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Professional musicians often associate “playing for fun” with being a kid, an amateur—being somone who isn’t serious about the music they make. But playing music for fun has huge benefits, besides the obvious: it’s fun.
It’s not that playing music for fun has to have other benefits. But its easier to make time for playing around, when you know there are benefits besides having fun.
Today’s guest is musician and educator Dr. Ashley Danyew. She says that “playing for your own enjoyment and for the sake of the music itself really feed the rest of the work we do as musicians.” According to research by Dr. Stuart Brown and others, playing also preps you for “real” scenarios by giving you a safe place to learn without fear of a failure.
Ashley and I came up with ten ways we musicians can play for fun:
- Learn a different musical skill (e.g. figured bass or open score for keyboardists), either on your own or in a class or workshop
- Learn a piece by ear
- Improvise in a new-to-you style
- Reharmonize a hymn
- Play with other musicians (e.g. informal chamber music)
- Play a piece or style that’s new to you or that you wouldn’t usually play (e.g. secular holiday music or playing in a band)
- Produce a musical event
- Play in little pockets of time if you have an instrument at home
- Learn a new instrument
- Compose
What makes any of these activities fun is that they are for your own enjoyment. They aren’t necessarily fun in and of themselves. It’s your experience that makes the activity for fun or not.
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Favorite Quotes
“Playing for fun is coming from that place of intrinsic motivation. It can help prevent burn out, it can help you work through creative blocks, if you’re getting stuck somewhere or you just feel like you’re going through the motions. It can help reignite that creative spark. And it’s also a way to remember why you started in the first place—what first led you to pursue music, why and how it captivated you.” — Ashley Danyew
“Playing for fun makes me a more whole musician. I’m more myself because I can express myself musically.” — Sarah Bereza
Resources We Mentioned
- Play by Stuart Brown, MD, with Christopher Vaughn (“Playful interaction allows for a penalty-free rehearsal of the normal give and take of social groups,” p. 32.)
- The National Institute for Play
- Drive by Daniel H. Pink and Ashley’s take on the book
- Ashley’s keyboard skills course
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