Re: Re: Liking/Disliking your own music

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Thanks for another fantastic post, Richard.
There is much wisdom in this one.

On 7/22/64 11:59 AM, richard sales wrote:
> Love this thread and the responses so far.
>
> It's like war.  If you stop to think too much, you die; you become 
> careless in your over thinking and raise your head above the foxhole 
> to look for an answer... you daydream and reveal your position to the 
> enemy in the trees.
>
> Kaboom!
>
> The best solution is to see it all as a gift.  The bad sessions 
> improve us and the good sessions approve us.  Both are needed, like 
> notes and the silence between them.
>
> What throws it all off is that, when we start out in music, we are 
> Mozart, Hendrix, Dylan, Lennon and John Cage (even though we only know 
> three chords and have one ardent fan).  We are billionaires and love 
> everything we do.  That sets a bad precedent and expectation for when 
> the buzz wears off and we see a balding grey haired fat button pusher 
> staring back out of the mirror who knows well the difference between 
> our skills and those of Mozart and Hendrix.
>
> I think with time we learn better to sort of accept what comes. 
>  Accept the gift and not look a gift horse in the mouth.  It may be a 
> show horse, race horse or work horse.  May be worth a million or 500 
> dollars.  Either way, the horse has value.   Then we learn to use the 
> gift as it is for what it is.
>
> All of the replies about zen mind and the woo woo are spot on.  Sanity 
> is something we are born with and lose over time.   Regaining sanity 
> is not woo woo or new age or spiritual or anything like that.  It's 
> just leaving the hall of mirrors and becoming a smart simpleton again.
>
> Miles Davis said, paraphrase, There are no bad notes, it's the notes 
> that follow that make them bad.
>
> There are no bad sessions!  It's our reactions, the note that follows, 
> that determines the value of any event, session, performance, 
> recording etc.
>
> This is especially true now that we all own our own studios and are 
> not paying $75-$300 per hour for a horse!
>
> There are ways to train our minds to become sane again.  They are all 
> like playing an instrument. Doesn't happen overnight, although some 
> will try to sell you that snake oil.
>
> Just stay with it and enjoy, make the most of all of it.  That's the 
> best any of us can do.
>
> Or, more simply put, as guitar avatar Roy Buchannan said to me 30 some 
> years ago, "Just relax!"
>
> ... a terrific Zen koan!