There are always plenty of notes on the page; sometimes, too many. As composers, we often pay the most attention to the taming of those notes including their value, pitch, instrumentation, flow, tempo, accent and volume. That’s a lot to balance all at once when you are looking at a single note. Now add all the other notes included on a page and include all the parts and it becomes extremely difficult to separate them out. But just as important as taming all those notes; one has to listen to space between the notes. What do you hear? Do you hear the resonating pitch from the previous note? Do you hear silence? Do you hear other notes in the background? Do you hear background noise? It all becomes part of the music experience, good or bad. Composers don’t have to compensate for that crying baby in the fifth row but the musicians and the audience do, so it becomes part of the performance whether we want it to or not. The same is true of that rattling air conditioner or squeaking door.

Still, even in our solitude as we write, the composer has to listen to the space between the notes. That space can give rest or pause. It can emphasize the notes before and after it. It can leave an opening for additional background melodies. It’s kind of like outer space. You always hear people talk about the vacuum of space. Well, there really is no such thing. It’s just that the atoms and molecules are so much farther apart there. You hear people talk about the lifelessness of the dessert, but, in truth, the dessert is teeming with life, we just don’t always see it. Those empty spaces are a good place for the composer, musician and audience to regain perspective on where the piece is coming from and where it is going.

I’m not really like some modern composers who think that three minutes of silence can be called music, but I do have a healthy respect for the spaces in between notes. Those spaces remind me a lot about how life works. I have spaces between events in my life. Sometimes the spaces are short and sometimes they are long. Most of the time, I revel in that space. It’s restful. It’s needed. It gives perspective to the rest of my life. It allows me to spend time with my Creator. It allows me time to let things be. Some people fear the silence even though it is never really silent. I find that a little sad. There can be immense joy in silence. There can be strength in silence. So I encourage you to embrace the spaces between the notes and between the events in your life. They are a gift to be cherished.

I have finished my first symphony. It’s a lot like finishing a first novel. It’s almost like giving birth. First, there was this blank score and now, nearly an hour’s worth of music written for a chamber orchestra. The sweat, the starts and stops, the hesitations, the moments of sheer frustration and the other moments where you believe that you are a fool to have ever started such a task that can never be finished, the exhilaration as each movement comes together all pulling together for that final moment when you can announce the birth of a symphony.  But by the grace of God did this come together. For by myself I had neither the sill nor the fortitude to make this happen.

Finished is a relative word. That’s the hard part to admit. What I actually have is a digital symphony and the ability to print out a conductor’s score. Now, I get to create the individual scores for each of the instruments. You might think this simple since I already have the conductor’s score but in truth, it’s more complicated than it seems. Each instrument has a different way of viewing the score and there are idiosyncrasies that need to be addressed. The difficulty of this is augmented by the fact that I have never played with an orchestra so I have to rely on the kindness of others to help me succeed with this.

But these are details and I can do it. I just need to do a little each day, just like when I am writing the music. I just need to break it up into chewable pieces. That’s true of a lot of things in my life. Many of the things I set out to do are daunting. I used to be afraid of even trying to accomplish great things, but then I came up with a set of rules that makes it palatable. I will share them with you. Embrace what you want and ignore the rest if it suits you.

No job it too big if you:

a. break it into manageable parts

b. give yourself realistic expectations in regards to time

c. delegate whenever possible but never delegate what is your responsibility

d. choose your destination before you start your journey

e. dedicate you time and energy to the project

f. find ways to turn your weaknesses into strengths

g. take ownership

h. avoid nay sayers

i. Let God do the leading and have an open heart to what he wants accomplished.

I hope these help you with your next big project and I pray you don’t back away when given the opportunity. How tall the mountain is boils down to a matter of perspective.

