Handling Criticism – The Dilemma of Being a Sensitive Musician

 

                         No one likes to be criticized, especially sensitive musicians!

 

                                                                  This is a great musical dilemma. One will never be a great classical musician without                                                                         possessing a deep degree of sensitivity. No one wants to hear the performance of an                                                                         insensitive hack! Yet this very sensitivity, so necessary to skillfully interpret Bach or                                                                           Schumann, can be our downfall when trying to deal with criticism. It tends to inflate                                                                           and exaggerate the slightest censure into what seems to us like lightning bolts flying                                                                         from the depths of hell.

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                                                                  Yet every time we go to a private lesson or perform on the stage, etc., we are laying                                                                           ourselves open to criticism, and  pain ensues.

 

It’s so important to separate the criticism from who you are,

from your worth as a child of God, even from your worth as a musician.

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~Ask the Lord to help you understand. He will never reject you!

~Read Bible verses about his comfort and strength.

~Share with a friend.(We've all been there.)

~Ask yourself how the criticism can help you?

    What you can learn? How can you improve?

~Resist perceiving a mosquito bite as a nuclear bomb.

~Do not dwell in a pity party.

~For extreme circumstances:

    Realize that emotional pain does not usually zap out of existence.

    Healing is a process and the Lord’s timetable is not ours.

    Trust him to hold your heart and guide you through.

 

Yep, some criticism is given out of jealousy,

spitefulness, or to tear you down.

Some is just thoughtlessness,

not with ill intentions.    

 

                Remember, much criticism is purposefully to help you. Accept it, and grow.

           God is faithful and promises to help you. Really, it is his power working within us. He can handle it!

 

                         Ideas?

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