Orchestra

I was bored at work (hence the blog name) and I started thinking about how much I don't fit in there. For example, the pregnant girl at work who smokes while 8 months pregnant was talking about meeting with her parole officer and to top off that classy moment later said that she would drink a Monster energy drink because it has a warning on the side of the can saying that it's not advised for pregnant women to drink it (reminder, she smokes). It only gets worse/better from there. On the scale of just how much I don't fit in, and how much it's not my crowd of people, it pretty much tells all when I say that I have my masters degree while working the same room with people that don't even have their GED. I don't fit, it's not my group of people.

That, along with listening to some NPR while driving around (yet another thing that separates me from just about every singe soul in that building) made me start to think about orchestra. I play the cello, and I'm not bad at it. I've played in symphonies, I'm classically trained, and I don't play arrangements of pieces, I play the big boy full versions of songs. I'm good (or at least was good) at what I did when I played. If I practiced and applied myself I could easily sit in the top orchestra in all of Nevada.

What's funny about orchestras and people that play at that high of level of skill is that in the long run, everyone there is just as dedicated to the music as everyone else. Everyone in the orchestra likes music in a really weird way and wants to preform it, but what's even better is that even though everyone is about the same, and is equally skilled in their unique instrument of choice, there are stereotypes that fit pretty decently well between the personality of a person and the instrument that they play.

First violins are the prima donnas. Life is all about them. They are the most anal, and they are the most obsessed about everything. If they don't get everything perfectly okay, and you can't hear them from the nosebleeds in the balcony, then something is wrong, because although other instruments are there, they are only there to make the first violins sound better. They are the ones that walk around with earbuds listening to metronomes and tuning pitches so that they can teach themselves perfect pitch. They're obsessed.

Second violins don't care. They're skilled. There's a reason that they're playing at the professional level, it's not like they are less skilled, or unable to do what the first violins can do, they just don't care. If the bowing is off, if they miss a few notes, or even if they fall asleep a bit during a concert, it doesn't matter, just as long as the final result works. The crazy part about them is that when put under the pressure a second violinist has been known to outshine a first violinist, and it is hilarious when they do. It's just who they are, they've risen above, or just remained ignorant, of everything that the first violins are so in love with, and just enjoy the music that they're a part of with an easier part that they don't have to worry so much about.

Violas are the red headed step child of the orchestra. Everything is built around violas getting the short end of the stick. Composers hate violas and never give them a time to shine, conductors always seem to gravitate towards picking out some weird mistake from the section, and the orchestra finds itself quite often sitting in rehearsals having to wait while the violas are drilled for a half hour over a simple run that they should have learned. Again, a lot like the second violins it's not that they're not skilled, or don't know what they're doing, one of the best musicians I have ever had the privilege to sit anywhere near and hear play was a viola, but even he was a glutton for punishment and couldn't carry the section on his shoulders. They never get a time to shine, they always get the weirdest parts that they're forced to play, but as much as the orchestra makes fun of them and they seem to always be out of luck, without that weird group called the viola section the orchestra would sound empty. They're perfectly okay with being unappreciated, and they use all of their talent just to make sure that the middle voice of a chord or an unheard line of harmony works perfectly with the rest of the orchestra.

Cellists are bonkers. Where other sections will joke and have fun, we're the weird ones. I don't even know where to start about us because I'm one of them, but imagine a group of people exactly like me in a room together, working together.

The bass section is all of the slackers, but ingenious slackers. They are stuck for hours of rehearsal playing some of the most uncomplicated lines in the piece which is almost impossible to screw up. Professional level bass players are quite often playing at the level of middle school orchestras just because they're the bass section. They are AMAZINGLY talented musicians and learn how to do silly stupid things on their massive beasts of instruments that if put down wrong can, and will, crush the toys that people call violins, but the composers have decided to force them with the short stick and keep everything together by playing the most basic of lines while the first violins do all of the fancy work, so they have time to think, and it's a deadly thing. You ever want to sneak anything in or out of a rehearsal? Get the bass section to help you out. You want to go to sleep during the middle of a rehearsal? Find a bass player to loan you their case and use it as a sleeping bag. They have zero stress, and are the closest thing to a California surfer that you're going to find where they just hang out and chill in the back of the orchestra.

There's of course the winds (who are their own series of cliques) and the percussion (ANIMAL ANIMAL ANIMAL ANIMAL ANIMAL ANIMAL ANIMAL!!!!) but in general all of the instruments in a typical orchestra are going to run somewhere around those stereotypes. What's interesting about all of this is that when you're 10 years old and picking out an instrument to play, you don't pick it out by talking to dozens of people that also play the instrument and find out which one matches your personality the best, you just pick it, and those that stick with that instrument are typically those that have those personalities. The reason you don't see any slacker first violin players is because they don't fit in, it's not part of the first violin culture. You're not going to find a viola player that is self-obsessed because it's not who they are. The reason that certain people can't play in certain sections is not because they're lacking skill, it's because they don't match the role that the section fills.

The same goes with life. You don't see people with masters degrees at dead end call centers not because they can't do the work, or it's too difficult for them, you don't see them there because it doesn't match their personality and who they are. Just like you don't see lazy people becoming doctors, it's not that they couldn't eventually learn what it takes to become a doctor, it's because they don't fit the culture and what it means to be there.

When trying to find a job or where you fit into in the big scheme of things, it doesn't really matter if you're skilled or not, you can always learn, everyone can; the problem comes down to fitting into your role in the bigger scheme of things. Unlike those middle school kids unknowingly picking up a random instrument and figuring out too late that they don't fit the bill to play it, be grown up and take a different approach to life. Figure out who you are, what you do, what you like, and then figure out where you fit into the big scheme of things. If you fit the bill to be a bass player, do it, but don't lie to yourself if you're a second violinist and think that you can chill with the cello section because you're not going to make it, you're not going to enjoy your life. It doesn't matter how great the music sounds, or how great of a person you are individually, you need to figure out where you fit, and play your part in that section.