Tian Guo Marching Band Fahui: My Experience Persistence in Practicing an Instrument

(Minghui.org) It has been nearly 20 years since I joined the Tian Guo Marching Band. From barely knowing how to read the simplified sheet music to being able to play my instrument skillfully and participating in hundreds of parades of all sizes to save sentient beings, I am truly grateful to Master. Thank you, Master, for bestowing me with such a precious chance to save people, to cooperate with fellow practitioners in this project, and to cultivate myself.

Every year, I follow the band to join dozens of parades. But in early 2020, all parades were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even outdoor exercise sessions were stopped. Like many other practitioners, I invested more time in clarifying the truth online to save sentient beings. However, I did not slack off in my instrument practice, as I had learned lessons in the past.

I still recall when I first joined the band, that I was enthusiastic. After practicing for a period of time, I had mastered all the parade songs and joined some parades. However, I slacked off after a while, especially when there were no parades during the winter. I did not touch my instrument at all for a long period of time. A few weeks before a spring parade, I realized that my instrument keys were all stuck. After spending a while loosening them, I was able to play the instrument but it sounded horrible. Although I frantically practiced all the pieces and joined the parade, I realized that my stamina, pitch, and timbre were all very poor during the parade. I did not feel very good after the parade, as I felt that some sentient beings who should have been saved were not because of my lack of effort. I felt that I had really let Master down.

I have since urged myself to practice frequently. When I have time, I practice every day. If I am busy, I maintain at least three practice sessions per week. Apart from practicing the parade pieces well, I also found some professional practice scores to practice in a systematic manner. After a period of practice, I discovered that my stamina and tone quality had improved quite a lot.

Music is truly miraculous. It is a universal language that the divine bestowed to sentient beings. Music is especially suitable to convey the message behind the notes, making it a form of exchange on a spiritual level. I understood from this that no matter which country the listeners are from—and even animals, plants, or other matter—good music can create resonance and move their hearts. In Chinese traditional culture, the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) are the fundamental elements that form everything in this world. The five musical notes, five colors, and five flavors all correspond to the five elements. Among them, the five musical notes are Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zhi, and Yu, which are like the Do, Re, Mi, So, La in western music. The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic states, “Heaven has five tones, and man has five internal organs.” The five tones correspond to the five human organs, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, and the five human emotions, joy, anger, thought, worry, and fear. They all own the characteristics of the five elements and are related to one another.

Classical music, or musical pieces that are composed based on the orthodox musical rules, can generate positive energy that creates vibrations that are beneficial to the human body, both physically and mentally. This is especially true for our parade pieces, as they are empowered with life-saving elements by Master. When sentient beings listen to them, not only will they feel joy, they can also experience the benevolent ambiance, and thus their knowing sides can be saved.

Everyone knows that the band performing in a parade can save people, but practicing the instruments takes time. For veteran members who already know how to play the parade pieces, do we still have to spend so much time practicing on our instruments? On the other hand, there are so many other truth-clarification projects to be done. We also cannot delay studying the Fa, practicing the exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts.

One day, I saw a segment of Master’s teaching that gave me great inspiration. Master said:

“You all know that along with painting there is music and sculpture. Those things and also modern science and technology are all different skills for various facets of human life. It seems as though human beings created those things themselves and did so to enrich human society, but that’s actually not the case at all. What’s the real reason, then? Let me tell you that those are in fact [parts of] cultivation and unique characteristics of the realms of lives from distant systems. Elevation in that kind of realm involves combining the understanding of those skills with the Fa. It requires elevating one’s understanding, a limitless upward climb. Particles that make up high-level dimensions are smaller, and the sound-field there is also composed of microcosmic material particles, so the music is more pleasing to hear and the colors are more beautiful. All such matter is composed of high-level, microcosmic particles, which can’t be found by lives in low-level dimensions. The works and the skills there are more advanced and magical, and a life’s elevation means the dual elevation of realm and skill, and improvement of that life’s understanding in different realms.” (Teachings at the 2005 Conference in San Francisco)

The meaning behind this segment of the Fa is very deep, and I understood only very little of it. The first point that I understood was that there is no limit to the improvement in our skills when we put in the effort to practice with the attitude of a cultivator and the intent to save sentient beings. At the same time, improvement in our skills also helps us improve our cultivation states. The elevation in our realms and cultivation levels will then strengthen our ability to save beings of higher levels. Actually, Master has mentioned the relationship between the Shen Yun performers’ superior techniques and their life-saving effects many times. The second point that I understood is that pursuing improvement in my technique is also the cultivation of a member of the Tian Guo Marching Band. It is a characteristic of the beings’ realms in our distant systems. The improvement of our musical skills in this mundane world is not only to save more sentient beings, it is also correcting our own systems (including the beings in those systems).

