"Tocar y Luchar" translated to English is "To Play and to Fight".  This is El Sistema´s widely known motto.  I have heard the motto for several years and thought I understood it from watching the 60 minutes video and several other documentaries...even one call Tocar y Luchar.  It one thing to see it on TV....but it is a totally different thing to see it in person.   

One of the most interesting things about what I am seeing is that there are several students here that are beginners.  For instance, there is a nine year old boy in the French Horn section named Miguel.  He has only been playing Horn for 

about a month and a half.  Within that month and a half of study he knows most of the fingerings for his horn and already has an octave and a half range.  More than what many U.S. 

beginning students can do in a year.  If you remember from my last post, the orchestra is preparing 1812 Overture and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.  Even though Miguel is doing very well for having been playing for over a month, those pieces go by fairly quickly and he doesn’t play very much.  You would think that this is would be very frustrating for him...but in fact Miguel doesn’t give up.  He sits there listening and studies the more advanced players as they play.  The miraculous thing is that Miguel despite all odds, has decided to accept the struggle that is before him.  He knows that there are many things that he is not going to play, but we have gone through and selected several measures in the music that he will play.  Miguel has accepted the challenge and has made it his goal that he WILL play those parts.  He is now practicing those selected sections within the music and I have faith that Miguel is going to walk away from the final concert feeling like he truly participated in the process and will be better for it.

Another example of “Tocar y Luchar” is with another horn player named Carlos.  Today, he was taking a private lesson from me and I began to ask him about some inconsistencies in his playing.  He explained to me that with the particular fingering I was asking for, his horn would leak air.  I took a closer look at his horn and saw its horrible condition.  Many of the braces that hold the horn together were broken and basically the middle of his horn could actually move up and down, which it of course should not be able to do.  You would think that with all these valid excuses in front of him as to why he should not be able to play well, that he would just quit.  But Carlos struggled through to still become a very good player!  Check out the video of Carlos.

 

 

There are many stories like these here.  Everyone one of these kids are working so hard.  They get up early and eat breakfast at 7am.  They then get on a bus and get to the rehearsal area for an 8:30 rehearsal or sectional....work until 12:30...eat lunch...then rehearse/sectionals until 7pm.  They have been keeping this schedule for 7 days so far and it will continue to go that way until Friday.  Yet they don’t get tired...they keep going!  This is Tocar y Luchar and I have seen its power!