Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)
We sang at a coffee house tonight. We have done that plenty of times before. But this night there was an audience, and there was not an audience. That in itself was not extremely out of the ordinary, but it gave me something to think about.
At times tonight, I could sense that though the room was full of people, we did not have an audience. Yes, had we stopped, there would have been an absence of music that would have been missed… eventually… And in that way, we may have had an audience. But mostly, we were singing to the air.
And in general, that does not make for the best performances of songs.
My rhythm gets sloppy. My fingering of the chords is less than stellar. I start to forget words as my mind wanders from topic to topic. I don’t actually hit the note I intended to on occasion. 🙂
But, if for some reason, I catch a glimpse of a real audience – someone who is actually listening and even enjoying – the song improves a lot! Not just technically improved over the previous paragraph, but even better delivered. From the heart. For real.
Isn’t that weird???
Tonight, after lots and lots of singing – and varying levels of audience – I opened my eyes (sometimes I overcome a lack of audience by just singing the songs to God… HE is my audience) and I saw a couple girls waiting in line for their coffee… and they were paying attention! And smiling! And I actually noticed that the chorus of the song immediately following the discovery of that newfound audience was just better than many other tunes had been that night.
I think that is so odd.
BECAUSE, I do NOT do this because I want people to “look at me!” My personality is “DON’T look at me!” I have never been one to crave the lime light.
But I guess, since music is meant to be communicated, it needs an audience. And when one arrives, the level automatically is raised.
It is possible that something like that might occur in anything that is done for other people. Sometimes a thought of you crosses my mind here on the blog page, and the blog is better for it. The more people I know are reading, the more energy I have to share my thoughts? Again, that is not my motivation for writing, just adds gas to the fire?
And don’t you love to share something you have just created with the nearest person whom you think might care? Whether it’s a kitchen creation, or a craft, or a fine-crafted piece of furniture, or a website, or a model train, or a brand new attic… we love to share our creations, our accomplishments.
It is an innate need, a desire, for acknowledgment of me. Not selfish, not self-absorbed… not even unhealthy in any way. I think it’s who God made us to be. Something in us wants to be worth something… and in a way, the things that we produce make us worth something. Too much value can be placed on those things – rather than our value being derived from who our Creator has said we are. But they do give us value nonetheless.
So the question I came to was, would I write and sing these songs, even with no audience (save God, of course)? Would I write these blogs if not a soul would ever read them? Would the quality of my cooking diminish if I knew that no one but me would ever enjoy it?
I think so. And this is not necessarily a bad thing.
We were made to serve others. God first, then other Servers. We actually improve our serve as there are Servers to be served. The audience does make a difference. The energy level does increase proportionate to the size or attention level of an audience.
So remember that next time you are invited to receive another Server’s creation. Be it musical or lyrical or other-cal…
Be an audience.