Loving the Notes

   To be an excellent musician you have to love the notes.  Each note, you love it, and the way you play it reflects that.  Each rest you love also.  Good cooks know that the secret ingredient is love.  It's what isn't written in the recipe.  It's not written on the music either.  You can't write it down, you can only feel it.

   Yeah.  You sit in the orchestra/band/pit/ and you hold out that whole note, and while you're holding it out, you're loving holding it out.  You're shaping it, sculpting it into a beautiful tone.  Every part of that note has to be cared for: the attack, the sustain, and the cutoff (or the tie or articulation into the following note.)

   How do you love a note?  By giving your attention to it, and feeling joy in creating it.

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