The Silence Between the Notes
How Quiet Moments Shape Our Music, Our Minds, and Our Lives
On a Wednesday evening, during his weekly Kriya Breath Work & Meditation class, my spiritual teacher, coach and friend Jared Schuster offered a beautifully simple observation. His voice carries the quiet authority of someone who meditates more hours a week than most people binge-watch Netflix. With that voice, Jared shared a quote often attributed to Mozart: "Music is the silence between the notes." He gently invited each of us to focus not on the sounds of the music he played, but rather the spaces between during this practice. Return to our breath, grounded and deeply connected within these silent intervals.
As those words hung in the air, my mind raced. This time, not with distraction as it often does, but with insight. From the day when I was age 6 and my older brother gently passed his Elton John record to me, explaining the ritual of listening to records, I was hooked on music. The beat and rhythm have forever been a salve to add flow and bounce to my stressful experiences in life. And lyrics, those are where I could keep and experience feelings anytime I desired by playing a record. I love music, but the silence?
"Music is the silence between the notes" precisely because every crucial decision, every creative leap, unfolds in that quiet space. What note will I play next? How long should I wait before playing it? Should it whisper or roar? The actual music, the notes we ultimately hear, are simply the outcomes of countless subtle choices made within those seemingly empty moments.
This musical metaphor struck a deeper chord (pun intended, obviously), resonating with my ongoing spiritual journey. Isn't life exactly like that? Just as music is shaped by these moments of silence, our lives, too, take form in our own quiet moments of reflection and stillness. The decisions about who we become, how we act, and where we direct our energy occur in these unseen intervals. What we outwardly express, the notes everyone else hears, are the vibrations of our internal, often silent, work.
Recognizing silence as a vibrant, dynamic space filled with potential rather than a void was an epiphany. Jared's quiet, understated guidance helped me see the beauty in these pauses—not just musically but spiritually as well. Between breaths, before speaking, and ahead of each decision, we inhabit sacred spaces where our life's music is composed.
Since that Wednesday evening, I've found myself appreciating these pauses in new ways, both in my favorite songs and in everyday life. Just as each musical note emerges intentionally and beautifully from silence, perhaps the richness and depth of our lives similarly emerge from our conscious presence in these silent spaces. After all, the silence between the notes is not emptiness or stillness; it’s where our true creativity, clarity, and life's melody truly begin.
Finally, to ensure clarity and correctness: the full quote often is misattributed to Mozart. Composer Claude Debussy is who is reported to have said: “Music is the silence between the notes. Art is the most beautiful of all lies. Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.” Debussy, a pioneer of Impressionist music, elegantly captured how integral silence is to the power and structure of music.