Friday, May 14, 2010

Playing in the Right Key

I have spent much of my life as a musician, both in full-time pursuit and part-time. I have an immense appetite for great music. By training, I am a percussionist, by experience I am a vocalist and conductor.

In orchestras, I love to play the tympani most of all. There’s something about the rumbling, sonorous tones that a well-tuned set of tympani can produce, and the punctuated accents the tympani can add to a piece of music is sheer percussive heaven to my ears.

Being musically trained, I’ve come to understand and appreciate the ability to play in the right key. When I sing solos, I know there is usually a perfect key for most songs, and I’m not at my best unless I am singing that song in its most perfect key for my voice.

My wife is an excellent pianist, and she has the amazing ability to play just about any song in any key desired. What a dream musician she is, besides that, she’s beautiful as well. (Oops, I got side-tracked there for a moment.)

Let me tell you a story.

During my college days I directed the music program for my Dad’s church in Lewisburg, Tennessee. I made the fifty-three mile trip down every Sunday morning and would often take a college friend or two with me. Our church especially loved it when we would come down and sing a “special musical” selection for them.

Every seventh Sunday we were asked to broadcast our church services over WJJM -- 1490 on your AM radio dial. On broadcast Sundays Dad wanted the music to be extra special.

On one particular broadcast Sunday I took my two best friends down with me -- Harold Ivan Smith and Michael B. Ross. We formed a trio and practiced the song “I’m a Child of the King” as our special for this particular Sunday. Harold also accompanied us.

We rehearsed three times, decided on the perfect key and made the fifty-three mile trip down to Lewisburg, my home town.

When it came time for us to sing, we took our places around Harold at the piano, my father placed the microphone on the piano and Harold began playing his introduction. We soon realized that Harold had forgotten the exact key we had practiced in and had us off into some strange, lower key. We sang, actually it was more like a growl, because of the lower key, yet we somehow managed to make it to the end of the song.

Any time I’m with either of these guys we always find our conversation coming back to “The Three Bears Trio”, which is the name that Harold called us, because of the growling sound we made as we tried to sing even though he put us in the wrong key.

Even as I sit keying in this story, I’m laughing out loud remembering this incident. What a great story for a lifetime.

Here’s the application.

It’s important to sing and play in the right key!

What key does your family sing in? Are you all harmonizing or are there a bunch of individualistic soloists, going their own way, each singing their own tune? Are you even on the same page of music?

What other keys do you play in at home and at work? Do you find yourself playing in major keys or minor keys? I know some people who major in the minor stuff of life, do you?

I love the key of ethics, for it promotes honesty and fair play.
I love the key of creativity, for it adds spice, spark and newness.
I love the key of kindness, for it oils the machinery in human relationships.

I love the key of appropriate words, for they open my heart to receive what you say.
I love the key of respect, for it builds cohesiveness and helps build trust and cordiality.
I love the key of stableness, for it calms and solidifies.

I love the key of opportunity, for it opens my eyes to possibilities.
I love the key of honor, for it means respect, value, and good esteem.
I love the key of integrity, for it means sincerely, without false pretense.
I love the key of principle, for it means you place value and hold to higher standards.

What key are you playing in?

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