Old habits and traditions

Today we're contemplating on old habits and traditions...

As some of you might know, next to being a singer specialized in early music I am also a choir conductor. Rather a semi-professional conductor, because I only have done a side study next to singing at the conservatory. Before I came to the Netherlands to study singing I was enrolled at the Baptista Teológiai Akadémia in Budapest (Academy of Baptist Theology) and I was a student at the church music department with the main subject choir conducting (my teacher was Gábor Oláh at that time). Before that I studied choir conducting at the Baptist Summer Course (Baptista Egyházzenei Tanfolyam) in Újpest for six or seven years, so from the age of 16 or 17 years-old I am standing in front of choirs - mostly church choirs. Also church music is the genre I feel myself at home the most. I grew up in church environments, religion and church was a part of my weekly routine (and lo! And behold! I still turned out pretty normal).

Ever since I am working with choirs and especially church choirs I come across the following sentence more and more often: "But we have always sung it this way". Whenever I hear this sentence I get a weird itch in my palms and only my respect for others stops me from bitch slapping the person who dared to state such nonsense.
First of all, as a conductor in charge I don't give a damn about previous conductors' musical interpretation and anyone expecting me to be that previous conductor is actually an expectation I will never ever fulfill. It's not that i don't care about their work, I do care and cherish their work! But they are not me and I am not them. The artistic tools, musicality and personality is not the same, so why would you stay in the past with someone who has already left for another opportunity?

Now, it's of course never about any of this expectation, but it's being used to camouflage the laziness and the fear of change.

The moment a sentence like this leaves your lips beware of the fact that your development has stopped a long ago and you don't want to grow further. In case of (church) choirs it's a sign of becoming old and an early sign of the death of the choir. Thoughts that refer to old ways and habits (whether it's a choir's or of an individual) and being comfortable with them is very dangerous.

Now, tradition might sound like a pile of old habits connected to eachother, but it's not. Tradition is a repeated activity or event that has a purpose. A purpose that's more than serving people's comfort. It makes you remember who you are, what your community has gone through, a heroic deed in respect of the hero or heroes. Or anything like this. Not all commemorations make you feel comfortable, not all of them are nice, but it's a beautiful thing to have - traditions remind you to your roots and makes you look back the road you have behind your back.
From the moment a tradition's purpose is lost or gets forgotten it becomes a habit, an empty shell, an abomination.

Old habits on the contrary have no higher purpose. If you refuse change for the fake safety old habits can offer you, at a certain point you'll loose the joy you used to feel. Kodak refused to go digital, now they are almost nowhere to be found. Blockbuster didn't take seriously the importance of online streaming and now they are gone and Netflix took over. What's the same in Kodak and Blockbuster? They refused change. They ignored the change of circumstances. They got stuck in the "We've always done it this way" and that was their doom.

Notice an old habit that has no purpose anymore? Change! Have you heard yourself recently saying that dreadful sentence "I always do it this way"? Change it! Could you take another route to your work? Take another one every once in a while on the way back home. Have you caught yourself playing or singing the same piece the same way all over again? Change the phrasing, the tempo the dynamics, anything.

Look at life and things around you like you have never seen them before! Your own experience is the greatest obstacle in your professional and personal development. Remember, it's never late to change your old habits.

I know, I quoted him many times (especially this one), but remember what Mark Twain said:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ”

Sail away from the safe harbour of your habits, even if they give you comfort and safety. Leave the conform-zone every once in a while. Challange yourself with new ways of doing your daily activities. The change doesn't have to be grand, do it little by little, step by step. Surprise yourself with spontaneous turns and moves, try out new things.

I would like to close today's thoughts with a Russian proverb: "The shark that doesn't swim drowns."