Mull and ings

I was walking under the big letters of "School of the Arts" on my way to practice and I realized that one real lesson in music school is to drop that romantic notion of what music school is. You know, how impressive the first impression is - concert hall, Steinways, all that jazz. No matter how artsy fartsy the walls, a practice room is a practice room. And as someone once said to me, one way or another it's about hours alone with the instrument.

That's the cynical part - well, the realistic part anyway. I still think the real thing about music school has to be the community of musicians. Sometimes artsy fartsy and sometimes otherwise, and when not otherwise, certainly without apology, methinks.