One in a Million? or One of Millions?

CLARINET, noun –
An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a clarinet — two clarinets.  ~Anonymous

When I was in middle school and high school, I could dream big.  It’s easy when you can only see the tip of the ice berg to imagine an entire continent exists underneath it and that because you have stood on the tip and can imagine its expanse, the rest of it should be just as tangible.  I jumped in the water expecting to see and conquer a behemoth… and found that my little ice berg was just the beginning.  The world of music is far more than a continent, planet, or even universe…  And I – what am I?

I am a clarinettist.  I am one of millions of clarinettists.  This is a thought that occurred to me relatively recently.  How depressing to step out into the world (or at least into college) and discover that the talents you thought were uniquely yours as the local Benny Goodman in your grade school days are, in fact, remarkably unremarkable, that millions of other people pursue your art and surpass you in it, that you are not really one in a million, but one of millions.

Think about that for a second.

Done thinking about it?  Good.  Now, don’t EVER think about it again.

I’ve more recently come to the following conclusions:

• Because there are millions of clarinettists out there, there are millions of ways the clarinet is played every day.  Your way and my way are each one in a million. Far more importantly:
• Music is an act of service.  We can practice hard to become better performers, but if we do that entirely for ourselves, we are missing half of the miracle that is music.  It is meant to be shared.  In my humble opinion, that means practicing not just to “get it right,” but to prepare music to be offered as a gift to others.
• Music cannot possibly be given by or to too many people, and for it to touch only millions of people is not nearly enough.  So, musicians, we’ve got our work cut out for us.
• No matter how “talented” we are, no one, not even the great Benny Goodman has played clarinet exactly the way you or I have, do, or ever will.

Thanks for reading! (Now go practice!)

~Inspired in part by David Cutler’s The Savvy Musician regarding the question, “Are There Too Many Musicians?”~