The life of a musician is seen as chaotic, unpredictable, maybe even dangerous. And, although my life is fairly mundane and uneventful, it is common to experience dramatic upheaval as a working musician.
A colleague was telling me about his band. They had a lot of gigs, the crowds seemed pleased with their performances, he himself was reviewing his drumming regularly to make sure it was up to par, he rarely had a fall out with the band leader with whom he kept an open and friendly relationship. The last part of the situation is probably the most difficult to comprehend.
Because one day, that very band leader took him aside and told him he was fired. No warning, nothing. And it wasn’t done after a bad gig. No. Just a normal well going (at least on the drums) gig.
Of course my colleague -let’s call him Bob, shall we?- Bob, did the natural thing: he questioned himself and his playing. He thought something was wrong with him. Was it his attitude? But he didn’t have any attitude. He showed up to every gig with a smile on his face and ready to play. He never had any quarrels with anybody, and if he did, they were very minor and solved peacefully with no hard feelings. His job ethics? No, he was on time, his drums worked, he was never drunk, he didn’t cause brawls and drama. His playing? That one is a bit more subjective, but again, no reason to doubt oneself because he worked on the songs, the style and the feel regularly, and, more importantly, the band leader had only one discussion with him, and that was six months before, and Bob worked to resolve the issue, and he hadn’t heard another peep out of the band leader.