Music is a portal, through which we release expression and find connection. This operates on so many levels and from so many angles. There is no one way, or one approach, universally, to making music, save the 2 "ingredients": expression and connection. Staring in my 20's, my awareness became more keen concerning music as connection, as I began to realize that music making was not just about me (expression), but also about others (connection). And for someone like myself, who found his "calling" to be performing music,  connection became the point, though which expression was the means. At this point in the journey, and perhaps with a wider angle lens, I am finding connection as more of a means, to a deepened expression that reaches beyond myself, within myself, and through myself to the collective self of the shared space. When I first began to understand music as connection, I focused on where that connection would land; on the listener. I gradually came to learn that my real connection is not to a defined destination, but to the "space", taking me beyond my "self", and giving expression to and from the deeper places. So what I am positioned to allow to come through me takes me beyond what would simply come from me. To quote Keith Jarrett: "When I'm out there and there's just a piano, it's like my body knows exactly what to do, it's just like my left hand knows how to play. And if I tell it what to play, I'm stopping it. Not only am I stopping it, but I'm stopping it from playing something better than I can think of." This is the product, or the benefit, or the reward of working, essentially on yourself, to open the space; the portal, through which we release expression and find connection. It is it's own ongoing journey.