“It is not necessarily the notes you’re playing, it’s not where you went to school, how much you studied, who your teachers were… It’s what you can take from your heart and convey it to the other person.”
-Gregg Allman

At the end of the day, isn’t that really the point? I mean, hasn’t that always been the point? It’s so easy to focus on the unimportay, or what you think other people expect from you… Honestly, it’s all quite silly.

It’s almost laughable, really.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the tornado fury of life that we forget what it’s all about; we forget what it was like when we first decided to jump in. It wasn’t about stardom, fame or notoriety. It was about passion. It was about freedom. And it was about expression.

I’m not saying that going to school is unimportant, or that you don’t need a good teacher or to study hard. As someone who has done all those things myself, I stand by them and recommend it wholeheartedly. But I will say this: doing all that stuff won’t guarantee you a gig. In my experience I’ve found that your musicianship and your personality will do that. Granted, anything you can do to improve your understanding in the field of your profession will greatly increase your odds of getting hired, but your level of experience and your likability will always be the determining factors in getting the job.

In some cases, I find that laboring over these thoughts is counter-productive, in that my knowledge can inhibit my creativity if I allow for it. Sometimes I can’t come up with a unique melody because I’m thinking too hard about what the textbook says it should be, or I’m wondering “What would [fill in the blank] say about what I just played?” The one that keeps me up at night is “Do I sound like a music grad should?”

I have a hard time letting go of my mind because my thoughts seem to run a mile a minute, but sometimes all I need to do is stop for a moment and clear my consciousness. When I do, it all becomes clear. Stop focusing and start expressing. Don’t think about it, do it. It doesn’t matter so much what other people say I should be, it’s about what I want to be. When we overcomplicate things the message becomes unclear. And to me, that’s the true heart of music. It’s not about what I say I can do, it’s about what my actions can say for me.