Make your work sing – by boxing up your routines

One day I did the unthinkable: After playing piano for 25 years, I packed up my sheet music and stuck the box under the basement steps.

I wasn’t quitting piano. Just the opposite. I wanted to learn how to play without the help of notes on a printed page.

My first forays into “playing by ear” sounded more like “playing by fist.” I made noise rather than music. Even simple tunes proved to be difficult without sheet music.

This went on for three frustrating weeks, but then it happened: I hit the steep part of the learning curve. My fingers woke up. They began to find the tunes.

It’s more than a decade later, and my sheet music is still boxed away. I play most songs by ear, and I can get into a zone in which I make up my own songs spontaneously. It’s fun, it’s relaxing, and it keeps me busy at parties.

Best of all, my relationship with the piano is entirely different. So are the results. Back when I needed the printed script, I was reading notes, hitting keys, and stringing sounds together. Now I’m fully making music. It used to be mechanical. Now it’s emotional. It used to be labor. Now it’s a passion.

It reminds me of what goes on in the workplace. Like piano players who stick with their sheet music, many people follow the procedures, the written instructions, “the way it’s done.” They hit the keys. They read the notes. They go about their jobs in a mostly mechanical fashion. They use their hands, but not their hearts or minds. They produce, but without passion.

Perhaps there’s an alternative.

What if we boxed up our prescribed ways of doing things? What if we took “the way it’s done” and stuck it under the basement steps? What if we proceeded to improvise, approaching old routines with a new sense of freedom, choice, and possibility?

It’s true that some jobs involve strict protocols: emergency services, industrial settings, hazardous facilities, and other places where health, safety, and security are the leading concern. Procedures need to be followed.

But most jobs give people more leeway.

If yours does, take it and make the most of it. There might be some noise and frustration at first. But if you stick with it, the result will be music to your ears — and to the ears of the people you serve.

By Tom Terez • Contact