practice

My female owner says she had an awesome worship practice last night.

Okies, this is the background. A while ago, she agreed to help out with playing music in her bible study group. They decided to start her off on guitar first, even though they needed keyboardists, because she was more familiar with guitar. However, because she played the instrument sporadically over the past ten years and was/ is in need of more consistent practice, the decision was made for her to play alongside a seasoned guitarist first. So that’s what they did last night. Two worship leaders, two guitarists and one extra guitarist (who happened to be in the house).

And you know my female owner. She enjoys playing music with people. Just adds to the synergy, she says.

For example, there was a slow song where the lead guitarist starting plucking the strings. On hearing that, my female owner switched from strumming to just using her pick to go down the strings gently. This resulted in a quiet and soothing mood. The two of them became so caught up with the music that they totally missed the worship leader’s hand signals to increase volume and finally, out of exasperation, she had to verbalise her instructions “go louder and strum!” Always fun to play differently but complementary (just like her flute and piano pieces).

And of course, working in a team with like-minded people who are forgiving and tolerant of her inadequacies was uplifting and inspiring. Correction was done in the spirit of love and pain (on the part of the guitarists mainly!) was endured willingly for the greater objective. In spite of time pressure, the session was marked with laughter, joy and energy. Even though my female owner had rehearsed for worship with other people in her younger days (think: more than 10 years ago), this was an eye-opening experience. She saw that her friends were not doing things as a matter of routine or mere practice. They were striving for excellence in the way they conceptualised the worship session, great attention to details and persistence in working out the stuck points, with the sole aim of leading the rest of the group into an intimate time of worship on Friday.

It was a refreshing change for my female owner as well.

Having been casted in a helping role where people look to her for help/ direction and being on her own (i.e. independent) for so many years (yah, she felt that she couldn’t depend on her ex-boyfriend to fulfil his promises), my female owner was thankful that she could “sit back and relax” while the lead guitarist figured out the technicalities of the songs and modified the level of difficulty to suit her proficiency (the Chinese sometimes call this “eat snake” but she begs to differ, she is just allowing someone better to take the lead). She didn’t have to find a solution to any issues and left the “hard bits” for him to play. Even something as simple as tuning the guitar, my female owner felt so relieved that she could just hand it over to someone to do it for her. Ah, basking in the shadow of someone else’s talents.