". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Monday, November 9, 2015

I tried.

Evan: My life ends in four weeks.

Me: What? What do you mean?

Evan: That's when I have to play organ for church. 

Me: Oh, Evan. You're going to do fine. But if you make a mistake, it's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. That's actually one of the wonderful things about live music--that it's living and breathing and imperfect. Recorded music sometimes has all the life erased and dubbed out of it. Live music is human, and humans make mistakes. We aren't machines.

Evan: Well, technically we are. Don't you remember Schoolhouse Rock?


3 comments:

Portwenn59 said...

Your comment to Evan was great. I'm also learning to play the organ (55 years older than your son)! Like your son, I'm scared and nervous since I'm playing a portion of the service next Sunday and the whole DS the following Sunday. Yikes! Your advice was calming and helpful, thank you.

In Christ,
Diane

Cheryl said...

Diane, that is wonderful! Good for you, and God's blessings on your service to His church! I can relate as organ is not my instrument (piano is) but I fill in for my husband sometimes. Evan is learning organ and will be playing the Voluntary in a few weeks. An entire service is quite a bit in the future for him. Thanks for commenting and let me know how it goes!

Portwenn59 said...

Hi Cheryl,
Just wanted to tell you that this morning was the first time I played the entire DS. It went okay. There were a few flubs during parts of the liturgy but I kept the melody line going so some non-musicians might not have noticed. I was pleased with the hymns though. I think I just need more exposure to playing in public. Got to get my 10,000 hours in! Thank you again for your encouragement.

In Christ,
Diane