Siddhartha Gautama, before he became the Buddha, spent many years as an ascetic, meditating in the forest. In one version of events, as Siddhartha sat meditating on a river bank, a boat passed by carrying a musician and his student. The musician was instructing his student: “if you tighten the string too tight, it will break, and if it is too loose, it will not play.” This is how Siddhartha discovered the middle way.
 

---

I have found my guitar to be an excellent biofeedback device: if I am too tense, if I am trying too hard, or I am too strongly desiring a specific outcome, the sound does not come out right.

And of course, if I don’t try at all, there is no sound either!

During the first lesson I ever had, my instructor told me that to play correctly is to make the strings dance with you.

It feels like I get the best sound when I can balance effort and non-effort.