Hi @colin47, I grew up playing the violin, long before starting my mindfulness practice, and have noticed a number of similarities both in terms of helping to develop concentration (mind wanders, bring it back to playing), and learning to let go when I’ve made a mistake (notice urge to beat self up, how it just makes things worse, bring it back to playing). And I agree, that it can be hard to find concentration to practice -in both music and meditation!
Relatedly, a colleague (who went to Juliard to become a professional before switching careers to psychotherapy) and I have a paper titled “reconceptualizing music making as mindfulness practice” that will be published in Medical Problems of Performing Arts in the near future. I’ll aim to post it here when it is published.