Lately my Facebook feed has been full of "gratitude challenge" posts. Though some of these seem to be informal exercises in gratitude, there's also a website — gratitudechallenge.com — with a simple but formal regimen of noting "life's little blessings" for 21 days.
An orchestra audition I took recently reminded me of these gratitude challenges. I didn't win the audition, but so many little things went right that I felt happy about the experience nonetheless. Auditions are usually stressful events, and by their nature disappointing for most of the people involved, so cultivating an attitude of gratitude (corny rhyme though it may be) is a good practice for classical musicians.
Here's what I was grateful for the day of that audition:
1. It did not rain a single drop (or snow a single flake!) during my 491-mile round-trip drive.
2. The first rest stop I took a break at actually had hosts, and they gave me a map of the audition city, and they wished me good luck.
3. I ended the audition on a high note, literally and figuratively. It was a high C from Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel, a regular fixture on horn audition lists, and I played it gloriously.
4. At the audition I encountered a fellow Concordia College Orchestra and Band alum. We enjoyed catching up and gossiping about the music scene. It was a fun, supportive encounter, not awkward or threatening like it could have been.
5. I also made a new acquaintance, the fellow who ended up winning the spot. We discovered as we waited around that we share a love for Ethiopian food.
6. The auditions were held at a church, but before I played a volunteer gave me a quick tour of the orchestra's gorgeous concert hall nearby.
7. I didn't freeze up physically during the crucial ten minutes, which happened at one of my last auditions. I wasn't completely at ease, but the difference was substantial.
8. Again in contrast to the awful freeze-up audition, I had a spacious warm-up room with a couch and windows instead of a cramped, windowless practice room.
9. The auditions stayed basically on schedule, at least while I was there — impressive considering that they auditioned another position during the morning. Sometimes these events run horribly late, making it hard to warm up at the right time and keep your head in the game.
10. Two words: free parking!
Gwendolyn Hoberg is a classical musician and the owner of the editing and writing business Content & Contour. She lives in Moorhead, plays with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, and writes the Little Mouse fitness blog. She is also a co-author of The Walk Across North Dakota.
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