Perspective

Recently I’ve been hearing education discussed in various public forums as this administration implements new standards and national funding policies.

It’s a circus, but one with serious consequences.

So I’ve been mulling over the catch phrase given to the Obama program, namely, ‘The race to the top,’ as it might apply to a life in music.

Now, on the one hand, I certainly don’t have a problem with being the best one can be. Am I’m sure you feel the same.

What I do have a few reservations about, however, is the implication of self, or group improvement being a race; that we are continuously in competition with each other.

When such thinking becomes endemic within a national psyche it comes with a price, sometimes witnessed in horrifying tragedy – such as the recent student suicides in Korea preceding their national examinations – yet more often in a pervasive, underlying feeling of stress in the society.

Gradually the fun of learning and growing is replaced by a feeling that nothing is good enough.

And with this ultimately self-defeating mindset, the soul gradually forgets how to breathe.

When I practice, now, I am no longer ‘racing for the top’ – yes, I was at one time a victim of such thinking. Today I begin by merely becoming present with the feelings inherent in drawing a pure and well-tuned tone from the violin.

Only after I’ve ‘tuned in’ on this very basic level do I begin to stretch myself, and think, ‘where does it make sense to move from here.’ Sometimes this is a very easy decision, the session flows easily into an etude or piece of repertoire.

Sometimes, however, my left hand is reluctant, tight. If I were ‘racing to the top’ on such days you can imagine the frustration and impatience I could feel.

Totally counter-productive and useless.

I must necessarily inhabit in a world of incremental changes on some days, and be thankful for those just as I am for the great leaps in insight or performance that accompany others.

It all begins and ends with being present and excepting of the moment. Not in a complacent, flaccid sort of way mind you, but one that is dynamic, inquisitive and attentive to unrealized potential, small OR greatly profound.

Bottom line is, I’m sad, in a way, that our public discourse on what should or shouldn’t condition the conduct of our lives must be reduced to such simplistic, desensitizing catch phrases.

You are welcome to disagree with me, of course.

At the same time, whether you are ‘racing to the top’ or enjoying a life of unfolding potential, I do think your practice will benefit greatly through engaging with the instructional DVD programs I’ve created for your level of playing.

All the best, Clayton Haslop