Time in music exists on three levels simultaneously: the faster than fast time experienced by the performer, the kind of time we associate with rhythm, and the time of a life affecting every element of tone and meaning, potentially of every note we play.
The first kind of time is almost entirely missing from music instruction. Yet it is the manifestation of time most vivid to children as they play, as it is to professional musicians who are really serious about their sound. Inside of this time one is open to whatever is happening in a way that invites involvement in every instant to come.
The rhythm level of time is all too readily associated with rote learning, with repetition, with boredom.
Alas.
The lifetime is most difficult to discuss as it varies entirely from individual to individual.
