Gigs -- I love 'em. This time of year I'm always happy to get a few good gigs. The Grand Street Band just played the Columbia Festival of Winds. Next is our concert, followed by the latest show at Christ the King High School ("Phantom of the Opera" -- no lie!), and THEN the Grand Street Band is playing at Lincoln Center. Very exciting!
With my newly discovered musician identity coming back, I'm starting to see some of the Big Picture a little more clearly. During my hiatus I did (and still do) Theatre. Lots of people do Theatre. There's an accessibility to doing Theatre. Like any artform, it takes training and discipline to do it well. But with Theatre you can act, sing, build sets and sometimes even direct with no training at all. One of the downsides of that is that EVERYBODY has the propensity to do Theatre and, as a result, they all feel the need to tell you how they can do it better. Egoes become enlarged. Self-awareness goes out the windows. Competition enters the picture.
As a musician, you can't hide behind the lack of training. It takes years and years of lots and lots of work to just sound decent. When you finally get to a level of competence, despite how "good" or "bad" you are, it's not something others can take away from you. It's personal. It's internal. It's the result of discipline, not something you just picked up and decided to give a try.
Don't get me wrong about Theatre. I still do Theatre with pride and conviction and, despite my experience (notice I didn't say "training") everybody feels the need to tell me how to do it. I don't get that with music. Music is all about trust -- I'm trusted to cover my part. If I can't cover it, I can either work on it until I can, or play another part. The clarinet players don't tell me how to play my horn. The flute players don't tell me how they can play horn better. If I play well, everyone is happy. If I play poorly, everyone is supportive. If the band sounds good, I know I was a part of it.
I did my part. Me. And nobody can take that away from me.
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