Participation in musical listening, performance, and composition can enhance several areas of character. Here, with a simple definition for each, is a short list of such traits.
1. Self Discipline = The mastery of one’s mind and emotions so that a specific goal can be accomplished.
“Practice makes perfect” is true if it is given some qualifications: “[Careful, intelligent, purposeful] practice makes [great strides toward being] perfect.” Even the most gifted can improve.
2. Responsibility = Completing tasks in a dependable fashion in order to contribute to the needs of others. This is critical for musicians in an ensemble!
3. Attentiveness = An awareness of the environment and a readiness to respond to needs, problems, and direction given by authorities. Performers must work as a team under the direction of a conductor or in cooperation with an accompanist. Attention to details is also a requirement for the soloist.
4. Sensitivity = An alertness and response to the details of others’ needs or suffering. Musicians who play to uplift and minister to others will find many of their own needs met in the process.
5. Diligence = Determination of effort to finish a project. If it’s worth starting, it’s probably worth finishing. The words practice and musician are almost synonymous.
6. Discernment = The ability to make precise comparisons and distinctions even among similar things. The musician has many opportunities to develop skills both in listening and in performing. (For example: intonation, minute dynamic changes, rubato, and a host of other expressive gestures) The smallest accent can become of major importance in the interpretation of a melodic line and can, thus, create a different meaning. Discernment is needed both in the understanding and performing of music.
7. Creativity = The ability to think through situations or problems and provide legitimate solutions. The best music stirs the imagination. The intricacies of even the shortest pieces by Bach, for example, command appreciation and stimulate creativity in the listener and performer.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect model for all of these traits. Colossians 2:3 says, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Only the Holy Spirit working in a person can bring these traits out in the life, but He uses many different tools. One of those tools is the development of the creative arts in a person’s life. A musician who dedicates himself to God as well as the music being performed can become a mighty vessel to honor the Lord. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”