Trusting Speed

We spend so much time working working working so hard, fighting the odds, overcoming obstacles, doing the impossible, digging for momentum, grinding it out every single day, slowly but surely, drip drop, drip drop…

…because that’s what it takes. 

We know the immense amount of work we’ve done, and therefore we know that our career is real and legitimate.

We trust hard work and the long days.

But what about when speed finally finds us?  What about when things are able to happen quickly?  What about when “things are just happening”?

Since we know we can trust hard, slow, long work…it’s easy to then think that we CAN’T trust speed and ease.  Because it’s too easy.  Hard workers have a tendency to be dismissive of the easy.

If something comes easy can it be trusted?

If the doors are just swinging open for you, is someone playing a trick?

If things come easy and I’m a part of easy things, does that mean I’m not going to be considered a hard worker?

When the energy and opportunity move with speed and ease, let it happen.

It doesn’t always have to be a battle.  

Let it flow.

Don’t dismiss it just because it’s going fast and easy.  

It’s going to get hard soon enough again anyway.

You can trust speed and ease.

*But I certainly understand…most often you have to know something in order to trust it and most artist aren’t familiar with speed and ease…and so it’s simply the unfamiliarity with the concept that makes you not willing to accept it.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

You Can Wander Out But You...

Creating your well thought out, highly detailed plan will help uncover and stimulate the courage and understanding of when to deviate from it, and how and why…and also when to chunk it and start over.

The wanderers will always wander, believing their wandering is freedom.  But wandering only begets wandering…and you end up becoming knotted up and miserable by the very thing you believed was giving you freedom.

You can certainly wander out of a successful career in the music business, but you can’t wander into one.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Jim Gaffigan And Red Lobster

Jim Gaffigan is a funny dude and a few weeks ago I ended up watching part of his stand-up on TV.

He was doing his bit about seafood. (You can watch it here).

Hilarious.  And a pretty long bit too.  Basically pointing out that seafood is like eating bugs and the only reason we eat it is for the butter sauce.  

Being that this comedy special was on TV, after the seafood bit it was time for a commercial break.

The very first commercial of the break…a Red Lobster commercial.

I’m not joking!

What in the world?!!! How could this happen?

The commercial is showing lobsters and crab and shrimp in the most sophisticated slow motion way possible, while for the last 8 minutes we’d just been told in a very funny yet convincing way how nasty and disgusting this food is!!

Here’s my guess of “how could this happen?”:  It’s not that anybody dropped the ball…it was simply nobody’s job at the tv station to make sure the commercials played well with what was being joked about on Jim Gaffigan’s comedy show.  My guess is that a programmer just lined up the next five commercials on the list and pressed play, because that’s how the job works.

So it was nobody’s job.

But let’s rephrase it from “it was nobody’s job” to “there was a job opening”.

And a pretty important job opening if you ask me.  There was a need for someone to be the person who made sure the commercials meshed well with the scheduled content…an open responsibility…a chance for someone to take the reins and do something that would benefit everyone (in this case not run the Red Lobster commercial till next hour).

These little branches and limbs of responsibility are being dangled out there, and all of us have the chance to jump if we’re paying attention and care.  Opportunities to play a vital role in a system that seemingly has all of it’s bases covered.

Pay attention. Care. Speak up.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Demo Disclaimer

You know what I’m talking about. Can it be gotten rid of?

“I mean, it’s just a scratch vocal”

“There’s definitely still a ton of work to be done”

“I haven’t been able to spend a ton of time on it but here it is anyway”

All that fear and insecurity that you dribble out just before you show someone the song that you’re working on…

It’s for you not them. 

They don’t gain anything by your preface even though you believe you’re doing it for their benefit.  And it exposes your weakness to them more than anything.

Just show the song and stand firmly behind what it is in the current moment.

No need for excuses or disclaimers.

Here it is…I made this…your opinion is important to me, what do you think?

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Scantron Sheets

You remember taking a test on those scantron sheets right?…Those half sheets of paper numbered 1-50 with A-B-C-D-E next to each number that could be graded by a machine.

I was a pretty good student. Studied often enough, and always knew when the test was (except for once in college).

But for all the studying of the material, the thing that could throw me for the biggest loop was the scantron sheet itself.

I would know that the answer to number 22 was A…BUT…I had put A for the previous four answers too.  How could any teacher/computer/committee put a test together where there would be 5 CORRECT A’S IN A ROW???!!!!!!!  What a stressful nightmare it was to look down at a scantron sheet with that many of the same letter in a row. 

Certainly this is a mistake.  So now I’m second guessing my certainty not only of question 22 but for the previous four as well. I’m not certain of my answers and performance at all.  It now becomes nothing about my test preparation and everything about how my middle school mind thought the powers-that-be put this scantron test together.

So here’s the thing…

The scantron sheet doesn’t care that there have been four A’s in a row. 

Your mind wants to look and see a distribution of letters that “makes sense”… but the scantron doesn’t care what the distribution of correct answers is.  The scantron sheet doesn’t have a stake in the game at all!  The scantron sheet isn’t an actual thing with a say.

Without evening knowing it, you’re looking for the scantron sheet to be what you want it to be on the journey to completing and succeeding on the test.  But the scantron sheet has nothing to do with completing and succeeding on the test.

So if you’ve answered A on the last four questions and you know the next one is A too, you need to answer A. 

You do the very best you can at the time with the current question and move on and do the same with the next one.

There is no right path or pattern or sequence in this business, so there’s no need to second guess your previous steps or what your gut is telling you while taking the current step. 

The music business doesn’t care about the path or pattern or sequence that it’s doling out to you.  But every step is indeed a chance to get it right.

So all you have is the next…

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

You Need Three Songs

One to show them at the beginning of the meeting.

One to show them when they ask what else you have.

One to send them after the meeting because they want you to “send me more stuff”.

If you can get away with playing your best song second instead of first, do it.  The risk is that if they don’t ask to hear another song you’ll always think you should have gone with the best one first.

The third song, you won’t be there when they listen to it, so keep that in mind.

First impressions are real.  But a little reminder about impressions and progression…If I was with Michael Jordan and he said “I’m going to dunk the ball from the 3-pt line” and then proceeded to do so, my jaw would be on the floor, my mind would be blown.  If, after that he said “Now watch me dunk it from half court”…my body would be in complete shock and awe in a way that I have never experienced.

However…If he starts out with the half court dunk first and then follows it up with the 3-pt line dunk…the 3-pt line dunk isn’t as great, my mind isn’t so blown.  I just saw him dunk from half court, no duh he can also dunk from the 3-pt line.

The progression of impression is important.

But really, just make sure all three of your songs are slam dunks.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com