You Could Learn A Lot from Beethoven and Taylor Nash | POP 577

exploring uncomfortable things, life lessons, private practice growth

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What is the relationship between curiosity and human evolution? How do we move between comfort zones and learning curves through curiosity? What can we learn from Beethoven’s music for our curiosity and creativity?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks with Taylor Nash about curiosity, creating tension, and Beethoven.

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Meet Taylor Nash

Taylor lives in Northern Michigan with his wife and two boys. He works there as a community college advisor.

In his spare time you can’t find him because he’s lost in the woods, away from people, or, more likely, he’s begrudgingly working on his house.

In This Podcast

Beethoven and art
Opus 130
Taylor’s advice to private practitioners

Beethoven and art

Human beings are curious, and curiosity leads to tension when you are exposed to something and want to know how it will end.

This cycle comes into our lives with moving in and out of our comfort zones: we seek truth and healing, so we must exit our comfort zone from the past, and heal and learn and become curious, so that we may create a new sphere of comfort. This cycle repeats and it is good for you to expand it throughout life.

In terms of artistic achievement … I don’t know if there’s been a person who’s achieved more or created and worked with his art in a way that best connects with humanity. (Taylor Nash)

Beethoven not only made a profound impact on the history of music, but he also wrote and performed and created music well into his life even when he lost his hearing and became deaf.

Any composer, himself included, would see [deafness] as a terrible limitation on his craft or on his art [but] it ended up pushing him into new areas and pushed him into areas where people hadn’t been before. (Taylor Nash)

This is something about the world of art that creates unending cycles of fascination: the confines of the framework of the artistic expression are what help to create its beauty. The glory of artwork is heightened due to the fact that it came to be despite difficult circumstances.

[Beethoven] started to push forms and started to do unexpected things and started to create music whose goal was artistic expression or expression of humanism and not so top-down directed. (Taylor Nash)

Opus 130

Most classical music is made up of quartets that use a sonata form, which consists of three section movements:

Exposition: setting up the framework with the theme and melody and that builds a pattern
Development: composer takes the theme and melody and pushes its limits
Recapitulation: the conclusion, where the composer brings the listener to the end of the tension

Beethoven, unlike other classical composures, always brings his listeners home. After the tension he creates and places you in, he pulls you back and safely puts you down in yourself afterward.

I think if you’re focusing on being popular your art will suffer. If your interest is popularity, then I think that’s a compromise you make but there are exceptions to that. (Taylor Nash)

Taylor’s advice to private practitioners

Pursue your art as an art. Pursue human understanding as a pursuit in and of itself. Look at what you are doing as a craft, and then learn its pieces and find new ways to put those pieces together. Never stop finding new ways to understand your craft and new ways to structure it.

Books mentioned in this episode

Useful Links:

Meet Joe Sanok

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

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