Playing out, open mics, and for others

[Mtn Man]

Originally Posted by JonPR

The difference of course is the idea of competition. Beyond all that bonding and enjoyment of physical exercise, sport is about winning. Music isn't. The purpose of sport is quite clear: to beat one's opponents. The purpose of music is more elusive - which means we can all get different things from it. As listeners, we each use music for different purposes at different times. As musicians too, what we get out of idly noodling at home is different from what we get from playing with others, which is different again from what we get from playing for others. And there other differences between playing other people's music (or playing what other people want us to play) and playing something we've composed.
It's all good, basically .

In general I want to agree with that statement, especially since your post was essentially agreeing with mine……..but.......

The music industry is competitive. I don’t think I need to support that statement.

Auditioning for a band is competitive. Anyone seen the Commitments?

Every band you listen to has done something to “compete” for your attention, your devotion, your dollar.

Music contests are competitive. American Idol anyone? Anyone here ever participated in a Battle of the Bands at some point? What about a talent show? Competitions all. We have a phenomenon around here called the fiddler’s convention. My son loves them, and has aspirations to travel to Winfield, Kansas one day to compete for the National Flatpicking Championship. Past winners have gone on to all kinds of fame and…well, mostly fame in nationally touring bluegrass bands. You can go to my channel and see a bunch of competition footage. These things are really fun, and the competitions are…mostly…friendly. Competing in one is such a rewarding experience in so many ways. Not for everyone, but definitely something we've gotten a lot out of.

You can say that competition is bad (for music), but I don’t believe that. I think competition can bring out the best in people…and the worst…but does that make it bad? Another argument, I guess, for another thread.

[jazzalta2]

Originally Posted by him

...I've been to a couple of jam session type thangs, and I always start by listening to the players that are already there. If I think my skill is significantly lower than the people jamming, I'm not going to play. Why? Not because I'm embarrassed or anything like that. My joining a group of more skilled players would reduce the overall quality (and therefore enjoyment) for everyone by more (taken in aggregate) than it increases my enjoyment, resulting in a net reduction in enjoyment for the event. That's bad, and I don't want to do it. Said another way, it's unethical for me to impose on more skilled players by asking to join in...

Perhaps but it has been my experience that unless you are very musically limited joining in a jam, you might take away a lot of motivation and ambition to practice overcoming deficiencies you may have. That has always worked for me. Playing with others at my same level or under doesn't seem to have the power to encourage me to improve my skills necessarily. Playing with those that are more skilled always forces me to better myself.

[him]

Originally Posted by jazzalta2

Perhaps but it has been my experience that unless you are very musically limited joining in a jam, you might take away a lot of motivation and ambition to practice overcoming deficiencies you may have. That has always worked for me. Playing with others at my same level or under doesn't seem to have the power to encourage me to improve my skills necessarily. Playing with those that are more skilled always forces me to better myself.

I can only speak for myself, but here's how I see it:

If I'm playing with people who are "significantly worse" players, I'm probably not really being motivated the way you are talking about. That's true.

If I'm playing with people who are just a bit worse, I may be motivated in some ways, for example if they know songs I don't. Same if the skill is about the same. If they are motivated, that can be contagious too.

If I'm playing with people who are maybe the same, maybe better than me, but within only a certain distance of my own skill, I'm going to be really motivated and actively learning by playing. The reason for this is that I'm challenging myself to reach new levels that are realistically within my grasp.

If I'm playing with people who are SIGNIFICANTLY (the word I used in my last post) better, all my energy is going to be burned up just trying to keep up. I'm not going to have the spare brain power to learn or be motivated because I'll be focusing intently on the playing and trying not to screw up. I may not even notice some of what the better players are doing because I'll be focused on my own tasks. In general it's exactly as though I went to a sporting event and tried to keep up with professional athletes...chances are the best I can hope for is to escape injury. A better strategy when faced with that situation is to step back from the playing and free up some brain power for social learning. Learning by watching. Which is why in that case I'm not going to play.

Maybe it's different for you. I'm just talking about me and people are different.

[jazzalta2]

Originally Posted by JonPR

...This applies to all the things you mention - with the possible exception of woodworking, which is a "craft", which may or may not be employed for the purposes of "Art". A wooden chair, for example, is not "Art" - it's something to sit on...

I dunno, a google search found saw a few "artsy chairs" lol. https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q...EOnSiwKa54CYCg