Seeking Out the GOOD

  I recently returned from a summer of working at Interlochen Arts Camp. As much as I love working there (and it's one of my favorite places on earth) there's always a little twinge of trepidation about pulling my horns out to practice for the first time because I know there are players up there, on basically every known instrument, who have skill levels far exceeding mine. Those first few practice sessions, in an environment where everyone hears everyone, are just really scary. So, why do I still get excited every spring for my summer return to northern Michigan?

   It's pretty simple, I know that all the sounds in my ear, all day long, are going to make me better.....SIGNIFICANTLY better. Not only does the ridiculous amount of talent/skill around me inspire me to work harder but the wonderful sounds I hear will lodge themselves in my subconscious and , over time, work their way into my own playing....whether it be the the vibrato of a violinist or the warmth of a horn player. I come back better than when I left due largely to what I hear (even if I don't fully realizing I'm hearing it).
 
    It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. My girlfriend, Caitlyn, is a talented clarinetist who hadn't been there before last year. I told her before we left "Two months after you get back, for seemingly no reason, your sound is going to EXPLODE after we get back". Lo and behold, last October she's playing in a woodwind studio master class and the entire woodwind faculty were exclaiming 'What has happened to your sound?!'. Two months later, she became principal clarinet in our wind ensemble and has held the chair ever since. Needless to say, Caitlyn was more than a little excited to return this summer.

     I was listening to Caitlyn have a conversation with another student yesterday and she said something which stuck with me. She said 'I think a big problem with many high school and college students is that they have no real concept of GOOD and for some reason make no attempt to seek it out. They don't try to find and listen to great musicians and base good off what is at their school."

   I think the problem there is two-fold-

 First, there seems to be a lack of natural curiosity on the part of students (and people in general) these days. I think that perhaps things have become so easy to research that people have lost interest in seeking things out. The challenge is gone. It's so easy to find things these days that people no longer look.

Second, I believe that people honestly don't know what they don't know and some responsibility for exposing these young students to great musicians falls upon teachers. I believe that anyone who teaches instrumental music should know the name of at least one great player on each instrument. At the very least, if you are a band director and you have an oboist, tell them about John Mack. If you have a trombonist who needs to listen more, Joe Alessi. Know great artists in jazz as well. Expose all of your kids to people like Heifitz or Perlman. Have them listen to vocalists like Jessye Norman. Put great....truly great...artists in their ears and show them what's possible.

Finally, I found a second meaning in what Caitlyn said. You should also seek the good in your own playing. Musicians have a bad habit of beating themselves up over their own playing. Listen to your playing with a critical ear and always try to improve, sure, but make sure you see the beauty in what you are doing. You are doing something that millions of folks on this rock wish they could do. Celebrate that, not from a place of arrogance but from a place of joy and inspiration. What we do is cool.

Listen a lot
Enjoy what you do
Get to work!