Be an Instrument

After attending my second meeting of the Thursday Morning Music Club, Sandra Moulin invited me to do the devotions for today's meeting. This was sort of like the Warm Greetings that many my age received from President Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War era. At least for this devotion I did not have to take a physical exam!

"What are the guidelines?" I asked Sandra.

"Simply that it be inspirational," she answered.

It was early November, and that holiday mood of goodwill-to-man was already starting to build. On the drive home, as I thought about what might make a good devotion, the first thing that popped into my head was a prayer -- a prayer whose wording I consider to be totally non-denominational, and one that probably all of you are familiar with. The essence of this prayer is summed up in the very first uncomplicated line:

"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace."

And then I thought that in a roomful of musicians and music lovers you all might jump to take these words literally, and ask: 

"Yes, but which instrument?!"

I will concede up front that you cannot be an instrument of peace unless you are first an instrument. So I started to think about how to determine what instrument you are. There are far too many to look at all of them, but let's consider a few. I will group them in ways that serve my purposes. But you can reevaluate any instruments you want later, in other ways that serve your purposes. It's the journey -- the process -- that's important here. So I ask you to bear with me.  

Let's look first at drums - Drums add percussive accents to classical music, but are the essential backbone of military and marching bands, popular, rock, and most jazz ensembles. They mark the steady and appropriate tempo that all others follow. Anyone who's ever played in a band will tell you, "If you ever get lost, listen to the drums." They'll also tell you that a lousy drummer can screw up a group of otherwise great musicians. In jazz, drums often change the pace or the mood to get the group into a new groove when the old one has become a rut. Sometimes the drums will have a starring role that is impossible to miss (think of a Buddy Rich jazz drum solo), but reliability, consistency, endurance, and an overall sense of direction is usually much more important than flashiness. 

Are you the one who sets the pace for tasks in your work group or family? Or, if you don't set the pace, are you often the de facto leader -- the one who the group is actually following, the one who others rely on to effectively and unerringly execute the tempo set by the leader?  Can you step into a starring role when needed, while still being the crystal-clear beacon that others follow? Do you listen to others and adapt the tempo and mood of tasks as needed? Are you the one who often "drums up support" for ideas and worthy causes? If this sounds like you, then be a drum.

Let's consider the trumpet (and bugle) - The US Army website lists 24 bugle calls, of which 23 were designed to grab your attention by the throat and shake. They don't call these instruments "brassy" for nothin'. Brassy is defined as: "Very confident and aggressive in a loud and sometimes annoying way." Brassy: exactly what's needed for a wake-up call like Reveille, or the Fire Call, or a fanfare for a VIP. The trumpet is an instrument that demands to be listened to. But it can be hauntingly sweet as well.  Think of taps or a softly-played trumpet ballad. Like the drums, without the trumpet there probably could not be a decent marching band.

Are you a person with a message that needs to be heard? Are you confident? That's good! How many important ideas are never heard because a person doesn't have the confidence to speak up? Are you very confident? Aggressive? In a loud and sometimes annoying way? Aren't we all, sometimes! But if this sounds like you, then be a trumpet. But remember to play sweet sometimes to make up for your brassyness.  And if all else fails, remember to use your mute more often.

Flute and piccolo - Of the two, the flute is arguably the more versatile. In its low and middle registers its tone can range from rich and luscious to crisp. In its upper register, however, it shares a quality with the piccolo: both can be piercing. In orchestras, marching bands, and Latin music it can be heard punctuating the main themes with musical details and accents that make the music truly memorable.  And it does this not by brute force, but by soaring over top of the rest of the instruments.

When problem solving in a group setting do you have details that supplement the main ideas of the group heavyweights? And do you somehow always manage to be heard, not by shouting people down but by soaring your ideas in over top of them? Or when the loud voices are bogged down in an endless argument, is yours the piercing call that they hear with some little detail that leads them in the right direction?: "Guys! This is due tomorrow! Could I suggest..." If so, you have perfect timing; you know exactly what detail to drop and when. The group may get where it's going without you -- maybe -- but the end result would not be nearly so timely, complete, or memorable. You are the descant of life. Be a flute or piccolo!

