Music is about sharing, not proving

I don’t know who originally gave voice to this idea, but the statement, “music is about sharing, not proving” has always resonated with me.  It is an idea that can recede into the background while preparing for auditions, studying for a playing test, or trying to memorize the last five bars of a concerto – but I feel like that’s a mistake.  We increasingly exist in a musical culture full of technical virtuosity…and not all of it is human.  Some of the sampling programs for composition software achieve levels of realism thought impossible only ten years ago.  I’ve often heard a student lament that sounded something like, “why even learn the [blank] concerto after hearing Joshua Bell’s recording of it?”  The question itself is legitimate, but the emotion behind it is dangerous.  What I hear when that question is asked is, “I don’t feel there is anything I can offer that hasn’t already been offered”.  If the only thing that will make you happy is having an audience at Carnegie hall dub your interpretation of the Tchaikovsky concerto “definitive”, you are putting yourself in a very small box…and possibly setting yourself up for unrelenting disappointment!  However, if you are playing your instrument because of the joy it brings you, and your desire is to share that joy with the people around you, you’ve successfully put yourself in a box that only you can occupy.  In that context, technical virtuosity exists not as an end unto itself, but merely a vehicle that allows you to fully communicate with those around you.  All of the most JOYFUL musicians I know measure themselves not by a technical checklist, but by the clarity of the communication of the musical ideas they wish to share.  So practice your scales, study your etudes, don’t accept anything less than the very best you can do…not because you’ll be “better” than Kogan or Starker…but because they aren’t walking among us anymore and the world needs YOUR music.