I started learning the piano at the tender age of 6 years old. And it was my first love. My maternal grandfather, Don Francisco Escobar, was a great musician in the beautiful golden city of Zacatecas. I have beautiful memories of when my cousins and I would visit him while he played at masses in the beautiful church of Santo Domingo. And at that age I didn’t go so much for mass, but to hear him sing and play on the pipe organ. I remember that we liked to put our hand on the keyboard and listen to some note that had nothing to do with the key that my grandfather played. He then scratched us to get us to remove our playful hands.
As time went by, my love for the piano became serious enough for me to decide to study music. As part of my studies, I had to take a complementary instrument. I wanted violin, but the class was already full. With singing it was the same situation. I asked what was available, and they said, violoncello (cello for short). I figured there wouldn’t be much of a problem, since I only needed to take it for two years. What I didn’t imagine was that the cello grew my heart, and I ended up graduating with the cello as my main instrument.
I started my first class with Professor Ana Moreno, who later became a great friend. What I learned from her was beyond music.
One of the obvious differences between the piano and the cello (which at the time was not so obvious to me), was that on the piano the tuning does not depend on the performer. On the other hand, in the cello, and in all bowed string instruments, the tuning is determined by the musician. The piano requires defined skills of coordination, technique, movement, breathing, relaxation, among other things, but it does not require the player to “tune” the piano while playing it. To tune in a piano, a specialized technician is required.
Ana, in her wisdom as a professor and as a human being, told me that before listening to the note on the cello, it was necessary to listen to the note in my interior. Only by having a clear internal reference, I could differentiate when it was in tune and when it was out of tune. No problem! – I thought…
In order to tune the cello, I had to pay close attention to how its strings sound when properly tuned. And I realized that for me, it was not that easy. The four strings that the cello has are different notes. In musical terms, they are in fifths. When the strings are properly tuned, I discovered a sense of rest, a balance that made it difficult for me to even hear the two strings, because I heard them as one. And of course, when the strings were not well tuned, that rest or balance disappeared.
The interesting thing is that it took me a long time to learn to tune the cello well, because I couldn’t hear the correct tuning. (my ear was not trained to hear so much detail) But I could feel it. Furthermore, when the strings were well tuned, the cello vibrated widely, literally making my heart vibrate, because to play the cello, you have to be seated, balance the angle of the instrument with your legs, while the back rests in the center of the chest, slightly to the left. That’s how the cello stole my heart.
It took me a long time, practice, and intention to be able to hear the right tune. I could feel it in my entire being, but I couldn’t hear it. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was building a connection between my listening and my feeling.
It was not that my listening was superficial, rather, my feeling was deep.
Has it happened to you that you hear “things that make sense” but that don’t feel right?
It is precisely this connection that I began to discover and to work on.
It is in the depths of your being where you can hear what is inside.
Have you given yourself the opportunity to listen to what is inside you?
It seems that God not only invites us, but also supports us to listen more deeply. Isaiah says that God opened his ear. The psalmist says that the Lord inclined his ear to listen to him, and Jesus asks us:
-Who do you say that I am?
God invites us to listen to him, and he is also interested in listening to us.
Would you be interested in listening to him?
How is it for you that God cares about listening to you?
Even though I couldn’t always hear the tune, I could feel it.
Perhaps, while you start perceiving God’s voice, you could also start feeling him.
If the Spirit leads you, you can share with Jesus the Carpenter what is in the depth of your heart. He is interested in listening to you.
Marisol
P.S: We can hear about God’s interest on listening to us, on the readings off the XXIV Sunday of ordinary time, year / cycle B.
