Unprecious

Don’t take your creations too seriously.

At least, I don’t. The third time my students read a rhythm differently than written yesterday, I changed it on the spot. As I said to them, “Just because I wrote it doesn’t mean I got it right!” I can make mistakes in my writing. Or, just because I wrote my solution doesn’t mean it’s the only solution or the right one for this moment.

This applies to so much of what I write. I ask my students to be open to deviating from what’s written, to making it their own and finding what feels right to this ensemble. Changes I’ve made beyond rhythmic adjustments include a different tempo than I’ve marked, or singing unison when I’ve written TTBB voicings, or changing the key, or any number of other changes.

My music is precious to me, but I am not precious about every detail being sung as I’ve notated it. As long as the spirit I’ve woven into the music is honored, I care much less about any particular detail.

A caveat: your mileage may vary, and changing things requires you to understand why a musical decision was made, and different writers feel differently about these types of changes. But for me, any detail is much less important than the spirit.