Three Directives

Here are the three directives I gave my students before they walked onstage to start a 2 hour plus concert tonight.

  1. Mental focus. Stay mentally in the present, executing what you know as well as you can.
  2. Physical stamina. This we build over time, developing an ability to maintain energy and strength across longer periods of time.
  3. Fun. We can forget that we got into this music-making for the fun of it. And unless we’re intentional about having fun with our music, we could get to the end of the concert showing our stamina and our focus, but without the joy that comes from doing something for fun.