Persevere

Sometimes I feel like I'm never going to accomplish enough as a musician and a music scholar.

When I started studying music, I knew two major key signatures, and didn't know that diminished and augmented chords existed. I didn't know what a metronome was. I didn't know the abilities to dictate and sight-sing existed, let alone that some people can hear a piece of music once and remember it for the rest of their lives. I'd never heard an opera, and I didn't know what an oratorio (my now-central research focus) was. I could barely read a piano score. I didn't know that people wrote books about music theory and history. I didn't know what musicology meant. 

I've come a long way in two years. When I look at all I've learned, my perspective changes. I want, every day, to be and do better. That's at the heart of good musicianship and scholarship - if I can let it guide me, but don't let it eat me alive! I'll be in school for at least ten more years. How much more could I learn in that time? 

How much could I learn in a lifetime?