Assignment #25- Ellis Padgett- Mediocre Musician

Sometimes I feel as if I am as bland as white rice. Maybe it's a little true- I have a good family, friends, and social life. They all make up little parts of me. 

But if I had to choose an aspect of myself that I feel is important, I would say it is music. I am by no means a professional- far from it, actually. I think I'm mediocre. But even if it isn't my greatest talent, music still plays an important part of who I am. Sometimes, music is personal, and helps you have a conversation with your inner self. I like that part, and have focused it into many different projects. But music is also a method of sharing. My sister hates me because when she plays the cello, I come stand over her shoulder and want to play with her. I'm always asking her to play duets. On occasion I am sneaky and print off the cello part, sliding it under her door and running. We have yet to play a duet. 

I share music with my quartet. In fact, music is the reason I am friends with those people. One time we recorded a section of the piece we were working on, and man... it was so bad. But you could hear us all collapse laughing at the end. At least we're self aware. I remember seeing the movie Little Women this year with Sarah and Mary, and a movement of our quartet piece was used in the movie! My heart literally skipped a beat and I almost cried. It is an amazing song. 

When I was given the opportunity to help younger students with the violin, I jumped at the chance. More than anything, I wanted to make music fun for them. I think I just came off as crazy. I offered to give free violin lessons via Zoom to an elementary school-er in the middle of this mess... we'll see how it goes. Music won't always be perfect, but it's about picking up your instrument again and giving it another go- even if it means stepping away for a little bit.

I like listening to music in movies, too. One movie score struck me hard recently: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Now THAT is a good movie. You probably think I'm crazy, but it's the truth. And the music in it is brilliant, how it works with the movie so smoothly. The score for Frozen II was really good too. Music in cinema is truly an amazing art.

There are a lot of parts to my identity that I feel are important- animals, writing- but I chose music for this blog post because I do feel like it is a constant in my life. Or maybe it's because I just got done practicing.