Ear Training

Just in case all the crazy busyness that comes for our family at the end of the school year wasn't quite hard enough, I made it harder by getting sick. I caught an ugly virus last week and it turned into pneumonia. I spent three days in the hospital and came home yesterday. I am very tired and weak from this illness, but I plan to get stronger every day. I am grateful to my family and friends who helped me and prayed for me. It is so nice to be home.

This is something I wrote years ago, but I reread it today and discovered I still need this reminder. 

I recently began teaching a friend of mine, together with her young son, to play the guitar. One morning, my friend called  to ask a few questions. She said that she and her son had been practicing faithfully the chords I had taught them but that her son wouldn't sing along while he played. She wanted him to develop a good musical ear, and she was concerned that he wouldn't be able to hear the way the chords accompanied the melody if he wasn't hearing the melody as he played.

As we talked, I asked her if she was able to foresee the chord changes when she played a song — in other words, was she able to tell, by playing and careful listening, when she should change chords and what chord to change to. She said that she was beginning to, and that it had been exciting as she began to realize that she could anticipate what she should do. When she acted on what she thought her musical ear was telling her to do, and changed chords, she knew right away if she was right. If she wasn't, the chord clashed with the melody, and she would have to back up a bit and try again.

I told her that it was all a part of “ear training”: learning to recognize the way the chords sound and what to do with them. I smiled as I remembered my own awkward beginning attempts at playing the guitar by ear. With careful listening and practice it gets easier and clearer, and as you gain confidence in your ability to correctly hear the changes, it can become very rewarding and fulfilling.

I went on with my busy and rather challenging day and forgot our conversation. Late that night, I lay in bed, struggling with a decision. I had determined to do what the Lord wanted me to do, whatever that was. I felt that I was straining to hear the voice of the Spirit, wondering, as I had many times before, which of the voices in my head was His.

At last, I decided that I had to choose the course that seemed best and act on it. If I was right, my choice would be confirmed. In a flash, I recalled the phone conversation with my friend. I realized that this was all part of “spiritual ear training” – learning to recognize His voice and developing the faith to follow it.  Although I am no great expert at playing the guitar by ear, I realized that my spiritual ear was even less well-developed.

I resolved that night that I would keep my mind open and tuned to the things of the Spirit.  I would follow a prompting, if it seemed to be a good prompting, even if I wasn’t completely sure of its origin. Some of the greatest blessings and experiences of my life, I recalled, had come when I had. 

I decided that I would be extra careful about keeping my mind and environment clean from influences that would detract from the Spirit. Just as superfluous noise or music in the background when I am playing the guitar would prevent me from correctly hearing the chords, so could inappropriate or worldly messages crowd my mind and make it difficult for me to hear the still, small voice.

In order to play any song properly, I must keep my guitar in tune. Because changes in the guitar’s pitch can occur gradually, I might not notice them unless I check it regularly against another source, like a piano, that I know to be in tune. In the same way, I must be sure that I am keeping my life in tune with the Lord’s will for me through careful and regular prayer, scripture study, and temple attendance.

I also determined that I would keep a regular written record of my experiences as I tried to more completely follow the Holy Ghost, so that I could more fully understand and appreciate the workings of the Spirit in my life.

I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost in my life. I know that as I work to develop and trust my spiritual ear, the song I play with my life can be a beautiful one, a song of service and devotion to my Savior and my Heavenly Father.