sri Chinmoy’s teachings and music since the 1970s.

A few days before I was due to return to New York, I ventured back down to Bray to pick up the flutes. Martin welcomed me into his workshop and proceeded to demonstrate the two flutes he had crafted. Then he pointed to a third flute and said, “If you can play me a tune on that flute, its yours to have as a gift.” I had never played an Irish flute before, but I picked it up and managed to play one of Sri Chinmoy’s tunes that I knew well on the tin whistle. “Very good,” Martin said, “its yours!” Such a kind and generous gesture on Martin’s part set me on a course that has brought untold happiness into my life!

I had tried a concert flute when I was about eight years old – an older cousin played one in her school orchestra and she tried to get me to play as well, but I did not think much of it. Some 35 years later however, the warm, organic sounds I heard coming from the wooden Irish flute touched a chord deep inside – something that had never happened before. I also loved the simplicity of a six-hole keyless flute. The tin whistle had been a precursor but, in the wooden flute, I really had found my instrument.

So if you have not found your instrument yet, please, keep looking, keep yearning. It will be there and it will turn up eventually if the need is sincere and the aspiration strong. Certainly a visit to a store such as Gandharva Loka will offer you a very broad variety of instruments to try. Variety is the spice of life and sometimes it is good to try a few things to get a feeling for what might light your fire. I do dream of other instruments now – a cello is at the top of my wish list. A friend recently loaned me a Chinese erhu – new possibilities. I am not sure that I am destined to become a multi-instrumentalist and I am sure the wooden flute will always be my mainstay instrument – that and the instrument we are all born with, the voice. But it is nice to try different things…

There is tremendous value in music and countless benefits. So, if you haven’t already, I do hope that you find your instrument and experience the joys of music-making in your life…

To end, here is an audio file of myself playing Sunite Chahina, one of Sri Chinmoy’s Songs, on a Martin Doyle cocus wood D flute.