Deep Breaths

Remember bag of accompaniment books. Check.
Remember cough drops. Check.
Remember a bottle of water. Check.
Remember Advil. Check.
Remember a book for the bus ride. Check.
Remember mug of coffee. Check.
Remember to take a photo of snow falling outside of Burrton Schools. NO CHECK.

Snow fell during a good portion of the morning yesterday at Burrton as we rushed from one room to the next at the Heart of the Plains League music festival. The big windows in the school hallways formed frames as big, wet flakes clung to blades of green grass.

Just like that snow fell gently yesterday, I felt the prayers of friends and family gently covering me and "my" students yesterday - just like I'd asked.

Yesterday morning, this was the message from Our Prayer Daily Scripture and Reflection Newsletter from Guideposts, which arrives every day in my email inbox. It felt like it was written especially for me:

A Time to Think

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. –Etty Hillesum

A Time to Act

Relax and accept God's grace in times of stress.

A Time to Pray

Lord, thank You for renewing me and giving me a life that has purpose and meaning.

A dusting of snow on April Fool's Day 2013

While I didn't take time to take a photo outside the school windows yesterday, I did snap a few pictures on April Fool's Day as winter played a joke on the calendar that says that spring has arrived.

It's no joke: Snow and sleet on April Fool's Day 2013.

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection,

 not in books alone, 

but in every leaf in springtime.

 –Martin Luther

He writes the promise of Resurrection, Love and Grace just as surely in a spring storm as prayers fall as gently as snow - or when a middle school girl gives a heartfelt thank you.

Bull in a China Shop

One of Brent's favorite piano solos was called "Bull in a China Shop" by George Anson. Mrs. Trinkle was one smart piano teacher. Brent was a reluctant musician at best. But how could he resist a piano solo that encouraged some calculated banging around on the piano?

A few years ago, Brent told us: "Giving me piano lessons was kind of like throwing money down the drain."

I gave him an unqualified, "No, it wasn't!" And I still believe that, even though he probably hasn't touched a piano since he left the confines of Mrs. Trinkle's piano studio at her Preston farm house. He draws the same conclusion about his few years of mother-imposed voice lessons. (Wasn't I a mean mother, trying to instill a little music appreciation in my children?)

1997 piano recital - Jill and Brent with Mrs. Dorothy Trinkle, their piano teacher.

However, those music lessons probably helped Brent learn his trombone and Jill learn the clarinet in the school band. Research shows that music also helps students comprehend math, which is no small thing when half their genetic pool included a math-challenged mother. ACT scores for high school musicians are typically higher than their peers. 

A 2007 Harris Interactive Poll of working adults indicated that music education impacted five skill areas: ability to work toward common goals, striving for excellence in group settings, disciplined approach to solving problems, creative problem solving and flexibility in work situations.

Harris Interactive Poll, 2007

Sometimes I wonder why I continue accompanying at school. I especially wonder it on days like this one when we are at the Heart of the Plains League middle school music festival, and my nerves kick in. We'll be at the school by 6:30 and on the bus by 6:45 AM for the trip to Burrton. 

This is my 18th year accompanying for Stafford Schools. I don't have nearly as many accompaniments to play this year. But, for this Type A personality perfectionist, I still want to do my very best to accompany the students who've made the commitment to music this year. I certainly would prefer not to have an unintentional reenactment of "Bull in a China Shop."

I love music. That's why I do it. I certainly have no illusions that I am the most competent accompanist around. The paycheck I open each month doesn't come close to covering the gas it takes to drive to town, the interruption to the day or the investment of practice time at home that is never covered by a time sheet. So I look at my time at school as community service and a way to share my love of music with others.

Music isn't really about black notes on a white page. It isn't just about breathing correctly (though it certainly helps). You can know the right fingering to play a "C" or "D" on a trumpet or clarinet and still not truly make music.

True music is found in the crescendos and decrescendos. It's found in the pianissimo and the double forte. It's found in telling the story through song.

It's a story that's told at middle school music festivals ... and at high school regionals ... and in church choir lofts ... and singing in the shower or as you drive down a country road. 

And, even if those middle school musicians some day think that their time practicing for a solo was like throwing time straight down the drain, I hope they'll remember a piano player beside them who cared about them and cared about the music. 

Won't you say a little prayer for our middle school musicians today? (And one for Mr. Westbrook and me would be nice, too. Thanks, friends!)

Marc Chagall stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago

Play the music, not the instrument.

~Author Unknown

 

For Love of Music

Marc Chagall stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago

A painter paints pictures on canvas.
But musicians paint their pictures on silence.

~Leopold Stokowski

Music isn't really about black notes on a white page. It isn't just about breathing correctly (though it certainly helps). You can know the right fingering to play a "C" or "D" on a trumpet or clarinet and still not truly make music.

True music is found in the crescendos and decrescendos. It's found in the pianissimo and the double forte. It's found in telling the story through song. It's even told in the silence ... that little pause before delivering the final phrase.

Today, I'll be in a school Suburban, on the road by 6:30 AM and journeying toward South Barber Schools in Kiowa. It's middle school music festival day, the day toward which we've been working since January. I have 26 different accompaniments to play - two choir pieces, three vocal ensembles and the rest, vocal and instrumental solos.

In some ways, it feels like we've been practicing forever. In other ways, I think, "If only we had one more day to tell them this ..."

I've been accompanying for the school for 17 years now. I first started when Brent was a first grader.

I'm not doing it to get rich. But then again ... maybe I am. Maybe I get rich when I hear a girl lean into a musical phrase, and I get goosebumps. It might be when a singer discovers the way to get the music delivered beyond the front row. Or maybe it's when the drummer and I actually end the piece at the same time - a minor miracle!

Hmmmm ... I guess I'm getting rich after all.

My prayer for the middle school musicians today is that they do their best. Yes, I want them to breathe correctly. I hope they sing or play the right notes. It would be great if they remember the words. But more than that, I want them to deliver not only the notes, but the music.

Play the music, not the instrument.

~Author Unknown

That goes for the accompanist, too. And if you would, please say a little prayer for me, Mr. Gill and all the students.

Music washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

I won't be sitting still long enough today to collect any dust!