How to find relevance as an older musician?

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Nama Ensou

Just keep gigging and playing as if it really matters. We'll only be here so long and life is too short to phone in performances.

May I ask, what do you mean by the words, "to phone in performances"?

- Glenn

[619TF]

Originally Posted by davidbeinct

Lol that’s exactly who I thought of! Of course he’s covering Brittany Spears who is practically ancient by pop music standards.

To be fair that video is from 2002/2003 so it was only half as ancient then.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Nama Ensou

Just keep gigging and playing as if it really matters. We'll only be here so long and life is too short to phone in performances.

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

May I ask, what do you mean by the words, "to phone in performances"?

In context of the original statement, I would take that to mean "not playing as if it really matters."

[619TF]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

May I ask, what do you mean by the words, "to phone in performances"?

- Glenn

https://english.stackexchange.com/qu...e-it-in#266446

[J Patrick]

...at age 65 the only relevance I care about any more is about my desire and ability to keep playing....I need to keep learning and applying what I learn to my playing...thats what keeps me in the game....

....making the scene has become less important to me...after all...even when I was playing in multiple bands and gigging regularly I still played at home by myself most of the time...learning and applying that knowledge then was not much different than it is today....

...I guess I do miss playing with others regularly a bit but that was always about the “moments” and was not all good all the time...I find freedom in just playing what I want when I want...it makes up for the loss of the throngs of adoring fans who used to lay roses at my feet...and maybe the money I no longer earn...

[Bob Womack]

Relevance. It is a weird word. I play for myself first, because I love it and because I need to. That's about as relevant as I need, really. But I suppose I've also wanted someone else to enjoy my work as well. Now, my career has been in music and audio. I'm a recording engineer/producer and sound designer. I started out my professional career in 1981 as a recording engineer, when a guitarist couldn't get a-rrested, much less a job. The MIDI explosion had arrive and the music business was in its first big recession. I always looked to find a way to plug-in my guitar playing, though. Somewhere along the line someone discovered that I had studied music composition and said, "Can you come up with a score for my work?" I said, "Yes," hoping I really could and they put me to use creating soundtracks for video and film.

Someone else brought me a song they'd paid a bunch of money to have a composer create and record in Nashville. The arranging, recording, and mixing were a mess. They said, "Can you make it work?" I said, "Yes," hoping I was right. I composed new drum parts, replaced the bass, added guitar parts, added synths, and filled dead spaces with guitar solos. Then I mixed the product with an up-to-date mix. They loved it. More work came. The next thing you know I was a producer, as well as an engineer, as well as a studio musician. Hurrah! They pay me to do this.. They vote with their wallet. I suppose that is marginally relevant. So, those activities are probably my biggest musical outlets these days.





But i still love to play for me.


Bob

[wrench68]

Originally Posted by takamineGD93

How do we find relevance as an older musician? How do we avoid becoming just a silly old fart. What motivates you? That you have fun yourself (nothing wrong with that)?
Spreading joy to others? If so have you choosen music deliberately in line with that? Spreading a certain kind of music?
Any thoughts on what I'm after...even if I can't formulate it myself.

I'm not talking about famous people. People will alway want to here them play there old songs.

But for the rest of us that is god or ok musicians and does what so many others are doing?

I been thinking of this lately because I feel I need to sharpen my profile.

Any thought's?

"Stay in your lane" is a phrase that comes to mind. Wherever your musical skill set and aspirations are, there's a market for it, and therefore relevant there. If you're a good musician, and a good performer, then I don't think age is any barrier to playing in any venue. It's whatever you desire to do, and wherever you desire to do it. Many, many AGF members fall into this category.

If, however, one's musical and performance skills are lacking, then staying in one's lane becomes sage advice, because veering out of that lane results in embarrassment and heartbreak.

Ask me how I know. I took up guitar at 55, and was sure I was unlimited, and I wanted to share my music with the world. After 9 years, a professional performer friend invited me to perform with him, and I veered out of my lane in agreeing to do so. It went real bad, I was indeed the irrelevant silly old fart trying to be something I clearly wasn't, and never will be. It was so disappointing I quit music for the better part of a year. But I missed music so much. So I started playing again - with no aspiration to play anywhere but in my house and maybe the back porch on good day. So I know my lane. I'm OK there.

But I really do admire the folks in fast lane.

[Woolbury]

Well I'm not making money at this, so maybe I have a different slant. But I'm a regular at open mics around here, where a variety of music is played and heard. And my old school acoustic blues seems appreciated and has a receptive audience. Feel like I'm helping to keep the roots stuff alive. I also jump in and jam with others, couple nights ago was a 30yr old with great voice, and 16 yr old on drums. They jumped into some Credence stuff like it was their own, some Dead, Lay down Sally. etc The fact that a 68yo was jamming with them didnt phase them in the least. And feels great to see young folks still grooving on the same music we enjoyed so many years ago. I think the pop **** coming out of the radio can make you feel irrelevant, but for the folks out playing and listening, they love what you got!

