Friday, February 18, 2011

Parallels That Mothers Make

I found myself noticing two interesting parallels this month:

1. Working on a hard passage of music is like comforting a colicky baby. No matter what you do, the baby cries and it seems like he will never feel better. Sometimes no matter how much I work at mastering a passage, I continue to trip over the notes and it seems like it will never smooth out. I know that my students feel this way, too.

But research tells us that the the colicky baby does feel our comfort and that it does make a difference, even if he doesn't show it. And working on that passage faithfully will result in beautiful music someday if we don't give up on it.

2. The last month before a big concert is like the last month of pregnancy. It is a wonderful time, but I can't wait for delivery day to just love and enjoy that baby. At at concert time, I just can't wait until the students are all up there playing and just enjoying the music they have worked so hard to share.