Their own worst critic

Posted on November 20, 2009.

My daughter is in her second year playing trombone in the junior high band. I’m not totally sure how the daughter of a flute player and a violinist wound up with such an instrument, but that’s another story for another time.

What I like is seeing her taking an honest look at hers and her band’s performances. They put on their winter concert this week and by my account did a pretty solid job. It certainly was several steps above how they sounded as beginners the year before, as it should have been.

But afterwards, she didn’t have a lot of “wow we’re so great” commentary but taking a critical look at what she, and they, could have done better. That’s priceless to see out of young people who seem too often to be satisfied with what they’ve done, whether it’s really very good or not.

I like it. Makes you feel like you’ve instilled some good qualities.