You're Right!

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." (H. Ford)  This was one of our inspirational thoughts for the day in Inside Music class with Matt Podd. This program is amazing, as is the class, and we're experiencing the art and science of composition though learning, listening, practicing, creating, sharing, assessing, critiquing, discovering, and yes, enjoying!

So many musicians and music teachers are hesitant to embrace the technology available to us and to our students, and I frequently hear those two little words: "I can't." (Or even "I won't.") During Beethoven's lifetime, keyboards grew by more than two octaves. Imagine him grumbling about having to use all those extra keys. Look at a Baroque recorder and a modern flute - need I say more? Compare a sackbut to a trombone. Now I love a good sackbut tune, but you get my point. Technology can be defined in many ways: "The branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment..." or "The sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization." (note the relationship to life, society, civilization)

With every passing hour today, and with every task that I completed, skill I mastered, and composition I created, I sat back for a moment, smiled, and said to myself: "I can." (and I'm right!)