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<...> You'll be loading out and driving home at 3:30 AM dodging the drunks on the highway. Having fun yet?



The traffic is really light at 3:30 AM - no rush hour jams. Loading equipment? How many people pay big money for a gym membership to lift heavy objects? But I can't justify the drunks on the road part - but some of the young inexperienced drivers and the elderly over-medicated drivers in the daytime are something to watch out for too.

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Yes. Entertaining people, taking away their cares and making them relive their best memories is more fulfilling than most anything I can think of. It's a privilege to entertain people, even if you have to play "that list" to do it.



+1000 on the privilege part.

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<...>
Bad Performance is bad performance, no matter if it is a cover song or an original.
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There are good cover bands, there are bad cover bands.

There are good original acts, there are bad original acts.

As with anything else, perhaps the bad outnumber the good.
<...>
Defense of the mediocre never made any sense to me.



Sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap

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<...>
As for whether it is better or not to play your own improvised solo or attempt to nail the wellknown solo from a target recording in a cover song, my view on that is that there are certain songs that contain solos that are actually musical hooks and in those cases the journeyman musician must both be able to determine if that is the case plus be able to learn and play that certain solo convincingly enough to pull it off and that seems to work better in those instances, judging from audience approval.

Cover or original, I'll go with Duke Ellington's famous remark, "IF IT SOUNDS GOOD, IT IS GOOD!"


--Mac



And Karl Hass's frequent comment in his old radio show, Adventures In Good Music, "There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad music."

And I suppose that depends on the listener.

And I don't remember where this one came from:

"You can play for yourself, you can play for other musicians, or you can play for the general public. In either case, if you're good enough, you will get the audience you asked for."

I've played for the general public all my life, and they haven't let me down.

So what is a living? I'm not getting rich as a musician - we had a shot once but it slipped through our fingers. But I'm still making a living, paying the mortgage, living in a nicer neighborhood, and enjoying myself - never feeling like I'm actually working.

Would I be making a better living if I was making more money but spending 8+ hours on a job that felt like I was working? Doing something I'd rather not be doing? Or worse, actually disliking my job like so many I know? I don't call that living myself.

Life is short. Although the clergy promise an afterlife, there is no guarantee. So I'm going to live this life as long as I can, and have as much fun as I can, within the limits so if there is a "happy hunting ground" after this, I'll be invited in.

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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