In this clip (12 min. in) Herbie Hancock describes his experience in 1968 playing an electric piano for the first time. Going into the studio, Hancock saw that there was no piano in the room. Confused, he turned to Miles Davis and asked, “What do you want me to play?” Miles looked at an object in a far corner of the studio, pointed to it, and whispered, “Play that.”
It was a Fender Rhodes. Originally invented in 1942 as a therapeutic instrument for recovering soldiers, Hancock had only heard negative reviews of the instrument. But when he sat down to play, he discovered its potential—the volume control, the tone. He learned the importance of forming an opinion about something based on firsthand experience rather than relying on someone else’s perception. “And I’ve never forgotten that lesson. It’s a fundamental principle of life.
“If one of my mentors, Miles Davis, was open to the unconventional, I immediately questioned my point of view toward the unexplored, and I changed my attitude.”
What do we have negative opinions about that may be blocking creativity? And what does it take to remove those blocks?
h/t Z for context + insight
TUNING Design Co. 