Try learning a Beethoven quartet with three other musicians without learning all of the gritty details about everyone in the group, especially yourself.
Making music requires academic, athletic, and intellectual processing; but it is first a raw product of the heart. Past experiences and emotions, desires, sorrows and joys...all of this comes together to create this amazing ethereal experience to be refined and shared with an audience.
To go through this process with other musicians can be such a rewarding and touching experience, or it can be an intense violation.
Things that you would only share with your closest friends suddenly become the core of what your group is working with. If there is a connection between you and the rest of the group, a bond that connects directly from your deepest vulnerabilities tie and it's magic. Butt heads and your pride and definition of self feels offended.
This past month I was at a music festival, struggling with my own heart and what it wants and needs. But throughout the month, despite what I was facing inwardly, I was able to enjoy great chamber music with 3 different groups of people. Each experience was very different but all of them were so rewarding, helped me grow as a musician and a person, and heal. I loved feeding off of others' passion and emotions, as well as give my own. I liked trying other people's musical ideas, putting myself in their worlds and feeling my own expand with the possibilities. As someone who has had many mental blocks towards performing, by the end of the month I was having a blast with my friends onstage playing Brahms, Schumann, and Britten.
I've been in chamber groups before. I know how it is.
But I will never ever have a chamber music experience where I learn nothing. That is, unless I choose to.
There is always more than one way to do something. We are not all set on one right track; there are many paths we available to us, all with completely different adventures to offer.
If we can step back from ourselves for one second, then we can see that everyone in this world, no matter what age, background, or gender, has something to teach you. :) Here's to an enriching and happy life.
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| Schumann Piano Quintet: Mvmts 3 & 4 |
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