I’m probably going to get slammed by musicians out there for saying this but I gotta get this off my chest anyway. I know unsigned and amateur musicians everywhere think that performing music in front of an audience may be a cool thing, it may be a blast, and you may think it’s the best thing going on in your life…but come on…really?
What is so special about bringing your instruments to some small shithole bar, cafe or a nightclub with a big stage? I’ve seen live music lots of times over the years and I’ve been noticing that a lot of musicians are looking pretty bored to death playing their instruments on stage. They claim that the shows they play are such a blast, but I don’t buy it. Most of the musicians and bands that I’ve seen in the past looks pretty bored, not really showing any excitement or fun.
What is so fun about it? Is it the drinking and the hard partying? The energy of the music? The fans that come out to support it? Or just simply for the love of music alone? I don’t find any fun and excitement in any of it really. Playing music in front of people is no different than playing music alone at home.
Yeah, it sure is nice to go to a live show or open mic to perform your original songs in front of an audience and getting good feedback from the public, but you can do that on the internet these days, anyways. I remember a reader in this blog saying that the reason most musicians perform is that we crave that we are in the center of your attention, an ego kind of thing.
The only thing on the musicians mind is being in the spotlight and the only thing they care about is promoting themselves. That’s why we play live shows. What is so rewarding and gifted about playing your music live? What is so special about it? It ain’t like you’ve been taken to the next level and been handed a trophy or anything.
Instead of concentrating on making music and songwriting, they’d rather waste time getting their name out there and shove themselves in people’s faces. I care about making the good music that I’m proud of instead of being obsessed with forcing people to listen to it and manipulating them to like it.
The reality is, most musicians that write their own songs think they need to get it out there by playing live shows when you don’t really need to. Just make the music for yourself, and who knows, your music will get out there on it’s own. They don’t really need to promote themselves to death. I don’t promote my stuff at all, well, except for this blog and other sites online.
The point of this blog post, is that you must worry about your own music, loving it, and not worry about how many people listen to it. You can either have tons of fans or no fans at all, just be happy to what you do. That’s what I find fun in music is writing songs for yourself. You have to admit sometimes that there is really nothing fun and cool about performing on stage. It is only cool that if you’re creating art out of your mind.
Kev
Edit to add: Btw, I’m not trying to be a selfish person in this post ’cause I’m not a selfish person like most musicians are, and I’m NOT putting down my supporters or anything as I appreciate the support, I’m just being a little honest that there isn’t anything special about performing live and I can tell you right now, that many musicians out there are being dishonest about it.
K'Brocking 
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