Let me begin by saying the snow dance wasn't a total wash out..... we had a 2 hour delay. :-) Here's the pro and con: Pro - we had a two hour delay AND got to wear jeans because of it. ( when you have a work dress code, jeans are a big deal) Con - uh, the roads were still ice covered at 9am and rather treacherous to drive. ( of course here I think the roads were clearer a little after 10)
Better some than none, I guess.
The best part of today came in my classes. My job can be very tedious as many times it entails saying the same concept 30 times in twenty different ways hoping for a lightbulb or two to go off. The hard part for the students is that they MUST achieve some sort of mastery of their individual part before a group rehearsal is truly successful. I often return to the fact that this separates musicians from sports players on occasion. When one person can throw three pointers and another can't, the player who can, his performance is not affected by the one who cannot - provided the less successful one doesn't have the ball all the time. A miss by a sports player does not in and of itself affect the performance of the others. Granted it may effect the end score. However. sometimes one err can have great affects - like a doubles tennis team where one player constantly misses the ball. The other player themself is not affected, but their performance is. But unlike sports, musicians aren't usually benched..... just fired.
Likewise in class, if you get A's and the person sitting to your right gets F's, your personal performance is not affected at all.
With musicians, if 3 of five players are playing something perfectly and two are not, the entire section is weaker because of it AT that point in time. Depending on the weakness, the 2 can literally destroy the work and success of the other 3. Musicians are very dependent on one another while still needing to have a great deal of self sufficiency. In a duet, the two need to play accurately, in time, and in tune, even though they are often playing very separate parts. The same is true, if not more so, in a successful large ensemble.
How do folks accomplish this feat? There are many facets to that, but one of the primary ones is listening. Listening to style, pitch, phrasing, balance. etc. TODAY, even the young junior highers were playing well AND listening.. and loving the product. They could hear that they sounded good and enjoyed the product of their efforts. In the senior high, their is an ensemble working on a piece designed for a more experienced ensemble almost double their size. Regardless, they put themselves to the grind stone and were notably excited to hear what they created. WHAT "THEY" CREATED!!!! They weren't note machines, they were musicians, communicating with each other and to others using sound. Sometimes it's like a playing a movie soundtrack, but you don't always know or agree on the pictures that accompany it, just the emotion they are reflecting. I know that sounds so "fru-fru" but it is true and an experience unlike many others. But they were excited and loving to play. It is such a rush to see when folks get the rewards that are sometimes so painful and time consuming to achieve.
To quote a line from " A League of Their Own" - "If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great." That applies to many things in life, but isn't that the truth? The things most enjoyed were the ones you had to work your ass off to get.... or maintain.
These are the days that remind me why I am a "band enthusiast" ( thanks Bobby !!!!) Great day !!!!
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