Prompt: You suddenly see a set of random numbers, such as 374251.

What comes to
mind? Use as few or as many of those numbers as you wish, rearrange them at will, play with
them as you see fit, and tell us what those new numbers represent to you.

Essay
123, 12345, I count in my head as the meter changed from 3/4 to 5/4.
123457, we transition to 7/4, playing all the rests. I hold my flute up, ready to play. The
notes fly out my instrument into silence. Confidently I continue, until the others of my kind come
in a beat later. Panicking in my mind, I find were the group is playing. My cheeks flush as I
desperately hope that no one points out my mistake. We play on, I try to figure out how I got out
of sync with the symphony. Where did I lose a beat?
12345, 123, I beat the rests into my mind with all my attention. My flute travels up and
down as I transition from audible notes to rests and back again. Meticulously counting as we
continually change meters. The flutes carry the melody, triads floating above the humming strings.
We harmonize matching intonation and timbre. Locking in, I feel the notes resonate in my bones
filling my chest with warmth. In a moment the feeling leaves as I put my flute down, back to
playing silent notes.
12345, 123457, 123, 123, the group is kept on our toes by the meter. After 27 bars of
silence from my section, I raise my flute first. I take a deep breath, expanding my diaphragm to its
max as I fill my lungs to capacity. Then let the air run once again, a beat early. I mentally kick
myself, how could I make that same mistake. I fight on, while racking my brain to find the problem.
I put my flute on my lap. The flute next to me looks at me inquisitively, wondering why I keep
coming in early.
123, 12345, 12345, I scream mentally. My cheeks burning with embarrassment and
frustration, I grapple with the expectation of perfection.
123457, 123, 123, 123, 123457, I blindly continue internally. Holding my flute up to
play, I look down at the line of flutes. With my counting I should be coming in at this moment but

two beats later they play the first note of the phrase. My counting is somehow off. Where are my
missing beats? I continue to count.
123, 12345, I whisper to myself.
12345, 123457, it hit me like a brick. Where did the 6 go? Somehow I had misplaced a
simple number. I look up at the conductor, as he conducts another 7/4 meter measure. I count along
as he hits the invisible lines that indicate where to place the beat. His baton falls and bounces on
1, then swings outward ricocheting inward on 2.
34567, I follow the conductors movements. I look down at my music, confident.
1234567, I hold my flute, ready to play. As I breath in, the rest of the flutes play their
first note. I smile, chuckling to myself. The meter had changed to 6/4.