WHO YOU ARE IN LIFE = WHO YOU ARE IN MUSIC

Who you are - your personality and characteristics - has a major effect on what you do and how you do it.
Something I've heard a million times before suddenly hit me 'right between the eyes' this morning...
WHO YOU ARE IN LIFE = WHO YOU ARE IN MUSIC (and ditto for the converse statement)

How many responsible, honest, reliable and loveable people have you worked with (or met) whose musical 'personalities' and  work-ethics are incongruent with the way they live the rest of their life?

There are some issues you can't work on in the practice room. No amount of technical practice in the world  can make you more reliable. There is no scale or chord-progression you can learn that will make people trust you more. And you  certainly can't deal with your emotional baggage and insecurities by learning the latest and greatest *insert favourite muso's name here* solo.

People enjoy working with likeable, trustworthy, reliable people who are secure in who they are. Sometimes they are even prepared to make a trade-off in technical proficiency to work with the guy who's reliable and fun to hang with. The things that make you this way are traits that are learned through living everyday life and being PRESENT in your experiences and dealing with your issues.

My suggestion... Get out of the practice room a bit and learn how to be a good person; sort out those little nagging issues you keep putting-off for 'tomorrow'; develop real relationships with people; and finally, LEARN TO LISTEN to those around you. Then you'll be the dude who brings the fun AND can play, rather than the guy who people call last because they'll try everyone else first to avoid working with your personality...

A change in perspective = a change in performance

There's a tin shack across the road from a beautiful mansion. Which would you rather live in? Most would say the mansion...

But then you'd have to wake up every morning and look at the tin shack across the road...

The person in the shack has a much better view... Of YOUR mansion...*

Isn't perspective funny?!

The Jack Rabbit Slims played three gigs this weekend. One of these was on a big stage, with a big audience, and supposedly great gear. In stark contrast to this, our last show of the weekend was in a small club, with a small (but appreciative) audience, and pretty average (at best) equipment.

One would expect that the big gig would have been the best one, and yet, somehow, the show in the small club was rocking from the first note we all played... possibly the best show we've played as a band.

We all went in to the show thinking it was gonna suck. We were all tired from the long drive, didn't dig the gear we were gonna play through, and didn't think the crowd would dig us.

But for some reason it rocked! And because it rocked, the 'bad' gear stopped mattering to us. We stopped caring about the crowd's response (which turned out really awesome anyway). Our tiredness went away, and we PLAYED together. We ‘played’ like little kids with their toys. No pressure, just pure fun.

From the first note we played, the music helped change our perspective. Our changed perspective changed our circumstances. Our new circumstances allowed us to really do what we needed to do.

It's all about perspective.

* credit to Karl Pilkington – An Idiot Abroad!