Easter as a musician

Easter as a musician in Denmark is about church service. Every church hires extra musicians to collaborate with their organist on this important day. The every day hymns are accompanied by and extra flute, violin or trumpet, furthermore the choir sings extra motets before and/or after the service. The churches are filled with people and on Good Thursday they are welcomed with a short dinner after the afternoon mass. Music is one of the professions that you cannot stop doing. If you have already one day without practice, you feel restless, because you know, that if you leave out more, it will get harder and harder to catch up later. It isn’t like any other office job, what you can put down as you step out from your workplace. In this case, you are your work place. And it’s not only that it feels uncomfortable to make a break, but you are actually expected to practice more in your break. Or to put it this way: to work more in your break. Of course there are days, where I just can’t get to practice (mainly because of travelling), but if I consciously take a day off, the second day I am already restlless to play again. When I don’t practice, it feels like I have missed the only thing today I woke up for. Of course friends and family are also a reason to wake up for, but regardless, the feeling of unfullfilment still leaves a bitter taste. Why is it relevant to easter? Having my parents here in Denmark for the holidays is fantastic and I really enjoy it, meanwhile I am struggling with the thoughts mentioned above. I don’t want to take away the precious time that could be spent with my parents by closing them out and practicing, but also my inner self constantly yells at me to “be a good girl and do your duties”. This conflict rises in every holiday periode, because my inner self knows, there is no holiday without proper practice. This post became rather philosophical, I hope, you understand my point of view. Thank you for reading, see you in the next post!