They didn’t have to do it, but they did it anyway.

They did it, and no one noticed. But they did it anyway.

It’s not what happened, it’s what did not happen.

When you are watching or bingeing ‘House of Cards” or “Master of None” on Netflix, you have the option of skipping over the Main Title music and visuals that help set the tone for each show.

When you click on “skip intro," it takes you to the actual beginning of the show.

Normally….Normally on most platforms, the intro would be cut off abruptly, the so called “falling off the table” or “whiplash” effect, where you go from major sound to crashing silence. It’s almost violent.

On Netflix, with House of Cards, “Master of None”, when you click on “skip intro,” it takes you to the last few seconds of the music, and then the first scene begins. It sounds like there’s a logical musical and positive ending or resolution even though you’ve cut put more than a minute of music.

Probably very few notice this – I doubt it registers with most viewers. If they had not made a place for this peaceful transition would anyone have cared?

Would the sudden jolt from music to abruptly cut off music bothered anyone or even registered by anyone? Maybe it’s just an insider-industry condition that only “we” would notice.

Netflix’s customers are not the media industry, so they didn’t have to do it. They did it anyway – even though their real customer base probably wouldn’t notice.

I noticed it with gratitude and appreciation. I’m an ever-hopeful optimist. Maybe they knew they did, indeed, had to do it.

There are some small stuffs worth sweating about…

For orchestral musicians, sweating the small stuff means perfecting the small incidental moments as much as the big solo moments. The same goes for soloists and chamber music ensembles, where it also means choosing words carefully in the written promotional materials they send out. For all musicians, it means making the decision to practice 15 more minutes because it’s often necessary, and there could be long term benefits.

“Beauty is often found in quick moments and small details.” (Lara Downes)

For classical music radio programmers, it means worrying about, and challenging, the rightfulness of everything we program. That’s why programming music is hard and why not everyone should be music programmers.

Did you hear the one about the man who opened the car door for his wife even though no one was watching?

There are some small stuffs worth sweating about…if only to satisfy ourselves and to be able to sleep at night.