There is nothing like a loaf of sourdough bread. No better snack than a slice of toasted sourdough bread slathered with butter. The flavor is superb, and the crisp toasty surface contrasts perfectly with the chewy inside of the slice. Adding a bit of jam is totally unnecessary. What makes sourdough so special? Regular yeast bread is made with active dry yeast, mixed into the other ingredients, risen, and baked. Sourdough bread, on the other hand, is made with a sourdough starter. It is yeast, but it is also a living thing that needs to be tended and fed. Some areas are particularly famous for their sourdough: like San Francisco. You can culture up a local sourdough starter wherever you are, or thanks to the internet, you can also get a dried bit of any number of starters to reconstitute at home.
How does this relate to music? Tending to the sourdough starter makes me think of tending music. To play well you need to practice regularly, feeding the music in your life to make it strong. Just as the starter will develop a lovely savoriness over time, the music develops its sweetness. You can take your sourdough starter and turn it into a myriad of finished products: crepes, crumpets, baguettes, sandwich loaves, etc. You can also do many things with your music: playing songs from different places and times, singing, storytelling with music, etc.
The music can change, it can morph to whatever the situation demands, but underneath, the starter of music remains the same- that carefully tended, nurtured core.
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