July 2, 2011 4:30 p.m.   

Yesterday was the conclusion of a week long youth orchestra camp in downtown Orlando.  It was our family’s first experience of a youth orchestra.  Until now, the only group playing our resident violinists had done was Suzuki group classes and Chips’ Chamber Piano Trio.  So this was new and exciting.  I will say that Chips arrived home most afternoons pretty wiped out.  I think his tiredness was due to the fact that he was working very hard hanging with the more “senior” level orchestra to which he had been assigned.  He did find some of the music pretty challenging.  

It was incredible how much music all the kids did learn to play together in just a week’s time.  There were four orchestras at different levels, and several small chamber groups.  There were also theory and composition classes, and each class got to perform the music they had composed together during the week.  I thought that was a pretty neat idea.  Yesterday, all the kids performed the music that they had learned during the week, resulting in a 90 minute concert!  Whew!

I think one of the best things was that Sweet Girl really “came into her own” during this camp.  At first she was assigned to the entry level orchestra, but after that first day, it was decided that she should move up one level.  This made her feel pretty good and competent, but the best part was that she got to participate in a quartet.  She got to play the first violin part in the quartet, and this made her feel pretty good, too.  As you can see from the picture, she looks pretty small in the group she is in.

The bottom line is that all social events, especially camps, are really all about character training, and we were proud of Chips’ conduct during this experience.  Self-Reliant Man and I had coached him before attending the camp about his attitude toward his fellow musician.  We knew that there would be all levels of musicians at this camp, from beginners up to the very skilled.

When we signed up for this camp, my mind flashed back to old Suzuki classes when Chips was five years old.  There were a few really sharp five year olds in those days who tended to show off in front of the other students by spinning off fragments of their relatively advanced repertoire at improper times during the class.  Chips was among them at that time, about six years ago. 

So we coached Chips about his conduct at this camp.  The goal was to make friends, not to show off.  We advised him to only play the music he was asked to play, to play it as well as he could, but not to set himself apart from his peers in any way that might come off as arrogant or prideful.  Violin skill can be a beautiful thing, but when arrogance and prideful-ness are present, it becomes ugly.  He was to practice humility and Christlike behavior.

And so he did.  Never once did I see him show forth any tendency to think of himself more highly than he ought to.  In fact, he never even played any violin solos the whole week.  He did happily perform (for the group at large) a piano piece that he had taught himself, but nothing more.

I think I was most proud of him when he told me about the boy in his group who had just been playing his instrument less than a year, but who came off as very cocky about his musical skill and knowledge. All week long, this boy criticized Chips’ playing, telling him that he was playing at the wrong time, the wrong volume, or the wrong pitch (on notes that Chips fully knew were in perfect tune).  Chips grew tired and annoyed by this boy, who may have been younger than himself, playing the role of the music teacher.

In Chips’ chamber trio, Chips and another boy were both assigned to play the first violin part.  The third boy played the cello part.  Chips knew that there ought to be a second violin part, so on the second day of camp, he sought out this music, and it was found for him (thanks, Tara).  Chips was then willing to take the second violin part instead of the first because he didn’t want the other violinist in his group to have to learn a new, different part on the second day.  On the third day, the cocky boy (not the other violinist) made a comment to Chips like “you have been playing for eight years and you still can’t get this part down?”  Hmm.   It was a good thing it wasn’t me he had said it to; I’d have had a few choice comebacks.  But Chips tried to shrug the comments off, saying nothing more to him all week than “hey, you’re not my teacher”.  There were a lot of things he could have said, but chose not to.  Anyway, I thought Chips showed a lot of Christlikeness and self-restraint under the circumstances and I was really proud of that.

As a final comment, I have to give the orchestra directors a lot of credit for being accepting of all children’s sincere music making efforts and for treating all the children equally, no matter their level of skill.  They always kept in view that it is all about having fun, playing together, enjoying music, respecting one another, and making friends.  I saw that these values were put forth and taught very well.

And yes, Chips and Sweet Girl did indeed make new friends this week.  Friends that share something big in their lives – playing great music using stringed instruments and a bow.  How cool is that?