Being a Musician

Your entire identity and personality are subsumed, by necessity, to the playing of the four distinct notes and nothing more. However, each musician is important in the overall rendering of the piece. And it is critical that all of the musicians have a concept of and know the complete score so that they can play their part properly. Equally important is that each musician have a complete comfort and sense of sense of self so that each time one of their notes needs to be executed, it can be done with the appropriate flair and confidence required in order to render the tone that is needed at that point in the music. What the musicians' hands look like, the color or size, whether there is a hand or a prosthetic device are not essential to the rendering of the tone. The importance is that the tone is played and played accurately.

Each musician is in possession of only four bells that have only four tones on the scale. The musical piece may rise and fall one or even two octaves and dip in the same intervals. Yet the full complement of musicians will have four bells and be able to play the piece as one cohesive, flawless piece of music provided each one precisely follows the music score. Each tone has it's place and need to be executed as required in order for the score to have the correct presentation.

Aside from the limited amount of contribution to the score each musician has are several other factors. The bells are supposed to be played by ringing them in a particular fashion. It isn't a jingling of the handle by shaking one's wrist. Pretty wimpy way of doing things, really. Instead, it takes full play of lifting the entire arm, extending it, while in the air, the hand slowly flexes in its full range of motion in order to achieve sounding the soft, luxurious tone of the instrument, then slowly bring one's arm back down to resting position until the next note should be played.

The Director

The director of the music is akin to being the leader of an organization. The leader has the overall view of where the piece is going and how to get there. The director gives each musician cues on when to play their note and in what style so that the sound will have an interpretation and rendering as close as possible to the intention of the composer. (Please note that the director may, in fact, be the composer.)

The director has a role in relation to the music and the musicians. The director is the leader and gives guidance to the musicians on what they are supposed to do. It is not necessary for the director to ask permission of the musicians to lead the music. It is understood that a leader is necessary and that someone must take the reins in order to tell people when to start, at what pace, at what sound level. If there is to be a pause, how long the pause will be, if a solo is interjected, where that solo will occur and for how long.

The director leads with a strong hand but the director also leads with gentleness in order to coax from each player the sweetest sounds possible for that juncture of the piece. The director keeps every player and the score unified. They players do not rule the director and play on at whatever pace or volume they want, according to their whim or impression of what they hear in their heads, on their own timing.

So it is with the leader of an organization. Each person is led to do their particular job in their part of the company. Certain tasks have a particular timing and the leader holds everyone accountable to their part and its timing in order for the cohesive interplay of running the business unfolds as one score of music being played out in a beautiful concert. No one can play the entire piece by themselves because they do not have the full complement of notes. Each one is reliant upon all of the others in order to bring to the audience a presentation of the full score, under the guidance of the director, as was interpreted and written by the composer.

One Piece of Music, One Leadership

How interesting that as I finally reached the point of actually composing these words in order to publish them that I found a very interesting piece on leadership that talks about team building and essential skills of an effective leader.