I found this book through ambleside online :
MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN
by
THOMAS TAPPER
A has cried "hot tears" with piano study this week, and c. 2 ministered to her...she copied a quote of his to encourage her...its the one following this one...which I like because often as parents we forget this component:
"Unless music gives true pleasure to the young it may be doubted
if it is wisely studied."
Abis quote:
"These things shalt thou find real because they make thee brave. And
the pain and the drudgery and the hot tears shall be the easier to
bear for this knowledge, which should be strong within thee as a pure
faith."
3 comments:
There are two big things that we can learn when getting frustrated over music:
1. perseverance makes better.
2. my worth is found in God, not my good abilities.
I think that #2 is the one that needs to be encouraged more (especially in our family). Sometimes I let my whole day get ruined because I didn't have a very good practice time that day. That's unhealthy. We have to remember that being good at music doesn't make us a better person. Our worth is found in God. At the heart of it, when I get depressed because my voice doesn't sound as good as it did yesterday, I am letting my performance dictate my self-worth. But in reality, I could drop out of school, lessons, and never practice music again, and my worth in God would remain the same. If, somehow, I lost all of my artistic ability and only had the know-how to operate a crane for the rest of my life, I am still just as awesome of a human being. If I fail at music today, it doesn't matter! No really, it doesn't matter AT ALL. I am still God's. And in a global sense, God is just plain more important than music. I think everybody has to learn these concepts at some point, and everybody learns it in different ways, so I don't know exactly what A needs to hear. Whatever it is, she needs to hear it from the Spirit.
Now, there is practical wisdom to be said here too, which has more to do with #1. As a musician, you have to remember that ALL PRACTICE MAKES YOU BETTER. All of it. No matter how bad you sound in practice today, you are a significantly better musician than if you hadn't practiced at all today. It's a very interesting phenomenon, but I have seen it at work again and again throughout my musical life. For instance, I'll spend 20 or 30 minutes practicing just one scale over and over on the string bass, but not once will I play it perfectly. Then, the next day, I get into the practice room and voila, I play it perfectly the first time! As another example, at the beginning of this year I was working on my "head voice". As a male singer, head voice is how I sing high notes powerfully without having to rely on a the technique of falsetto. I had this one piece with a high G in it, and I practiced that line over and over, trying to sing head voice correctly. I worked on it for the entire semester and you know what? I never got it right. I ended the semester and I still couldn't sing that one note right. But then this summer I started working on some other pieces with high notes in them, and before I knew it I was singing the high notes with ease! Practice works. It didn't come through at the exact time I wanted it to, but it did come through.
That being said, #2 is still loads more important than #1, and (I believe) needs to be reinforced more. You can learn #1 from any good motivational book or successful person, but #2 can only be learned through the Spirit and the Word. Which makes it more important.
thank you for sharing your painfully learned insights :-)... I really appreciate your perspective because sometimes its hard to relate to her struggle. #2 is a good reminder than i need to teach abi this through her music struggles...we have talked about it in other subjects but not this one...and to be honest, I never thought about #1...every practice is an investment...I like that.
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