I’ve never really considered myself a leader. I’m really more of a get-er-doner. Don’t get me wrong; we need both in this world. But get-er-doners don’t always make good leaders and vice versa. A leader should lead by example which means that sometimes he/she is a get-er-doner. The major problem with get-er-doners is that sometimes they forget that there are others around to help. They often insist on doing it on their own. They see a problem and set about rectifying it, sometimes without even checking to see if someone else is already working on the problem. There are even get-er-doners that believe that they don’t need anyone else and that they are quite capable of doing it all themselves. The thing that get-er-doners have to learn (including me) is that service is a privilege. It is its own blessing. When we decide we don’t need others involved we deny them the blessings that we are experiencing. It’s true, there are people who just don’t want to get their hands dirty, but if they do want to get involved, who am I to deny them? I do not always have to be at the head of the class or in front of the platoon. Maybe if I get out of the way, they will find that leadership gene and experience the blessings that I experience.

My music is like that. I’ve written things for solo instruments and I have put solos into my orchestral arrangements. There is certainly a time and place for going solo. But what happens when you add another instrument? Well, you get a lot more that harmony. You get all the tonal qualities, the craftsmanship of the creator of the instrument, the skill and emotion of the musician and yes, you get harmony. And if you add another instrument and then another, you compound all those qualities. There are things I can do with a group of instruments that I could never accomplish with a single instrument.

There is a time and place for both. I know I need to treat my life more like my orchestrations and allow the other instruments to come through. It not only accomplishes more but it makes life interesting. How boring life would be if I was the only person in the world, never able to harmonize with anyone else. How much more exciting life is when I take a back seat and just listen to the sound as others play and harmonize. Oh, there are moments when I have to step up to the plate but it takes nine men on a team to play baseball. Sometimes, it is just best to realize your place in the music and give it all you got. It may be a solo, it may be the melody, it may be the harmony, it may be the baseline but if you don’t do your part, something is off. Something is missing. The same is true if you don’t let others do their part. It is the coming together of all the parts that makes the difference between a nice piece of music and a masterpiece. Now imagine God as the conductor… That’s just awesome!

I was at the dinner table the other night with my wife, daughter and granddaughter and the ladies were discussing some remodeling ideas. My granddaughter wants her room to be black but we are not going to let her paint it black because it is too hard to paint over in the future.   But we have agreed to let her hang black fabric on the wall. My wife has an embroidery machine and she offered to teach granddaughter how to use the machine so that she could embroider various images on the cloth before it gets hung. I thought it was kind of a nifty idea but my granddaughter said no, she was not willing to learn to use the machine because she would never have a need to know how to embroider. That answer left me confused and I had to explain to her that anytime anyone was willing to teach someone a skillset it is foolhardy to refuse to learn that skillset. You never know when that skillset might come in handy. There may come a time when you need it to make a living and feed yourself. Knowledge is power. Skills reign supreme when you are job seeking.

I have a lot of skills. Some I learned on my own but many were taught to me by others. I am grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me so that I can learn and expand on my skills. Our parents are probably our greatest teachers. My dad taught me life skills as well as how to use tools, repair the house, paint, work on cars, mow the lawn and drive a tractor. Mom taught me about perseverance, dedication and the importance of household chores. Lois Cook taught me to play the piano. June Sexton and June Kelly taught me to sing. My Uncle Wesley taught me preach and my Uncle Rolla and Aunt Genevieve taught me about service.  Mrs. Barnett, my first grade teacher, tried to teach me to read. My mother kept pushing until the lessons sunk in. My wife has taught me love, understanding and acceptance. Jim Lewis, Jim Brown, Mike Meece, Joe Konjevick and Charles Harrell taught me about design and implementation. My children taught me patience and God continues to teach me about unconditional love and the glories of the universe.

Although no one has taught me orchestration, a good friend from church, Jon Bell, has loaned me a wonderful book on orchestration. I am always learning new things and open to learning new things. It broadens my world and helps bring excitement to each and every day. I am so very grateful to all of the relatives, teachers, friends, acquaintances and strangers that have shared their amazing skills with me. I am humbled by it.

These days I do my best to pass these skills on to others. Sometimes I am more successful than others. The point here is that we all have skills; skills that have been graciously shared with us throughout our lives. We have a choice on what we do with those skills. We can hoard them and keep them to ourselves, our secret little cache of tools to get us through life, or we can choose to share them with others to help them improve their lives and fortunes. I choose the latter and I pray others continue to share their skills with me because, quite frankly, I don’t think I will ever know enough.