My Flute As A Tap

I don't remember what I was doing, but earlier today something made me think of playing my flute not as "making" music, but as letting it out. The music is in there, and it just needs to be let out. Much like a tap lets the beer out of a keg. It can be a flute, or a fiddle, a banjo or a bodhran, but it's still just letting the music out.

True, my fingers and other muscles need to know how to move to make the sounds that the music requires, so practice is important. Sometimes I am just teaching my body how to make the sounds that will become music.

I often hear people say that they are a "piano player" or a "guitar player" or something. I suppose that if someone were to hand you a sheet with music on it and you would play your piano or whatever and make the sounds on that paper you would be a piano player. Like a player piano, but without the roll mechanism.

It's not the paper that makes the difference either. Either from memory or from paper it is possible to make the sounds as they were put down by another and you will be playing the piano. But if the music has gotten in you, and you are letting it out again, then you are making music. Letting the music out.