I’m writing this article in the foyer of the Royal College of Music. I’m here because I help out a little bit at the various London music college Christian Unions. There’s a new influx of freshers filing past me from every nation, and the confident, striding swagger has been genetically inherited from the older years.
I’m always taken aback by the way these young people have such huge expectations, and have such an unrealistic view of their own significance. And yet, at the same time, one of their biggest problems is low self-esteem. All these confident faces are the faces of performers. The performances are very professional, and they are successful in masking the truth that they are petrified of failure. What their performances do reveal, however, is the fact that they have exchanged the worship of their Creator with the worship of created things — music, fame, themselves. This is mostly because of the prevailing ‘success’ culture within the music world — if you’re not the best, then you’re a failure. No one is being groomed to play second fiddle.
It follows then, that if you’re going to be the best, music must consume your life, and everyone else’s life and reputation must be used to achieve your goal. Music must become your god. Tim, a pianist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, was told just that by his teacher — that the piano must be his god…and he was already practising six or seven hours a day!
