Memorizing The Dance
We’ve all seen someone perform a dance that they’ve memorized. There’s the spin, the shake, the spirit fingers, and hands in the air to finish. One move after the other, from start to finish.
But it’s not very good. It’s all the right moves but that’s about it.
Memorizing is only the first step. Amateurs can memorize.
Professionals connect.
Start Bad, Get Good
It might be that the hardest thing about getting good at something is all the time you have to spend being bad at it beforehand.
That’s what makes high school and college so valuable. There’s plenty of time to be bad at stuff on your way to being great. Plenty of margin in the day. No pressure. No worries. Tomorrow has a bunch of margin too. Start bad, get good.
As we move through life we still want to make great things and get good at new things…if only it could happen quickly.
We have a hard time committing to all the time it will take to get there. Our margins are thin. We want to spend those margins on things that are less risky, more efficient, more inside the lines.
But could you spend thirty minutes a day being bad at something you want to get good at?
Reading About Drums
It’s hard to get good at music by reading a book about it or thumbing through the Sweetwater catalog.
I tried once.
In high school we had all the instruments in the house except a drum set so I collected every music magazine I could find and started digging in. I learned a lot about drum sets…probably considered myself an expert drummer.
And then after way too long I finally realized that if I wanted to know drums I had to buy one of the drum sets I’d read about so much.
My brother and I pooled our money together and bought an orange Yamaha DP Series.
And we played those drums. We made records with those drums. Played gigs. Played in jazz band. Impressed (or annoyed) our friends and neighbors.
»» Books, magazines, podcasts and blogs about music and creativity have their place…but they’re no substitute for the real thing. Don’t forget about the real thing.
Eight Band Bill
There was a weekly series at a venue in Nashville. Eight bands. Three songs each.
Who gets the best slot?
On a typical bill the biggest band goes last.
But on this bill the biggest band probably wants the choice…they have the leverage.
So they take a middle slot because the middle is where the fashionably late people have arrived, the people who got there at the beginning aren’t tired of being there yet, and the handful of people who wanna see the later bands are a little early. Perfect for the middle band.
But before you get too good at playing a three song set in the middle of an eight band bill…book your own show. It’s way more scary and way more risky. But you’ll find out what you’ve really got.
Everyone Should Be In A Band
At least for a little while.
You will give way more than your fair share, and get back more than you can imagine.
The strange obligation to each other, the excitement and boredom, the fighting and resolving, the things you see together, all the food, being on the same weird schedule. And of course whatever fashion is happening at the time.
No one is under contract to keep showing up, but they do.
A group of people forced (by choice) into all kinds of trouble and triumph.