Well played, indeed

Naturally, you guys made it hard for me in the very best of ways. I got some great responses to the “define music major” Medal of Violar contest. In the order they were posted, here are some of the best excerpts (according to me):

From Sheri: My observation is that in reality most music majors work as hard, or harder, than any med student – at least those who are practicing hours a day in addition to keeping up other classes.

From Cate: If people think they are easy degrees to get, they are mistaken. You constantly have to produce creative work and find your own style, and better and better creative work at that, and then develop a thick skin since your creative work will regularly be judged and criticized.

From Christine Petrolati: People often refer to book smart people as brilliant. I feel just as strongly that Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Maurizio Pollini are brilliant as well!! You can be a music major and make a difference in this world.

From Jamie: I have a BM and MM in music and all I remember of school is being tired and the four walls of my practice room. In undergrad, I was the one who stayed up late working every night including weekends, while my pre-med friends were out partying… hmmmm.  But having said that, there are two types of music majors: Those who work themselves to the bone and those who slide by with almost no effort at all.

From Dr. Carney: So what is a music major? Awesome. And “awesome” in the very literal sense:  Someone who is expressive of awe as well as awe inspiring. Doesn’t that sound exactly like the description for music itself? I think so too.

You can read the full responses here. I especially recommend Dr. Carney’s offerings; he responded twice and the second one was even better than the first one.

And the winner is…….. JAMIE! Yes, yes, I know, she’s my benevolent dictator, but I cracked up at the part about the partying pre-med students, so it’s not nepotism, it’s a gigglefit. (Let that be a lesson to you: I can be bought with gigglefits.) Her name is now up on the wall of honor.

That having been said, I got a tremendous kick out of reading all the responses and highly encourage more of the same. Just because there’s no official contest doesn’t mean you can’t garner a Medal of Violar. If you’re consistently awesome – and I know you are – it’s inevitable.

It did lead me to one question, which I thought to put to the readers and decided to answer myself. Yes, you can win the Medal of Violar more than once. I don’t want to discourage the recipients from continuing to offer their brilliance. It’s harder to get it the second time, because if it comes down to two the newer applicant gets the nod, but it can be done. So keep commenting! It makes my heart happy. 😀

In the immortal words of Dr. Carney himself: peace out.