People, sure love GOOD people! (this one's about YOU)

Listen to this song...

Apart from its AWESOME funkiness, the message of the song rings so true.

I have been working on a pretty large project in the studio for the past little while. The personnel varied from some of the biggest names in the biz to some totally inexperienced (but totally talented) young musicians.

The music was HAPPENING from day 1... The grooves were TIGHT and FUNKY... But you know what made the biggest impact on the time we spent together? GOOD PEOPLE working together. Everyone checked their egos in at the door. No tantrums, no diva complexes, no interpersonal issues. And when you hear the album, that's what you'll hear - because that's where MUSIC comes from.

People, sure love GOOD people!

The big 'secret' all great musicians know...

...is that musical information/knowledge is not owned by any one person. It is for everyone.

You NEED to ask questions to get better... so swallow your pride and ask.

You NEED to share your experience and knowledge to help others get better... so realize that you don't OWN any part of music exclusively.

(Musicians who are scared of letting go of their 'secrets' are usually scared that others will become greater than them if they share their knowledge so they try to shroud it in mystery - these people eventually alienate themselves)

If you meet someone like this who tries to evade answering a question directly, simply move on and find someone who will answer it, do the required work, and then start looking for the next question you need to ask.

Finally, it should be the case that all of us will always be on both sides of the fence here, in the sense that one should always have questions to ask and answers to share. I'm not sure that one could ever be so good that there are no more questions left to ask...

Be KIND to yourself

The following is a lesson I learned (and am still learning) from Kenny
Werner's book 'Effortless Mastery':


BE KIND TO YOURSELF!


As musicians we have created a culture of competition. Everyone is out there trying to be better than the next guy. This causes us to hate ourselves, and good music in general, because every time we hear incredible music by a talented musician we start making excuses for our own lack of ability. We end up harbouring resentment for the musician who is better than us, and get down on ourselves for not being better.


The TRUTH is this... There will always be someone 'better' than you... And MUSIC is not going to stop if you get upset with it... BUT there will always be enough music to go around for all of us to play and enjoy it.


The SOLUTION... Be KIND to yourself.


In other words, accept that where you are in your development is not a bad place, just another point in a long journey. Be THANKFUL for the giftings of others. Make a decision to learn from them. Remember that they didn't get there through luck. Hard work did it for them and will also do it for you.


The moment you learn this lesson you will free yourself from the burden of competition, and start to build relationships with the musicians who you now respect. And as I have said in this blog before, if music is about anything, it's about COMMUNITY.


The fine print: This only works if you are working at developing your own abilities. If you are not, you cannot learn to be kind to yourself because your problem is laziness and a lack of love for music.

How much do we really love music?

Very quick one today:

Think of your favourite foods. Now imagine a table full of them, and only you to eat them. Now imagine that you have to choose between eating the food or practising your instrument for an hour... Which sounds more appealing?

One of the problems with us musicians today is I think we often claim to love music much more than we actually  love it. And if we don't love it that much, what will drive us to be better at it?


Something to think about...  

You don't have to be a good musician to be a great musician...

I was talking to my Grade 9 music class the other day about what makes a great musician, and a thought struck me... Who is the ultimate judge of what is great music?

Us musicians believe that other musicians are the ones we should try to impress, and we spend hours and hours honing our 'chops' so we can play faster and more technically. We believe that if we could just nail that one Keith Jarrett solo, or play freely on 'Giant Steps' then we would be known as a 'great' player. The problem is there are already thousands of other guys who can do those things already, and although they may be good many of them have not achieved 'greatness'.

So ultimately it cannot be your playing ability alone that makes you great. In fact, I'd like to suggest that it has almost nothing to do with it... I believe that what makes a great musician is the story that is told through their music every time they play. You see, your audience doesn't care about your 'chops'. They came to see you play because they want to feel your music and be moved by it. If you do this for them they will tell others about it, and these others will come to receive the same experience. Do this enough times for enough people, and you will have become 'great', because having an audience (or following) who believes in what you do is the only way to be great in ANYTHING.

Nobody in history became great by hiding in their room and talking to themselves - so why do we (musicians) think it'll work for us?

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!