So I’ve been pondering a different metaphor for body, mind, and soul, one that has been slowly taking root on the mental mulch pile, growing from a particularly rich little corner of music and choir and community.

Start with the body… the body of a human or the body of a violin… the metal curves of a trombone or the gorgeous lacquered wood of a bassoon under polished metal keys… skin over muscle over sinew and bone… this physicality provides the foundation. We are grounded in our bodies, our physical container, the way a musical instrument starts as a physical object.

Then the mind… by which I mean that which animates the body… this was an interesting one to which to draw a parallel. The thing is, the mind, as I view it and understand it, still exists in the physical. It lives in the electrical currents and patterns that run atop and along our nerves, and the biochemical ones that run alongside. It is the thing that gives animation, if not necessarily “life,” to the body.

So what animates the wood of a violin or the metal of a trombone? What would be the mind of the instrument? The strings, perhaps? The mouthpiece? Still part of the physical but also that which actually vibrates the otherwise still form, creates the spark of animation that then resonates and amplifies in the body?

And the two must work hand in hand, body and mind.

So we work to keep our body healthy, just as we tune up our horns. And maybe we switch in better strings, or maybe even add some strings, allowing us to draw even more out of the same physical form. There is something in that balance between body and mind…

When I last had my piano tuned, the piano tuner let me know that the body of my piano was of an age that its soundboard was becoming brittle. If he were to tune it to a proper A440, there was a danger that the newly tightened strings would put too much of a strain on the soundboard. So with my permission and blessing, he tuned the whole thing down, loosening the high strings to match the low strings instead of tightening the low to match the high. It’s in tune to itself, but a little off from the standard. In other words, when the body starts to age, sometimes you have to adjust the mind to accommodate.

But then what of the spirit or soul? Well… what is it makes an instrument an instrument? Or maybe better put, what makes a body and mind… the physical shell and that which animates it… make music? The highest purpose of a musical instrument is, after all, to make music. Or at least produce sound.

Or maybe that’s all we need to say… that our soul is in the music. Or perhaps it is the music. Maybe I don’t need to know what it is or where it comes from, but it is the reason for our bodies and minds to exist, their reason to be. So we work on our bodies and minds in order to best play our music, or allow it to play.

The 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud opens with guitarist Jack White building a guitar out of random bits and pieces he finds around a farm. It still played such music.

The same applies to people, I think. Even if your body isn’t a Stradivarius or it comes with a broken string or two, you can still make music.

A guitar with no strings? No music. Strings unattached to a violin, or just a bow on its own? No music.

And no music to play? Is that an absence of soul? I’m still pondering that one…