Practicing Compassion

Piano. Reading. Yoga.

We learn to practice the skills that we value in life, but many think of compassion as a trait, not a skill. What if it isn't? What if compassion is a muscle we can exercise and build? Who would then argue that we shouldn't teach, exercise, cultivate compassion?

In a November 2009 broadcast of On Being, Krista Tippett interviewed Buddhist monk and neuroscientist Matthieu Ricard. He had this to say:

I mean, you cannot, in the same moment of thought, wish to do something good to someone or harm that person. So those are mutually incompatible like hot and cold water. So the more you will bring benevolence in your mind, at every of those moments there's no space for hatred. It's just very simple, but we don't do that. We do exercise every morning 20 minutes to be fit. We don't sit for 20 minutes to cultivate compassion. If we want to do so, our mind will change, our brain will change. What we are will change. So those are skills. They need to be, first, identified, then cultivated. What is good to learn chess, well, you have to practice and all that. In the same way, we all have thoughts of altruistic love. Who didn't have that? But the common goal, we don't cultivate that. 

Do you learn to piano by playing 20 seconds every two weeks? It doesn't work. So why, by what kind of mystery some of the most important quality of human beings will be optimal just because you wish so, doesn't make any sense.

What are you doing to cultivate compassion?

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Composing Sight Reading: Priorities

I’m in the midst of writing sight reading exercises for MSVMA 2016 Festivals; here are my top-5 criteria in composing the exercises.

5. Appropriate intervallic material. MSVMA designates three levels of sight reading at the high school level, each with specific permitted intervals.

4. Appropriate rhythmic material. Same as 5.

3. Progressive challenges on the page. The three excerpts should build on one another, with more challenges coming later as the students integrate the musical perspective of the exercise.

2. Knowledge of what is tricky at various levels. I want to write materials that challenge the students without resorting to strategically placed mines. (For example, establishing tonality and fundamental rhythm in measure 1 of an exercise makes the entire excerpt more successful; writing m.1 so that students build confidence means that later measures can be more challenging.)

And most important,

1. Musicality. Sight reading excerpts are very easy to write as intellectual hurdles - the musical equivalent of an SAT math test. The end result of that approach is an exercise that isn’t musically satisfying or intuitive. If, instead, you write with musicality as your priority, you can actually write more challenging music and offer a truer test of the students’ musicality - it sings like music and offers a consistent musical perspective.

It’s one of the most challenging commissions I get each year to meet the goals I’ve set for myself; I liken it to a three-dimensional crossword puzzle. Every measure interacts with the rest in intricate ways to create the whole.

The end result is worth it, though - if students walk away from their festival feeling as if sight reading was a rewarding and musical part of their experience, then they are more likely to continue doing it!

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Sunsets

Sunsets draw people in almost without fail.

Why? What is it about a five-minute daily occurrence that transfixes us and nourishes our souls?

For me, it’s a primal connection - it’s the same sunset that my ancestors have experienced; it connects me to a constancy in the world.

Further, it’s a way to mark a daily cycle. In a 21st-century world that includes 24-hour cable, Netflix, and social media always ready for browsing, it reminds me that every day has a beginning and an end.

Last night's sunset...

I need that reminder; don’t you?

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