The science of music, and the human element.

As I was practicing the other day with my accompanist the other (the amazingly talented Mrs. Babcock) I felt compelled to ask her, "you have such amazing practice skills. How did you develop them and how can I be that good?" She answered my question my saying that she had to practice a lot in school (Eastmen School of Music) and that her teacher made her work so hard on technique that she had to practice hours and hours a day. She said that she eventually got pretty good at know what to practice and how, two very important aspects of practicing. One topic lead to another and we eventually wound up talking about how she had to work so hard on the technical aspect of music, but not so much on the musical aspect of the music. That came easy to her she said, but she went on to say that other people were the exact opposite. Some people, she elaborated, would come in technically perfect but would play every thing so unmusical and almost scientific. Her teacher however had ways of telling those types of students exactly what to do with each note to "make" it sound musical. This got me to thinking, what is music, an exact science or more of a human flexible thing. There are some people that strive so much for perfect pitches and rhythms and strive for perfection as much as possible. I do not enjoy that kind of approach. Music to me is as much about emotion as it is about right notes and perfect rhythms. I listened to Chantacleer (top notch male singing group) do a concert at NDSU a few years ago now. They had some of the most perfect intonation and just perfect sound I have ever heard, but there are other groups that sing with that much perfection of pitch. The one thing that Chantacleer had that a lot of choral groups are missing is heart and intensity. On every one of their songs they sang with so much emotion and intensity, at some times a few of them would get so into it that there vocal quality would be affected a bit and they might stick out. To the perfectionist, they would cringe, lean over to there perfectionist friend and say "some one is over singing!" and then maybe chuckle a bit and give one of those looks. Me, I love that stuff! Makes me know that their not machines, makes me know that there into it and have a spec of emotion. It makes it human and I can connect with that. That being said, I defiantly am not suggesting that every drunk girl that sings "I kissed a girl" and gets really into it at the bar is the next Natalie Dessay. There is defiantly room for correctness and precision. Wrong notes and really poor technique do indeed detract from a performance, no matter how much emotion she puts into it, the drunk girl at the bar still sounds like a strangled cat, and that's annoying for everyone which negates her emotional performance entirely. But I would much rather hear a pianist play Mozart's fantasy in C minor with all the nuance, quirks and a few clunkers than a pianist that plays it as straight as a board and doesn't miss a note. That to me is way, way harder to listen to.

Just a thought I had one day as I was floating like a bubble through the air, being blown around by the winds of life.

Sweating and its relation to small stuff.

I have learned not to get the little things get you down, even when there is a huge pile of them waiting out side your bedroom door when you wake up in the morning. Just as you build a house one brick at a time, deal with each and every little thing as one light brick and do not get discouraged.

I used to get really perplexed when I would have a day where it seamed like nothing would go right, flat tires, equipment problems, computers crashing, fights with family, with co-workers. I would get so worked up to the point of wanting just to leave everything and just go back in the house and sit there, far away from the problems out side, and hope they would just go away. It didn't take me long to realize that they don't go away, they sit and wait for you to come and solve them, just as I would wait for them to solve them selves. So eventually I got to thinking to my self, why am i getting worked up? What is that accomplishing? I looked back at my child hood and at my grand father. By the time I came to know him he was an old man, a calm man, I very rarely saw him get perplexed about anything, and that's not to say that he didn't have problems to get perplexed about. He would have flat tires and equipment problems just like the rest of us, but he would always calmly asses and fix the problem with no apparent angst or anger. It didn't pay for him to get angry, it doesn't pay for anyone to get angry.

So today I woke up and went out to my garage and got in my car and drove it out and was on my way to go our annual choir retreat two and a half hours into MN. I made it half way down the driveway and I felt my steering wheel pull towards the passenger side and I heard a grumbling noise. I knew right away it was a flat tire. So I rolled down the windows and, while listening to Kurt Elling, I put my spare tire on and decided to go to Fargo Tire and get a new tire put on (118$). While I'm there and the tire is being put on i get a call from my family (who has been at a horse show in Valley City ND since Wednesday) telling me that one of our oldest horses is sick and needs help. Upon leaving the tire store I tell my friend Tony that I can no longer give him a ride to retreat and I then change course and head home. As i get about half way (about 30 min interstate driving) I get a call that the horse is recovering and is going to be ok (she was suffering from a mild Colic, which at the age of 35 it almost always kills them). I then turn round and drive back to Fargo.

Not the worst day I have ever had but, I tried my very best to remain clam and take every thing in stride, because what else am I gonna do. It is by far more productive to deal and adapt to situations quickly and efficiently rather than bring any hint of frustration or other emotions into it. You do what you got to do to get it done.