Wow, the moment has come. Here I am, submitting my final capstone project. It’s been a long journey, but I am pleased with the result.
This project began as a small idea to document my violin journey through different stages of my musical development. Eventually it morphed into an interactive website called The Independent Musician which features stories from my experiences. Why independent? Well, in college, I wrestled to maintain confidence in my violin playing. I thought there was something seriously wrong with me because I had never struggled like this. It got so terrible that I could barely play a 3-minute piece from memory in front of one person (as opposed to performing a 23-minute sonata for 50 people).
More importantly, I felt like I had lost my musical independence. I was insecure in my unique abilities while surrounded by creative beings.
Over time, and through a lot of soul-searching, I got most of my confidence back. I’m not going to say all of my problems are fixed, but I am feeling truly confident for the first time in a while, and I give a lot of the credit to this project.
My intent is for this site to be a resource for fellow music students (of all ages, but primarily collegiate-level) to read each other’s stories, to discuss issues in the music field, and to be inspired as fearlessly independent musicians.
Many many thanks to my writing teachers and my capstone friends for their feedback and support.
~Rebekah Ruetz
Here is my final project. 🙂