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Friday
Apr022010

Creating Your Own Posse

AuthorDeborah Sobol | DateApril 2, 2010

After watching two weeks of high-powered world tennis in La Quinta, I admit, I'm still a bit bewitched... but not so entranced as to miss other parallels between the world of tennis pros and the world of students aspiring to the world of professional musicians.

I've written about observing the daily technical practice routines of the top tennis players in the world. Here's another aspect of their work which informs a mind seeking information from other disciplines: the posse.

For those of you who haven't watched a good, old-fashioned Western in a while (where the posse referred to an armed band of men accompanying the sheriff making his way through the Most Wanted List), “posse” has its roots in medieval Latin where it means, literally, “power.”

It has morphed into many other informal meanings over time, but in this sense, it means to “be able,” referring to a group of individuals who have a common purpose or characteristic. (You can see where the Old Western usage evolved.)

Every tennis pro has his/her own posse. They constitute the “team”—those individuals whom the player gathers around him/her to work toward a common goal: winning, and winning often for an extended period of years.

At La Quinta or other tournaments, you will see three to four people show up to work each morning with the pro: the hitting partner, the trainer, the coach, and often an outside specialist called in for a period of time to work on one aspect of a player's game. They stand in different corners of the court, facilitating the practice and quietly observing. During breaks, they gather around the pro and offer their observations and input.

They're with the pro whenever he/she practices; during the matches, they usually sit in the player's box at the stadium. They are a carefully selected group of people who the player utilizes to move him/her closer to his/her goals on a daily basis.

It occurred to me that students need their posses, too. I definitely had one during my undergraduate and graduate years! While you can't have four people in a practice room with you daily, there are other avenues to extend the metaphor:

  • Your teacher is the “coach”—the one who knows every side of your makeup and guides you in your work on the most concentrated level.
  • Your “trainer” is an overall fitness program you adapt for yourself at a local gym, in your room, or walking along the lakefront during a break from school. It can include the technical training program you include in your daily work with your instrument.
  • Your “hitting partner” is the tape recorder that sends back to you the sounds and shapes of your playing in sometimes humbling reality.
  • Your “specialist” called in for work on specific areas of your playing that need a boost are any modes you take advantage of to further your knowledge in your field, like auditing other classmates in your teacher's studio or other instrumentalists' studios. It is any masterclass, workshop, seminar, or summer festival you take part in.

The list is endless! And this is just the external posse.

Think about the possibility of an internal posse to guide your studies. Find role models both inside and especially outside music who can teach you by example and observation. Turn journaling about your daily work into a “
hitting partner.” Learn about how the body works from any number of wonderful resource libraries to enhance the work of your "physical" trainer.

"No man [woman] is an island." — John Donne

We all need our posses—have fun gathering yours!

Western posse credit: Caveman_92223
Novak Djokovic photo credit: Swiv

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