Wallitner Weekly 5

Hello everyone!

A lot of productive things happened this past week.

I have launched the Members only page of my website and I have been making tons of exercises to improve my students’ musicianship. I have been making error detection exercises, as well as melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dictations. I may release a few of these exercises to the public so that non members can see what they’re missing.

I have also spent quite a bit of time this week writing. Not just music, but also poetry and stories. I have also been writing a pop tune for the masterclass I am taking this month.

I have a lot planned for next week too!

I hope to share with you the pop tune I am writing for this masterclass this week. I’d also love to share some of the choral music I have been writing. I was recently commissioned to write a “song of hope” for a local choir here in Yakima, so I will likely be sharing some sketches of that as well this week.

This of course will be in addition to the theory content and poetry and all the other posts that I regularly (not so regularly- I am still getting used to managing a social media page) share with you all.

Burning out is a real and true thing that happens.

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend from college. We were reflecting on all of the things we used to do. The groups we played with, the assignments we procrastinated, and how we used to do SO MANY things at any given time. There were weeks where we had midterms/finals and concerts everyday. And we were able to do all of it and never get drained. It was as if we all fed off of each others energy and became these machines of productivity.

Flash forward to today. We’ve either graduated or are online now. It feels like even a FRACTION of that work that we used to do is so overwhelming. I think back to when I was in high school and I would play musicals at the school AND at the community theater. I couldn’t imagine being that busy now. Even the thought of it stresses me out sometimes.

We came to the conclusion that we were living in a sort of bubble. We didn’t realize that we were so busy because EVERYONE was so busy. We didn’t realize we were tired because EVERYONE was tired. Its like that quote, “A rising tide raises all ships.” We all lifted each other up and that inspired us to keep working as hard as we could. Of course, there was competition too. I needed to practice more than other people so that I could get into the better band/choir. When you see your rival practicing until 11pm, you practice until midnight. That’s how it was.

As I sit here typing this newsletter, I miss those days of rivalry. The days of trying to catch up to those ahead of me. The days of inspiration. The camaraderie. It is difficult to run a race by yourself. This week especially I didn’t want to be productive at all. And there’s nobody sitting at the desk next to me that I am competing with. I was struggling to find my motivation.

Then a student of mine called and said that she got the highest score that she’d gotten in months on this past test. She was so happy that she had improved so much and she thanked me for helping her. Then another friend of mine called and we talked about the music that we’re listening to, and the books we’re reading. And then another friend called and said he writes short stories and we should do exchanges and chat about the inner details of our art.

I felt connected again. I felt motivated again. This time not by the competition, but by the camaraderie. Having people to lean on, bounce ideas off of, and support you is one of the most important things. This is true in any field, but especially in a field like music where its so easy to lose sight of what we really do. Composers put dots on lines for a living. Perfomers make noise for a living. But its more than that. We make people feel something they didn’t know they needed to, or didn’t know how to. Thats worth getting out of bed for.

So whatever you do, remember WHY you do it. Find people that are passionate about it the same you are. Then, talk to each other. Support each other. Motivate each other. That camaraderie is worth more than I can put in words here.