For the last 6 Saturdays, Spell Girl has been taking a sight-reading class with Colin County Youth Orchestra. She LOVES the challenge, and her sight-reading has drastically improved in the short time they've been practicing.
I've been thinking a lot about practice this week. Last Monday when I started singing (for real) again for the first time in a really long time, I thought about all the practice it would take to learn the music, to keep up with all the people who had been in this group so much longer than me, and to retain this spot that was so generously gifted to me.
I brought this book home last Monday night and played every song in it. I sang and sang and sang all those songs until my voice was tired and hoarse....for seven days straight. My hope was to learn every song perfectly so that by the next rehearsal I'd be able to hand back that giant book of music and say with confidence that I had memorized every song in it. That might have been slightly unrealistic...can you SEE how big that book is?? I kept hearing that little saying in my head, "practice makes perfect," so I kept practicing and waiting to achieve perfection. Apparently perfection takes longer than a week of practice.
This morning when I woke up I felt dread, fear, worry, doubt and frustration that I hadn't yet accomplished my goal of learning all of those songs. I let it creep into my entire day. Finally at 7:00 tonight, I sat down at the piano and tried to remember all the parts I had crammed into my head all week long. Only about 25% of them even sounded familiar. After a frustrating hour, I gave up, and fell into a discouraged heap on the floor of my closet and started praying for help. At first I prayed for help to know all the parts and all the words. And then somewhere in the middle of my pleading, I realized that I have practiced A LOT this week...not just a lot, but ENOUGH. So I stopped praying for a photographic memory and perfect pitch, and instead prayed that Heavenly Father would make up the difference between what I HAD and what I NEEDED tonight. And then I dragged myself to choir. It was a long, miserable drive.
But, miracles happened...I learned more music. I met more people. I knew more than I thought I did. And I didn't get kicked out. It was a really great night.
And most importantly, I realized that practice might not make us perfect as quickly as we would like, but it definitely makes us better. I was better tonight than I was last week. And I was good enough both weeks. Practicing makes me happy because I love the music, but when I let myself get carried away with ridiculously high goals, sometimes practice makes me crazy. This week, I'm going to relax a little more and just enjoy the practice. I'm going to look forward to going to choir again next week, and I'm going to look forward to being a little bit better than I was tonight.
I'm grateful for that gentle little shove I needed to get in my car and drive to choir tonight. I'm grateful for a kind Heavenly Father who puts all the right people in my path, who changes my perspective, and who makes up the difference when I need Him to. I love this music so much. I'm so grateful to have the time and the desire to spend my days practicing it.
Earlier this week, I received an email from the director of the Colin County Youth Orchestra. In it, she mentioned that they were offering a full scholarship to a "deserving bassist" to play during the fall session. She asked if Spell Girl would be interested and available to participate starting this weekend. We answered YES immediately and without any hesitation.
Spell Girl started playing the violin as a 3rd grader. She instantly loved it and continued for 3 years until the end of 6th grade.
When she registered for middle school, we signed her up for Orchestra and she became one of many, many violinists. She would have been completely content in that ocean of violins because that's how she is...always content! But shortly after the school year started, her orchestra director gave all the students the option to switch instruments. They had very few basses and cellos and an overabundance of violins. Spell Girl was intrigued by the idea of playing a different instrument, so we agreed to let her try the bass. A week later there was one in our home. You can read more about that decision here.
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In the past year, Spell Girl has excelled in playing an instrument she was only slightly familiar with before. She practices faithfully. She takes impeccable care of it. She even named it Gladys. Over the summer she attended a week long Bass Camp at University of North Texas. She has private lessons once a week in addition to her daily orchestra class at school. CCYO will increase that practice schedule by another 90 minutes every week.
Since last August, she has moved from the beginner group in school to the advanced Chamber Orchestra, and she is currently 2nd chair in that group. She has also moved from the beginner to the intermediate group in her private lessons. You would never know she has only been playing the bass for a year.
I love that because she decided to take a chance and try something scary, Spell Girl has found something she loves. Doors always open when you do that. I am so grateful for this CCYO scholarship and for all the hard work that Spell Girl did without even knowing how it would pay off. I am amazed and grateful everyday for the opportunities each of the kids has had since we moved here two years ago. We had no idea when our path led in this direction what a great blessing this place would be.
I had grand plans for last night. I started early on a crock pot dinner to ensure that we would all be sitting together around a table. I made homemade everything! including ranch dressing that was super yummy, and a dessert I stole off Pinterest. And I had visions of the six of us spending the evening writing down our summer goals and planning great activities that we could all look forward to.
Unfortunately, at 3:00pm, I realized that I had forgotten Spell Girl's solo practice with her accompanist at 5:00pm and her recital at 7:30pm. And I also got a text from TCD saying that she would be going to a friend's house after school to work on a speech project. ugh...
So, instead of the togetherness I planned, five of us ate dinner...mostly around the table. And from 5:00pm until 7:30pm, we ran back and forth between Dallas Strings, an apartment complex in McKinney, and our house. No summer planning happened last night.
But we ALL went to Spell Girl's bass/cello recital. It's rare that we ALL attend an event together. Usually we're going in 6 different directions and we're lucky to get one or two of us at any given activity. And sometimes, the other kids aren't always interested in the things their siblings are doing, so we've been guilty of giving in and letting them stay home. But, I think if I could rewind and change one thing about the way we've set up our household, it's that one...I would just make it a requirement that we ALL support one another whenever possible. It was such a great feeling (for me and for Spell Girl) to look across that whole row and see smiling family faces.
She has worked so hard this year learning that new instrument. We all have the benefit of hearing her practice (and it is TOTALLY a blessing to have that gorgeous music fill the house), but it's a different thing entirely to be there watching her perform for a whole audience full of people. The other kids were excited for her, and a little surprised, I think, at how good she really is. TCD and the Scout Master were sitting behind three of the older kids in the conservatory who are very, VERY advanced, and they both were so excited to tell Spell Girl that those three kids were very impressed with her performance.
It's a good thing to have your brothers and sisters see you excel at the thing you really love. I think it makes them think differently about each other. I'm so happy that we accidentally ended up in the same place together so that we could ALL enthusiastically cheer for Spell Girl. Because what better cheerleaders will we ever have than our own family??
Oh, and by the way...Spell Girl got an award last night for Exceptional Progress in her private lessons AND she found out today that she made 2nd chair in Chamber Orchestra at school (That's the highest one! She'll start there in the fall.) Can you hear us all cheering over here?
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