Good Enough Isn't Enough

So for the last two years, I've started school at the University of Utah, premiered large works of music by World Class composers, performed easily more than a hundred times in various ensembles and groups, traveled to Washington D.C., San Diego, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Reno, have gotten divorced and dated a small handful of people since. Now finishing up my spring semester of my second year my perception of what was and what is has completely turned 180 degrees.

Thankful to be done with Keyboarding and Musicianship, I move forward into the summer with hopes of creating a Chamber Music Concert series at the UMFA, Instructing the Copper Hills High School Drumline, and really polishing my sight reading and percussion keyboard skills. I have to be the best of the best, the only way to succeed (and pay off these damned student loans) is to be the best performer. And not just be able to play anything that they put in front of me, but be able to play it well with a sense of musicianship and passion. That's what seems to be missing in a lot of people's playing these days is passion. So many people, myself included, simply struggle with playing the correct notes or the correct rhythms so much that the musicianship takes a back seat. As music majors we can't afford to have a single performance go by that isn't completely immersed with our heart and soul, good enough Isn't enough.

I hope someday that I can play mallet percussion the way that most play drum set, listening and reacting to what's going on around you and not just playing the music as written. The art of listening is taken for granted by most musicians these days. Being able to truly listen and hear what's going on around you is the ultimate goal and having to focus on what notes or fingerings to play takes us out of that active listening process.

This may seem obvious to many people, but as I woke up sneezing up a storm from allergies I laid in bed considering how to become not only a better musician but a better performer, and it hit me that I need to spend the time to get past the physical limitations so I can focus completely on the performance. I've come to a point in my life/career that I need to be able to perform and make some sort of money for that, even if that means that I'm doing school assemblies for the rest of my life. But to get to the next level for me also means that I can have a shot at Grad School, hopefully the program I want that would be a foot in the door into the Broadway Show/Tour end of the spectrum.

All in all things are looking up and moving forward, always moving forward. What doors will open up tomorrow, I don't know but I do know that I need to be better prepared for them when they do.