Music Comes From the Musician, Not the Instrument.

There’s a quote I once heard that stuck with me for a long time: "The magic isn’t in the wand, it’s in the wizard." And when you think about music, it’s exactly the same thing. Music doesn’t come from a guitar, a piano, or a drum kit. Music comes from the person holding it, the soul behind the strings, the heartbeat behind the beat. Instruments are just tools. Without a musician, they’re silent wood and metal.

You could hand the best, most expensive guitar to someone who’s never touched an instrument before, and you wouldn’t get a song. You’d get noise, random strumming, maybe a few harsh sounds. But you could give a beat-up old guitar to a passionate street musician, and he could make it sing. He could bring people to tears, make strangers stop in their tracks just by the way he plays. That’s proof right there that music isn’t about the equipment , it’s about the heart, the emotion, the experience that the musician pours into it.

Think about legends like Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, or Fela Kuti. It wasn’t just their instruments that made them who they were. It was their passion, their life stories, their struggles, their hopes, all that emotion came pouring out when they performed. Their instruments were just an extension of their bodies, like an extra voice to express what words alone couldn’t.

A lot of times, people get obsessed with having the "best gear" the newest keyboard, the most expensive drum set, the latest software. But if you don’t have the spirit inside you, no amount of technology will save you. It’s the same way you could buy a professional camera, but if you don’t have the eye for photography, your pictures won’t have that soul that makes people feel something. Art - real art — starts inside the artist.

Music is about connection. It’s about taking something deep inside you , joy, pain, love, anger — and translating it into a language everyone can understand without speaking a word. Instruments are just the bridge. Some musicians even use their voices alone, no instruments at all, to create incredible music. Others bang on kitchen pots or clap their hands and create rhythms that stay stuck in your head. It’s not about what they use it’s about how they feel and what they’re trying to share.

I’ve seen kids in Lagos, Nigeria, make beats with nothing but empty cans and plastic buckets, and it sounds better than some overproduced songs you hear on the radio. They didn’t need a fancy studio. They just needed heart. That’s the spirit of true music.

The truth is, a real musician can create music anywhere, with anything. Give them a broken guitar, a dusty old drum, or even just a few rocks to tap together, and they’ll find a rhythm. They’ll find a way to express themselves. On the other hand, someone who doesn't have that fire inside could sit in a million-dollar recording studio and still create something empty, something that doesn’t move a single soul.

So next time you hear a beautiful song, don’t just admire the instrument. Think about the hands that played it, the mind that imagined it, the life that gave it birth. Music is human before it’s mechanical. It’s emotional before it’s technical.

And honestly, that’s a good lesson not just for music, but for life. It’s not the tools you have that define you. It’s how you use what you have. It’s about putting your soul into whatever you’re doing whether it’s singing, painting, writing, or even just living your everyday life.

At the end of the day, the instrument can amplify your voice, but the real music, the real magic, always starts inside you.