Rick Stemple’s Post
I have thoroughly enjoyed the book “Art of Possibility” by Roz and Ben Zander. I would like to discuss chapters five through eight, but I'll mostly talk about chapters five and six because they were my favorite. There is a great story in chapter 5 about American orchestra going to play with a Cuban orchestra in Cuba. I have not only had personal experience with teaching music from other cultures to students, but have also performed in choruses that have had difficulty learning complex ethnic rhythms. I love that the conductor told the orchestra players/students “Your job is to teach these rhythms to your stand partner.” This not only made the students responsible for teaching the music but also made the students responsible for whether they would perform the concert or not. This usually becomes a great learning experience for everyone involved.
I of course love music, and the music section in this book brings back so many memories for me. I have many fond memories of sitting in the dorms at the Conservatory or in the practice rooms listening to the various instrument players complain about who got first chair or second chair and how they are better player than all of them. All I can think of was how lucky they were to play in the orchestra because I would only play in chamber music. Does it really matter where you sit because the audience really only hears each section, strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion not first chair, second chair, third chair. I wish I could read them this quote from a youth orchestra student to the classically trained conservatory musician. “… I have the force of personality to power the section from where ever I sit and I believe that I led that concert from the 11th chair”
I currently play in a rock band, but over the years I have sung in chorus, played in chamber music ensembles, and it played in various types of musical groups. When you play with any group long enough not only know the music, you begin to know how each musician plays their part. I am always more impressed with the group or performance when someone does forget a part or has a memory lapse how the rest of the group or performers react and continue with the show. Great performers go on with the show, good performers will stop and do it again or fumble for while, bad performers just quit. Really great performances you never know there was a mistake much like in the Art of Possibility when he describes how the first violin had a memory lapse and the second violinist picked up in the next beat. They asked him at the end of the performance how could you possibly known what to play, he answered “ I could see your third finger was poised over the wrong string, so I knew you must’ve forgotten what came next.” Amazing.
Response to Rick Stemple
Amazing is right when people are not so self centered that they are aware of the big picture going on around them and everybody’s role within it that they are able to help out when someone stumbles. That is what I like about music so much is that as a listener or player, one can work together with others to create something great together or with listening you have a shared experience that you can bring any amount you want to bring into it… singing, dancing, emotions, thinking, etc. This is why I like the metaphors about life is like a dance or song or orchestra because when you look at life in these terms you have to think about what it takes to work together to create good music and understanding what every body’s role in that is. Keep on humming.
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