Never Leave a Comrade in the Field

I sometimes miss attending church - for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones is that I miss doing group music. I used to accompany three choirs when I was a kid. I loved doing this. I got to accompany the high school musicals - wrote music for other people to sing or play instruments. I enjoyed rehearsal so much more than performing. I learned to watch subtle queues from the directors. Sometimes I would play and daydream a bit and look up and the poor director would be giving me bug eyes while swinging her arms wildly trying to get me to speed up - WHOOPS! I accompanied soloists at church and in competitions, and played duets with my Mom who was the church organist.

A good accompanist learns how to track with whoever you are working with and when I was really doing this a lot I could follow when someone got nervous and skipped a couple of lines - I could just listen and cut through without anyone knowing that anything had gone awry. I could read 8 lines of music at a time and figure out who was having issues and give them their note to bring them back into the group. I knew that the best accompanist was never, ever the focus. The focus was always on the group or the soloist you were backing up. I learned you never, ever finished first. You never leave anyone singing or playing alone on stage without you. If things really go bad, you take the fall - just make it seem like it was your fault.


When I take the dogs to the dog park, I think Chewie thinks he is making me look good. He accompanies me on these outdoor tours and tracks the ball. Gromit is pretty sure he is the show and we are the accompaniment. And while I might have some frightfully poor throws, Chewie maintains the same enthusiasm for me. When I throw the ball where he cannot see it, he puts his tail up in the air and enthusiastically goes about sniffing it out, as though it is his fault he cannot find the ball. We all know darn well that when I am paying attention I aim a throw where he can see it - He will look for a good 15 minutes for that ball, and if I keep walking he will bark at me. Oh, it is painful, he just doesn't know what to do when he can't get the ball back to me - never leave Heidi without the ball - never make Heidi look bad....never leave the park without the ball -
I truly have no idea what happens to him - it isn't like he has ever missed dinner because we left a ball at the park - why does he get so anxious about it? Kristin told me she thinks Chewie sees those balls as comrades, and you never leave them in the field. You never leave the field until you have all your balls....ahem.