Uncomfortable

We are all familiar with the cliché of the struggling artist: the cellist who sacrificed using electricity for months to save up to study in Italy, the singer whose only family was the church, and the pianist that found healing in the moments where their fingers danced across the black and ivory keys. Their music is profound. The depth of their sound comes from the depths of their life experience and they posses that magical something that transforms notes on the page to a sound that captures the essence of what it means to be human.

While there are tremendous artists who are borne of such circumstances, many come from much more affluent roots and whose struggles to survive and thrive were limited in respect to the clichés of a “true” musician’s origin. Many of these students are quite good, technically proficient and go on to have successful careers, yet what is it that separates an artist from simply being good to having the ability to touch each and every member of the audience? My thoughts? It is being uncomfortable.

This idea was brought up to me by a friend earlier this week. I was complaining about having to sing a piece in Aria Preparation that I did not feel was right for me vocally and which I had only been assigned a few weeks prior. I was preemptively embarrassed to sing in front of a room of graduate students and a professor that I am slightly obsessed with and am convinced is a genius, and was ruminating on how with more time, a different aria or a different day I would sound 10x better than I knew I was going to in a few short minutes.

Her response? She began talking about how she had started running over break. Her sister had suggested that they go for a 5 mile run and my friend immediately knew that wasn’t going to happen so they settle on going on a quick 2 mile run. Halfway through the run she reached a state of perpetual discomfort – it was not pleasant, it was not painful but rather a general sense of awareness that she was asking her body to do more than it was prepared to do, although it was fully capable of performing the task. Following the run her sister informed her that she had been tricked – they had run the 5 miles.

So how does this all tie in? Being uncomfortable pushes you to accomplish the things which you are physically capable of doing but mentally scared to try. Whether it is running five miles or singing a new aria this state of discomfort is not only desirable but required for growth at a rate that turns a runner or an artist from good to great. Being uncomfortable is not the same thing as being in pain – pain means you are not ready – but being uncomfortable is the key to growing faster and going farther.