Article April 25, 2011 Issue

Making music

By Savannah Jackson

I have been playing the flute for six years now. 

One of the lessons that my flute teacher has taught me is that you shouldn’t criticize yourself, but rather you should analyze yourself. By not criticizing myself, I can better focus on how to address the problem and start listening to the all-knowing God. Through prayer and through listening to spiritual sense, I find that God always leads the way to perfecting a difficult measure or phrase in my music. The thought that I most use while praying is the idea of better expressing and reflecting God every moment, in every measure.

Each year, I compete in a minimum of five competitions. In some, my band performs as a whole, and in others I perform as an individual. Sometimes I’ve had to face nerves, overly competitive and aggressive thoughts, issues with memorization/preparation of music, etc. 