PASSION AND MUSIC

Doing things over time one gets to be accustomed to how that particular thing works. But some cases are never like that. I have experienced a situation where people do a particular thing for years without really grasping what they have been into. Many factors must have contributed to that, but I simply think it's lack of passion. But why on earth will someone not be passionate about what he or she does, or rather what he or she chose to do. That has bothering me for quite a while now and I will tell you why as we go.

Source

On Sunday we had our Parish choir general meeting. Over here we majorly deal with choral Afro kind of music and I am opportune to be the choir master. I have not always been the choir master, I in fact knew absolutely nothing about music when I first joined the choir. With time I improved, far more better than I thought I would ever.

As part of the agenda for the meeting, there came a time for any other business and I had to raise a very troubling issue, one that have really eaten deep into choir. There are choristers that have been in the choir long before me but yet they lack experience. Now this is what I am talking about, they are probably not passionate about what they do. I might be wrong though but that is what I think.

Everyone loves music, or at least almost everyone but it take more than love for music to know music, one must have a motivation that goes beyond mere love. Yet one cannot speak of having a comprehensive knowledge of music. To a large extent, I still think the perfect word here is passion. "If you must sing and sing well, you must make up you mind to become a musician and then you must be passionate about what you do". Those were the exact words I used while speaking to my choir on Sunday being the 1st of September 2024 and the idea was to make them understand what it means to be independently good at what you do.

Over time, I realized that so many hide in the shadows of others. Of course it is very easy since we were no concert choir. All we do is sing at Mass every Sunday and practice twice every week. Since we were over 50 it was of course very easy for most members to become mediocres. They just do what every one else does and it will probably not matter much if they fail to do it right. The effects of having gathered choristers that are less than average over the years is gradually telling the choir and something had to be done about it. To a large extent I have failed as Choirmaster even though I am not always around, but I must do what I can.

I have always loved music. I may not be close to being the best musician in world but I enjoy practicing music too. As much as possible I seek growth in my specialized music genre and beyond. Sometimes I wonder why my choristers do not see it the way I do. I simply wish they become a little dedicated than they are...