MUSIC STUDENTS: If you get lonely practicing alone for hours in an isolated practice room consider finding other musicians and building your own chamber ensemble. Or consider coming to a music school or conservatory that has a built in Chamber Music Program (like Shenandoah Conservatory, for example) 🙂
Playing in a chamber ensemble not only makes (sometimes life-long) friendships. It also teaches us leadership skills, team-building social skills such as positive persuasion, communication, cooperation and diplomacy. We learn to be dependable and responsible along with a sense of commitment. And perhaps most importantly It naturally gives us a community of like minded people with whom we can share our goals. Those goals can include just getting better and stronger as an ensemble as well as finding or creating performance opportunities to share within and outside of our communities.
The interplay between the parts, characteristic of the chamber music genre, lends itself ideally to the thorough exploration of intonation, ensemble, balance, phrasing, nuance, and style.  What a great way to become a stronger musician and person without having to be all alone! 🙂
