Music and Life

We have been learning that making music is similar to living well. Two years ago we began a music program in our community. Now we enjoy beautiful violin and cello music from a wide age and ability range. The process of learning, playing together and sharing music has challenged and blessed us in many unexpected ways. One of our main focuses has been playing together as an ensemble

 When I practice on my own and occasionally perform solos, it is easy to get a skewed sense of my own musical reality. The pitch may sound fine to my own ears, the tone and tempo quite right and the difficult passage handled. Yet, when I play with others I hear my pitch needs to be adjusted a bit and that passage with the difficult rhythm I thought I had conquered, well, it isn’t quite right. When I play with others I often have to make adjustments I didn’t think I needed. Playing with other people seems to require listening and change.

Life is quite similar. I often think I am doing fine, following good disciplines, and being responsible.  I feel good about my relationship with God and my friends. Then I go to work, I interact, and I try to “make music” in my relationships. Oh, I didn’t realize I was out of pitch. Oh, right, that is a quarter note rest there. Yes, I had a harder time following the conductor than I thought I would.

Fortunately, we really enjoy learning, making and sharing our music together. Sometimes we sound downright awful and we laugh and joke about it. Other times we play so beautifully together it is exquisite it transcends anything we could possibly do individually. The students and I are seeing that life, as with music, requires listening and adjusting to make something beautiful together. This is normal for making music and normal for “making music” together.