"Aspiring to get people to gasp with admiration at your brilliance is an unattainable (an probably unsatisfying) goal for anybody."

Unsatisfying? If that's what I set out to do and I do it, that is the definition of satisfying. I believe it is also attainable, BUT, not for guys who work in the shop or the office all day and play music as a hobby. There are some GREAT hobby level players, and I know many of them here in town, but nobody would be interested in what I want to do because if we did it the way I wanted to do it, there would be 8 week road trips living in a bus or vans at some point.

We are lapsing into the old discussion we have had here many times about cover vs original. I simply don't want to play copy music. I have been looking for a couple of years for guys who know music, who can read music, guys who can write music, and guys who can play music. If I were to say "No that's a major 7th there, not a dominant 7th", or "sing the third above the melody" and they don't know what I mean, they don't make the cut. And that is not a matter of snobbery (and I have been called that often) as much as it's a matter of my being able to communicate. I can't explain to a blind person what "red" is without saying "red like an apple", and they of course have never seen an apple. Or trying to teach French to someone and I don't speak French. I speak English and "music". I am far from a theory maven, but I know enough to look at a piece of music and understand what I am looking at.

I once went to our big outdoor venue here (Blossom Music Center) to see the Cleveland Orchestra do Mozart's "A Little Night Music". I went in with a blanket and a suitcase. I spread the blanket out on the lawn and opened the suitcase, which contained the score. All 4 movements, 16 staffs, 2 measures per page. I sat and followed along with the orchestra for the whole symphony. Most of the people around me were laughing at me because I wasn't "watching" the orchestra. Well, do you see a concert, or hear it? As I followed along on that sheet music, I got to both hear the music and see it, so who's the weirdo here?

I told you that to tell you this. I want to assemble and play with people who know MUSIC (not songs) at that level. It is very difficult to build a house with carpenters who are not at close to the same skill level. Or to play on a football team where 3 of the 11 players on either offense or defense play at a skill level below the other 8. There is nothing at all wrong with learning by ear. How do I teach you an original song when there is nothing to listen to, only charts?

A few years ago I went to a basement "musical meet and greet", and everybody there, 6 players, could sight read. And we didn't just play where whoever felt like driving took off on a solo. Everything was charted. Now, the guy running the thing was a music professor, and those 10 or so songs we played were his songs. I got lost many times because those changes meandered like an old dirt road! When you are following along and suddenly your arrive at Am9b5... I am not THAT good of a player where I can play without thinking out a chord. That may have been the only one of those impromptu jam things I really enjoyed, even though I was the weakest link. Sure there were physical mistakes made, but we all followed along on charts and read what to play, and playing stuff nobody had ever seen....

Fake/Real book players are a whole different level of skill too. I can't read those things. I would imagine there are a good handful of people here who can read those.

But back on topic, being the band in town that blows the other bands away and steals their fans is what always made it fun for me. The Motown band I was in, despite being a copy band (that was before I cared about writing), was SO busy we were turning work down because at some point we had to rest. When it was outdoor gig weather, we would do 7 shows between Thursday and Sunday night. Doubleheaders every Fri, Sat and Sun. And the throat can only sing so much. That I enjoyed. And that is the band from which I retired from full time playing.