Perfection can be a daunting word.
It’s what we strive for as musicians. We seek it throughout our entire lives, knowing we may never achieve it.
Why do we bother? So many people are satisfied with mediocrity. What is it that makes us want something we may never find.
I think it’s a drive that happens to us. Either we see someone do something amazing and it inspires us to want the same, we’re born with it, or our parents or teachers wake it up inside of us.
No matter how it gets there, it lives inside of us for our entire lives. We constantly try to improve. I think it’s fair to say that this quality leaks into other areas of our lives. We spend so much time trying to improve our skills as musicians, that we also look to other ways to improve.
This great trait that allows us to become great artists is also an irritant of sorts. It isn’t easy going into a world of mediocrity and not feeling annoyed. How can people live their lives not trying to get better? How do they work for a certain amount of time at something, decide they are fine, and stop? It boggles the mind! I actually heard of someone quitting music lessons because they had been accepted into college! Imagine quitting a marathon at mile 20! Why not see it through? Why not work at improving throughout your lifetime?
I’m not sure I’ll attain all of my goals, but I’m sure going to try until I’m dead in the ground! I hope you will do the same!
We just got back from Mammoth Cave! (Well, Cave City, KY) Beautiful part of the country! I highly recommend going to the cave! It is, well, Mammoth! I couldn’t believe that you could go 300 ft. under the earth, and still see HUGE caverns that you could play baseball in. Amazing! I’m very glad that I put my slight claustrophobia aside to take the historic tour. It was well worth it!
Here’s the entrance of the Jellystone park where we stayed.
I’ll try to edit the video I took of the cave soon, but here are some pics from the drive down, and walks at the national forest. What a beautiful place!
So many times we set goals for ourselves. We work hard to achieve those goals.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot recently is the tendency to come up with reasons not to follow through.
It feels so great to push yourself to do things you never believed possible.
The feeling of accomplishing something you didn’t believe possible is an amazing feeling.
I have started jogging recently. I have done 2 5ks, and the second time I didn’t have to stop to walk. It felt wonderful to train and achieve my goal. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll be able to run a marathon.
As a freelancer, my schedule changes every day. My book has become my Bible. Every morning I look at it to see where I am supposed to go that day.
Last week I gave I don’t know how many lectures about carefully watching your schedule.
I keep a copy of my schedule on the fridge. I made the mistake of trying to guess what had changed for Monday. I was off by 1/2 hour and missed half of a lesson.
Fortunately my student was very forgiving. I won’t trust my memory again, that’s for sure!
We performed Nielsen’s second symphony in Melbourne with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra. I had never played the piece before then. I have to say it’s very nice, but there is too much tremelo in the viola part. He could have been a little more creative with the writing.
It was a lot of fun, though. We also played Cantus Arcticus (concerto for Birds and Orchestra) by Einojuhani Rautavaara.
Sibelius violin concerto in the middle rounds out the program..
It was a great experience to present music to the audience they had never heard. It made our jobs a lot of fun to find out how much they enjoyed the pieces.
