Preparation 1

Being a musician is a strange proposition. We are asked to practice. Meaning we have to spend a ton of time alone slaving over scales and rudiments. Then we are asked to go get a job. That part requires to have social skills and interact with the world. We have prepared for the playing part of our job. We are not at all ready for the social aspect of it. And so, musicians often fail at becoming pros because of that situation: scale ready but conversation skills not ready.

That situation gets aggravated when we go on stage. We then have to entertain. Here, the stranger your attitude, your language, your costume, the better your performance is. You shall be remembered. You shall make a mark. People will talk about you. You will have more audience for your next concert. Ask Lady Gaga, Elton John, Bjork.

Then we go on interviews. And the show must go on! We have to say something extraordinary. We have to keep the crowd interested. Only we don’t have those social skills owned. So it gets really bizarre out there. Some of the weirdest stuff ever said are from musicians. I’ll place a quote right there: “Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most”. That’s from Ozzy Osbourne.

Then we go and try to live a life. That’s where it gets the strangest. It gets so strange that we get rated on the craziest thing a musician ever did. So what do we do that’s so crazy. Oh, the usual. We sleep around. We do impossible drugs. We jump in a swimming pool with a car. We trash hotel rooms. We treat people like crap. And the crowd adores us for it. Oh, by the way, since we are on the subject of “Who’s the craziest”, the one that always win is Keith Moon. He was the drummer of The Who. Look it up.

So, as musicians, we are asked to practice in order to go on stage. But we forget to practice life itself. That’s the part that is very neglected. And that’s the part music teacher widely disregard in their lessons.

I want to make a blog about that.