I’ll never forget the prep for a recording session in April, 2000. My ensemble had finished nearly 48-hours of nonstop (and largely improvised) intercontinental travel with a 2-hour homecoming concert. The next morning, my director and mentor joined me in the recording studio early to record some pitch and tempo guides for a track we’d begin recording later that day.
The exhaustion and the jet lag led this stellar pianist to make some repeated mistakes. For a minute, he paused and turned inward, repeating to himself, “Mind over matter, mind over matter, mind over matter…”
Then he took a breath and finished the recording.
When I am facing a task that has been made more challenging by external factors, I like to remember this moment, and that he was able to talk himself back into his ability.
Tonight, as I continue my recent work as a chorus master for the GR Symphony and am in the same space for the first time with some of my favorite Grand Rapids musicians, I am sorry to be doing it with a moderate-to-severe case of bronchitis. I’m on the edge of where I’d cancel a normal rehearsal….but that’s not an option.
So instead, I’ll be there–loaded with cough suppressants and other medicines, to be sure–but just as importantly, I’ll be repeating, “Mind over matter, mind over matter, mind over matter….”
Thanks for that, Steve.