Rules to live by

 I’ve been soul searching while enjoying my time at Lutheran Summer Music Festival. Being around so many great musicians as fellows and great eager kids has brought a few things to light. 

Rule 1. A person is a person first. Here I relate this to musicians in a way that the violinist that is struggling to play their part in orchestra that you should remember they’re human. They’re probably super nervous, possibly embarrassed or angry at themselves but they’re being incredibly brave by exposing their internal soul sharing music. As difficult as it is for young players to not make fun of each other a quick reminder of this rule or even if they’ve felt uncomfortable struggling to play their part for the class usually thwarts all negative feelings. IF we were to allow these teasings or faces of prudence to continue towards a struggling ensemble member we vary well may plant hatred in the struggling member, or even imposter syndrome. 

Rule 2. Worry about yourself. I recently brought a difficult piece (not quite performance ready) to an accompanist. Prior to us even playing anything together they mentioned “I’m so sorry about this, I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with this, I’m working on a lot of things but we’ll give it a go.” I told them not to worry at all! The run through went pretty darn well and we touched up the spots that were difficult. I was quickly reminded and mentioned to my collaborative pianist, “I only worry about myself and my notes, you can do whatever you’d like back there on the keys (possibly stay in the correct key signature) but we’re here to make music and I’ve got too many notes to be worrying about what comes out of your instrument.” If we become people who thing we’re prepared enough to worry about others we aren’t prepared. There are so many things we could do better at one given point, and again you never know what others are going through, maybe your comment about them being flat is the thing that finally sets them over. 

Rule 3. No one is dying. I struggle with this being a person who is frequently in high stress situation and is trained to work though these times efficiently with a team. I have a hard time remembering that most people don’t do this or their brains don’t function this way because I am often surrounded by people like this as my family. Any situation you find high stress or is too much for you to handle, it means you place high value on it but often we forget the positive in situations like this and only feel the stress. No one is dying. Everything is okay, people make mistakes, but mistakes happen and things can be fixed. Someone will turn around and say ‘BuT wHaT iF SoMeOnE iS dYiNg?!’ Guess what friends, that happens, and its okay. It is a way of life none of us will escape, hopefully we will all live long lives and not experience it sooner than necessary. 

Thanks all!

Have fun and remember to practice

EM