Why being a musician sucks

http://traffic.libsyn.com/bminusshow/why_being_a_musician_sucks.mp3

Many people tend to think pretty positively about people in bands. For example, many coworkers of mine found out I played music and they all thought it was cool and wanted to come to my shows, and many actually have.

There are definitely cool things about being a musician, but this post isn’t about the awesome parts of musicianship.

This is my view of why it sucks to be a musician. If you have ever wondered about the downsides of musicianship, I can give you my two cents summed up in a few bullet points in this article.

Analyzing live performances

When I watch musicians, I am often found over analyzing many facets of the band. For example, I evaluate their appearance, style, scale progressions, sound (too loud or too quiet?), chord progressions, performance, energy, and etc.

I do this mostly because I am conscious of my own stage appearance.

It took me months to dial my own style in and acclimate as a band with cohesion. Hell, we are still tweaking things in live shows whether it in intentional or not.

If a band captures my attention unexpectedly, I can give major personal credit for the band. There are not really too many musicians that inspire me though, but if I get into a paralysis analysis mode with a band, chances are the band doesn’t meet my own expectations.

Analyzing the shit out of songs

Similar to my first point, it is often hard for me to just enjoy much music nowadays. So much of it is predictable and a good portion of music is trying to hard to have a hook. There’s nothing wrong with making a hit, but damn, our society is soo brainwashed into the same sounding stuff.

My band and I even gave in to writing music based on a pop structure most of the time.

Anywho, I often find myself picking apart songs, breaking them down, clowning on them in one way or another. The funny part about it is nobody would know if I didn’t tell them my thoughts.

For example, listening to a song on a bus where everybody is excited for the song. There is a good chance I am the guy rolling my eyes and have a few reasons why the song sucks.

I’m not trying to be a downer, it’s more about the stupidity of simplicity that I as a musician have a love and hate relationship with.

Dealing with people

Dealing with musicians has been a neutral to negative experience in my tenure as an active musician. The general stereotypes of musicians are they are flaky, assholes, rude, cocky, and etc.

I can attest to this, meaning I have worked with many of these stereotypical musicians. I have made sure not to be one of these and my band are very polite guys. I am grateful, we are the few and the exception.

Not to say all musicians fit this category. I would say around 50% of the musicians I have worked with are socially challenged (aka ass wipes).

The venues are usually pretty cool, they mutually respect those who give respect. I would say about 90% of the venues I have worked with have taken care of my band and I.

Then again, we are very punctual, articulate, prepared and professional. We don’t play too loud and usually bring a crowd.

Dealing with “talented rock stars” with no record deals and no following is, unfortunately, one crappy thing about being a musician. Luckily, we have found shows where we are the only performers and don’t have to deal with as many of these types.

It is time consuming

Albeit, I used to spend WAY more time on music then I do now. However, I have maintained my built talent and am much more efficient.

Although I am always open to improving, I feel that I did a good amount of time in the music game to earn self-respect.