I want to consider the lower strings and winds - string bass, tuba, baritone horn/euphonium, trombone, baritone and tenor sax. All of these instruments may be soloists -- we especially may think of the saxes in a jazz setting -- but together they provide a foundation, structure, and texture on which many or most compositions rest.  One of the great joys of playing a lower instrument in an orchestra or concert band for the first time is learning the lower parts that you have heard all your life but never paid much attention to... and taking joy in the realization that these parts are beautiful and absolutely essential to the music. And you want to tell -- or try to tell -- somebody about this experience... but they just don't quite get it. But it doesn't matter, because YOU know. Occasionally all the upper instruments will drop out leaving only the lower ones to play some static chord, or slow-moving block chord passage. That's when the audience knows that everything they are hearing and every powerful vibration they are feeling is from these instruments alone, and they think, "WOW!" 

Do you enjoy providing the foundation and infrastructure to things? Do you enjoy making sure that all the pre-work and continuing behind-the-scenes support activities gets done so that the stuff that everyone thinks is the REAL WORK goes smoothly? Do you believe that "administration" is not a dirty word? And can you take joy in what you contribute without constant personal recognition? Then be lower string or wind.

Look at the violin, viola, and cello - their basic design is incredibly simple: a wooden box with 2 holes, 4 strings, and a stick with some hair. Aside from a few tuning pegs and a bow, there are no mechanisms or moving parts. Yet these instruments are capable of making grown men and women cry, or jump up and do a waltz, or a square dance, or a jig. Since breathing is not involved in sound production, they are capable of executing infinitely long and fiendishly complex musical passages. 

Now I ask you: do you get up some mornings and wince because your moving parts don't move like they used to? Or maybe you're even missing some? Do you look in the mirror and occasionally get overcome by self pity, and think, "I'm just an old box with two holes. What can I still do?" Maybe it's time to be a violin. Get yourself some new strings if you have to. Get your stick re-haired if you have to. Then show the world what just a box with two holes is capable of doing. Be a cello or a viola or a violin! And remember, the very best of these instruments are easily at least two and a half times older than you are.

I want to consider piano and guitar together because they were both designed to voice multiple notes simultaneously to produce a complete and coordinated melodic and harmonic experience. This provides wonderful opportunities for composers and improvisational players to create solo works and to allow a single player to provide full and satisfying harmonic and rhythmic backdrop for another soloist or small ensemble. These instruments also pose interesting challenges: how does one "compress" a more complicated orchestral score into at most 10 or 15 simultaneous notes on a piano, or to a mere 6 simultaneous notes on a guitar? This is routinely done -- and done well -- by good players and arrangers, as we have witnessed when Justin Hoke played his transcription of a Scarlatti harpsichord piece at the October meeting.

And how about you: do you warm to the challenge of coordinating multiple simultaneous components, tasks, or people, making them work together synergistically to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts? Do you enjoy doing this alone (solo) as well as in support of an even larger effort (as an accompanist)? Are you efficiency minded? Do you thrill at the challenge of taking a complex process or product and paring it down and re-arranging it to remove all unnecessary and wasteful cost, overhead, manpower, and fuss -- while still providing all the same elegance, functionality, and usability? If so then you, my friend, are both upright and grand at the same time. You are a piano or a guitar. 

And lastly, let's not forget our oldest instrument: the human voice. We all know what you do with your voice -- you SING! How do you sing? What do you sing? What do you sing about?  Joe Raposo, who wrote music for the children's television show Sesame Street gave us a wonderful song as a guideline:

Sing, sing a song,

Sing out loud, sing out strong!

Sing of good things, not bad

Sing of happy, not sad

Sing, sing a song,

Make it simple, to last your whole life long

Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear,

Just sing, sing a song.

Can you do all or even just some of those things? Can you sing out loud and strong? Can you sing of good things, not bad? Happy, not sad? Can you make your song uncomplicated enough that it will help to guide you all your life, and so that others who hear it will easily understand what you're all about? And can you sing it proudly even if your voice isn't the prettiest or your song isn't the most elegant? If so, maybe you should be a voice. Maybe you already are a voice.

We have only considered a very few instruments, and only in a very few ways. But I guarantee you that wherever you are on life's pathway, there is at least one instrument that calls to you, whose tone and range and usage are perfect for your personality, your temperament, your life's mission. Find that instrument. BE that instrument. And if things change in your life, find another instrument, and be that instrument. And play yourself with all your heart. Be an instrument of conviction. Be an instrument of fire and of passion. Be an instrument of tenderness and beauty. And when you've found the instrument that you are, remember that your real work is just beginning. The last task is the hardest. Don't forget to humbly ask for help with it:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.