Monday, August 04, 2008
August Rush Is A Rarity.The Rest of Us Aren't.
I read once that Mozart could play the clavier at the age of four, and was composing music at only five. Some people are fortunate that way. They are naturally wonderful and gifted musicians, athletes, writers, or orators who seem to just know how to do what they do. For the rest of us, it take years of hard work and repetition.
I've always been a music lover, but I didn't pick up a guitar for the first time until age 50. I did so then only because I wanted to play TFMCD our wedding song, John Denver's For Baby, for her birthday. But I fell in love with playing the thing and just never stopped.
I learned quickly, however, that I am one of the many folks with absolutely no natural talent whatsoever. Whatever we accomplish with music, we do so only after working hard hour upon hour, day after day, week after week. We practice till our fingers ache so badly we can hardly hit the computer keys at work the next day. We play and sing in the morning before work. We play and sing during the day when we have a break, while the rest of you are drinking coffee or chatting with friends over lunch. We play and sing at night all alone, when everyone else has gone to bed. We study every guitar book and DVD we can find. We watch the hands of every guitarist we see, in hopes of picking something up, of finding that secret that takes you from being a string-numbing chord strummer and off key singer to an accomplished singer/guitarist/songwriter. We've taken hours upon hours of lessons and tutorials, drills and exercises. We've worked hard at it. Really hard.
And after years and years of hard work, we know we're never going to make a living with a guitar. We never expected to. We just want to play the music we love in the best way we are able. We really don't need anyone to tell us that we aren't very good. We've known it all along.
So just know that when someone like us is playing and singing, and we miss the chords, or get off rhythm, or our voice doesn't sound perfect, that it still nonetheless represents the culmination of hours and days and weeks of practice and preparation. It took a lot hard work and sore fingers just to get that far, and when you make rude comments about our efforts, tell us we suck, or our voices don't sound wonderful, or we need to adjust the mike volume because you can still hear us, it really doesn't feel very good. Oh, we'll laugh along with you and make our own comments right back at you in order to stave off embarrassment, but it still digs and it still demoralizes and makes us wonder why we worked so hard to be that bad.
So, the next time you pay good money to hear some professional musician, only to find out he is ill-prepared and sounds awful, then let him have it. He deserves it. I'll be right there beside you, dishing it out. But when some unpaid guy has worked his ass off and played his heart out, then try to just be polite, will you?
I am The Crime Dog and I approve of this message.
|
I've always been a music lover, but I didn't pick up a guitar for the first time until age 50. I did so then only because I wanted to play TFMCD our wedding song, John Denver's For Baby, for her birthday. But I fell in love with playing the thing and just never stopped.
I learned quickly, however, that I am one of the many folks with absolutely no natural talent whatsoever. Whatever we accomplish with music, we do so only after working hard hour upon hour, day after day, week after week. We practice till our fingers ache so badly we can hardly hit the computer keys at work the next day. We play and sing in the morning before work. We play and sing during the day when we have a break, while the rest of you are drinking coffee or chatting with friends over lunch. We play and sing at night all alone, when everyone else has gone to bed. We study every guitar book and DVD we can find. We watch the hands of every guitarist we see, in hopes of picking something up, of finding that secret that takes you from being a string-numbing chord strummer and off key singer to an accomplished singer/guitarist/songwriter. We've taken hours upon hours of lessons and tutorials, drills and exercises. We've worked hard at it. Really hard.
And after years and years of hard work, we know we're never going to make a living with a guitar. We never expected to. We just want to play the music we love in the best way we are able. We really don't need anyone to tell us that we aren't very good. We've known it all along.
So just know that when someone like us is playing and singing, and we miss the chords, or get off rhythm, or our voice doesn't sound perfect, that it still nonetheless represents the culmination of hours and days and weeks of practice and preparation. It took a lot hard work and sore fingers just to get that far, and when you make rude comments about our efforts, tell us we suck, or our voices don't sound wonderful, or we need to adjust the mike volume because you can still hear us, it really doesn't feel very good. Oh, we'll laugh along with you and make our own comments right back at you in order to stave off embarrassment, but it still digs and it still demoralizes and makes us wonder why we worked so hard to be that bad.
So, the next time you pay good money to hear some professional musician, only to find out he is ill-prepared and sounds awful, then let him have it. He deserves it. I'll be right there beside you, dishing it out. But when some unpaid guy has worked his ass off and played his heart out, then try to just be polite, will you?
I am The Crime Dog and I approve of this message.
