ive also been playing the guitar for an eternity, and know what yall been talking about regarding the "craftsmanship" side...
but being the sound guy, where you can always see the audience, and hear what they say about the bands in between songs or after a show is sometimes really weird.
its 100% true that musicians listen to music differently...i have mixed bands that i totally loved because they were really great musicians, had great arrangements and so on...but the audience thought they were pretty boring ...
on the other hand i have seen bands up on stage that i thought should be locked into their rehearsal room for at least another ten years...and the audience loved them ...
i'm guessing that there are a lot of people that appreciate the "emotion" or "energy" or even simply "innovation" a lot more than the musicianship, which almost all musicians tend to pay very close attention to
you prolly also know those types ... the band just played an awesome show, everybody was stagediving and crow surfing ... gettin naked ... ehm yeah...
but theres this grumpy guitar player in the audience wholl tell everybody that the guitar player in the band played the wrong chord in bar 17 of song no 9 ... :)
i beg you : dont be that guy ! try to distance yourself as much as you can from the mere observing of technical issues... it will not only get on everybody's nerves, you'll simply enjoy the music less and less !
this also is true when listening to music at home...dont turn off the cd right away because the guitar player wasnt doing anything you can't do in the first 20 seconds...if you absolutely have to analyze everything, see what's good or different about the music or try to look for other interesting elements, maybe the drummer will play the wickedest hihat figures ever ! even if you totally detest the music ... try to find out why you hate it, and avoid that in your own playing
by the way ... i'm not saying, if youre performing yourself that you should by all means play sloppy or not give a damn about technical issues ... but even if you think you played a real crappy gig...learn from your mistakes, dont dwell on them, look what was good about your or your bands performance and just be better next time...i dont think there is one serious musician on this planet that is as good as they want to be...its a given ... you can / should / will always improve !
but dont let that perfectionist thinking get in your way ! i know a couple of guys who never play live because theyre always saying "we're not quite ready yet" and they never will be ...
thats enough for right now i think :)
ike
[Edited by supercoolslides on 01-28-2004 at 05:10 AM]
