I wanted to discuss a career in music and disappointments. Unfortunately, if you want to have a long term life in music, things aren't always going to go your way.
In my 30 odd years in music I have been......
-Told how much I suck (onstage and loud enough for the crowd to hear it) by a certain ex jazz messenger.
-Fired by both a Chilean singer and fusiony ex Miles Davis guitar player. What's unique about these circumstances is that both of them did so BEFORE they heard me play.
Those are just a few highlights (or low lights, depending on your point of view). I also have been ripped off numerous times by musicians and club owners alike, as well as enough unsolicited musical advice from audience members to last me a lifetime. Were some of the above events painful? Yes. But did I learn from them? Absolutely! Each and every one.
Also, I feel it's important to remember that when we are committed to the music and being true to ourselves not everyone's going to dig what we play/write/teach/sing etc. I know some very good players that never reach a certain level (in my opinion) because they are too afraid not to be liked. There is a certain point, especially in improvised music, that we have to damn the torpedoes and go for it! Life's too short not to play with absolute conviction.
Rather than getting down on why we haven't got hired etc., we need to focus on the music itself and the magical power it has to transform all our lives.
Now let's all throw some major drumming down! To give us a great example, here's Stewart Copeland being the best Stewart Copeland he can be. Thank God he never listened when people told him how to play.