[Goat Mick]

Well I'm 52, short, kinda chunky and bald. I don't even think about how I'm going to be relevant or fit into the crowds I play for. My usual gig attire is jeans, a collared shirt, baseball cap and cowboy boots. My strength is that I know a butt-ton of old country and rock bar standards as well as the original stuff I have put out, so if anybody requests anything I can generally play it or find something close. I never try to look younger than I am and usually refer to myself as "the twangy old guy". But I am good at talking to an audience and engaging them. Folks my age love that I play the stuff we grew up on and I think the younger crowd likes me because I'm like that cool uncle that doesn't look down on you for having a beer. I'm really having a lot of fun and I'm playing 2 - 4 shows every weekend. It's kinda cool too that Pandora just picked up my latest CD and is playing it with a lot of the Red Dirt and Alt Country artists. I don't think it's important to remain relevant as much as it is important to remain relatable.

[jseth]

For decades now - I even think this was "the guiding force" for me when I dropped out of college at age 17 to "be" a singer/songwriter/guitarist/ musician- what guides me in all my musical endeavors is to bring the essence of what music means to me, in all the songs I write and the performances I do...

I don't even think much, if at all, about the fact that I'm in my 60's... I do what I can to maintain my voice and my playing, and I continue, with passion and fun!

I have come to realize that my love of "older" music has very little to do with nostalgia or memories of good times...

The reason I truly love and embrace all that older music/songs that I love and play is because there is are inherent qualities of love, of "human-ness", of relevance to the human condition and of hope that shines through those songs.

Hard to hear a lot of that in most of today's music I have heard, leastwise the "Popular" music I've heard. I'm certain that there are thousands of great songwriters whom I have never heard who are doing the very same thing as I am...

Wouldn't worry about anyone else, bub, just focus on YOU. Spend some time thinking about "Why?" you play and sing... then follow the path that you find...

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by takamineGD93

How do we find relevance as an older musician? How do we avoid becoming just a silly old fart. What motivates you? That you have fun yourself (nothing wrong with that)?
Spreading joy to others? If so have you choosen music deliberately in line with that? Spreading a certain kind of music?
Any thoughts on what I'm after...even if I can't formulate it myself.

I'm not talking about famous people. People will alway want to here them play there old songs.

But for the rest of us that is god or ok musicians and does what so many others are doing?

I been thinking of this lately because I feel I need to sharpen my profile.

Any thought's?

Since I don’t play to the public at large (not anymore, anyway), I find that my only metric of importance is whether I’m enjoying playing. Period.

I do think it’s harder as an older musician to make music that people find relevant, and I can’t really explain that phenomenon. I can think of few exceptions of performers or bands whose later work (post “peak”) really inspires me the same way the earlier work did. This is counterintuitive, as you would think musicians get better with age. I think perhaps the thing that makes a performer stand-out or famous may become overly familiar as the gears go by. Then, when the musician(s) want to expand into something new, the fan base dies off. I think this is very hard to overcome.

So please yourself first, especially if you don’t make music as a career.

[JGinNJ]

I don't think it matters much unless you're trying to play pop music in clubs for young people or other commercial settings. That is, be an "entertainer". If you're a real working pro in a "wedding band", then yeah, you have to be very versatile and play old favorites and "Uptown Funk", too.

There's plenty of room, especially in the acoustic world, for young and old performers, and even older music. Hipsters in Brooklyn have discovered bluegrass, for example.

The ones that I think are the silly old farts are the rockers still wearing the long hair & goofy outfits into their 60's- old enough to know they're not going to be Mick Jagger...

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by JGinNJ

Hipsters in Brooklyn have discovered bluegrass, for example.

Well, there goes the neighborhood.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by takamineGD93

How do we find relevance as an older musician? How do we avoid becoming just a silly old fart. What motivates you? That you have fun yourself (nothing wrong with that)?
Spreading joy to others? If so have you choosen music deliberately in line with that? Spreading a certain kind of music?
Any thoughts on what I'm after...even if I can't formulate it myself.

As I think you may be struggling with somewhat yourself, "Relevance" is slippery concept. Musical expression can be part of lot of different things, it has social, entertainment, "decorative" and artistic uses. Relevance is a relational word. Relevant to what? You could be asking that in a sense.

I approach music as an art, not because I'm great--or even good at it some days. That makes relevance easy. You're trying to make something work, something new. That's the same whatever age you are. Yes, it does have a "what's it good for beyond that?" component. Somedays that bothers me, most days I don't think about it.

Trying to succeed with audiences, even partially, which is all any musician does, is hard to predict. Yes there are skills that help often. Yes there are styles and contexts that have slots and lanes. I bow to those with those skills and who work to make their music fit those opportunities. It's an honest job and good art gets made that way sometimes too.

I choose to do what I want, what interests and challenges me. What I present to the public is original music, though I largely use other people's words (often old words--I'm not talking classic rock age--I'm talking 100 years old and even older). I enjoy it because I get to grapple with what things those words are saying, and how to present them, and the way that whole process feels to do, which is absorbing and fulfilling in itself. I'm enormously grateful for that.

My audience is small, smaller even that it should be. I count my listens in hundreds and thousands, when pictures of someone's breakfast plate counts in the millions. But I'm not challenged or interested in the breakfast plate (other than eating it!). In small ways I get to bring out words and history and things worth considering for myself and my audience, and I feel/hope that that's my added value other than the sound of my playing and composing.

I don't hide my advanced age or non-pinup looks, but I doubt half my audience knows either. That's one of the joys of music qua music as opposed to charismatic live performance.

So there's your question, or a possible question: What do you want to be relevant to?

[RP]

Originally Posted by JGinNJ

...Hipsters in Brooklyn have discovered bluegrass, for example...

Originally Posted by dwasifar

Well, there goes the neighborhood.

No, there goes bluegrass....