As a kid growing up, my parents emphasized music and the arts. The public schools made it easy for kids to participate, so when music classes were an option, my mom made sure that my sister and I were quickly enrolled. She played the violin. I played the clarinet.
Truth be told, what I wanted to play was the flute. I liked the sound of it, and it wasn’t super loud. But my dad played the clarinet when he was a kid and we had one in the house. For budget reasons, the clarinet won the day.
I wasn’t super excited about it, but I was a good student, so I practiced a lot. The trouble was we lived in a neighborhood where all the houses were really close together. My bedroom window faced directly to the neighbor’s open garage where a bunch of teenage guys were always working on their cars. Here was the rub. The clarinet is not an instrument you can play without blowing hard and making noise. And when you are first learning, the noise is NOT pretty.
Add to that, I would practice with the windows open — because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley — and it was always HOTTER than blazes — especially in the summer. The kids next door would yell through the window to cut it out, hurry it up, or close the window. It was not exactly the best environment to learn to make beautiful music.
I kept practicing, and step by step. the noise became music. The ribbing I took from the neighbors was just one more challenge to overcome as I stayed with it despite how embarrassed I was. Step by step, I got a lot better as a musician. At one time, I was “second chair” seated right next to the #1 guy who just happened to have a very expensive clarinet that sounded better, no matter how he played it.
So why do I tell you this story?
Playing the clarinet in close quarters is a bit like finding your own voice. If you get encouraged, receive applause, and are recognized for your talent, it’s pretty swell. But while you are learning all the “how to” bits, finding your style, refining your approach, and working on your technique and finesse, it is just NOT so swell. You have to want the result enough to stick with it. And that means a lot of practice, implementation, interpretation and a lot of “wash, rinse and repeat” to get it right.
I became present to this lesson and reflection over the weekend as I was revisiting my love of music while playing the electronic keyboard in my living room that simulates a grand piano. With a teenager downstairs and a husband in the other room, I was thinking to myself how glad I was that the keyboard offered VOLUME CONTROL I didn’t want to annoy either of them with the imperfect notes of music practice. I didn’t want to be embarrassed about not getting it right. And I sure as heck didn’t want neighbors walking their dogs outside to hear me and laugh — or worse.
Then, it occurred to me that I likely keep the volume low when I try new things in my business for the same reasons. I play the 
student far longer than I should as opposed to getting out there in a big way to speak my truth, wave the flag, and do my thing.
Here’s the lesson, and I need to embrace it. We are all on the path to mastery, and we are always getting better through practice, trial and error, success, and failure. It’s the ongoing effort in pursuit of a worthy ideal that keeps life interesting.
So, if you experience me raising the volume around the work I do in the coming months and it feels or sounds clunky, loud, imperfect or awkward as I find my new groove, consider yourself warned. I’ve got more music to make to make my best impact, and this girl won’t be stopped. How about YOU?