The time that we spend on our usual practice may seem to take up time, but it is actually preparation for saving people. There are sayings like, “Sharpening your axe won’t delay your woodcutting,” and “A minute on stage is the result of ten years of effort offstage.” Actually, when I think about the time that I spend in a whole day, there are segments that I did not really make good use of, such that they were wasted. If I could make full use of this spare time to do the three things and practice my instrument well, how much would I benefit from that?

More than a year ago, the band coordinator asked me to consider being the trumpet section leader. My first thought was how troublesome it would be. I usually just have to manage myself well. However, after giving some more thought to it, I realized that this was selfishness, and cultivation is about getting rid of selfishness and ego.

Our section consists of veteran members who joined when the band was first set up, as well as new members who joined the band not long ago. There are members who have been maintaining good performance skills and also members who cannot maintain a stable level. When thinking about how to improve the entire section’s level, I thought that there were two issues. One was that we did not grasp the correct methods, especially when playing the high notes. Some members kept trying to play the high notes through brute force, resulting in poor tone quality with popping sounds. This also affected their physical strength, making it impossible to play for an extended period. The second was that they only practiced the parade pieces and did not focus on practicing the fundamentals, so their skills had remained stagnant for many years. Although they could play the parade pieces in a relatively skillful manner, their tone quality was not that good, there were flaws in their pitch, the music was not beautiful, and the entire section did not play uniformly such that the audience on both sides of the streets could hear our uneven playing, which affected the life-saving effects.

To resolve these two problems, I assigned some endurance exercises and basic skills practice for everyone. My assigning these exercises also reflected some of my cultivation problems. Due to a lack of thorough consideration, some assignments were more difficult than others. Although my wish was for everyone to improve quickly, this objectively dampened the team members’ enthusiasm for completing the assignment, and ultimately yielded bad results. I realized that I needed to take their individual conditions into consideration, including their current performance skills, available time, and their different understandings of the Tian Guo Marching Band project. With that, I adjusted the scale of the assignments such that it was no longer “one size fit all.” Instead, the assignments allowed options so that everyone could choose an assignment out of a few options to complete after they finished going through the fundamental basic practice together.

With the effort that the section members put in, the notes played by everyone drew closer together, and the whole section began sounding more like our sounds were being played from one trumpet. Although such good results have happened many times, the most unforgettable one happened in one of last year’s Christmas parades. Despite the temperatures falling below freezing, both sides of the road were still packed with spectators. Some parents brought their children, who held cards that could request the parade cohort to stop and perform in front of them. As our parade cohort marched on gradually, I heard our notes being played as though they were coming from one trumpet. I could also barely hear the sound of my own trumpet. It was such a wonderful feeling, as though I was totally immersed in the music. It felt as though I had totally immersed myself in it. After the parade ended, a practitioner from the section in front of us said to me, “You trumpets all played pretty well today.”

I’d like to express my special thanks to this practitioner for the comment and encouragement. I know that to do better, we must be able to merge our sounds with those of the other sections. Apart from technical cooperation, cultivators must take note of the feelings of others, especially the practitioners who are right in front of us. I try to avoid popping or wrong notes, which may affect others. We need to play our music in a peaceful and compassionate way so that we can attain better life-saving effects.

I am so grateful to be able to participate in the Tian Guo Marching Band, a project that was set up by Master and uses music to assist Master in the Fa rectification. As the Fa rectification progresses, how many such opportunities will be left? As such, I’d like to take this opportunity to call for all band members, be they veteran or new, to not slack in their practice. We must be diligent and serious in our practice so that we can improve our technique and our xinxing, and thus save more people.

Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.

(Selected submission for the 20th Tian Guo Marching Band Anniversary Fa Conference)