If There’s Going To Be Good Food And Drink

If there’s gonna be good food and good drink, count me (and lots of other people) in. 

Rich and not-rich people like to be able to show up without their wallet.

Rich and not-rich like to not worry about what to do for dinner.

Who do you want to get to know better?

Good food, good drink and an invitation might be all you need to offer.

Don’t know how to cook? Learn. Don’t have time to learn? Pay a friend to cook.  

And lots of great cocktails are only three ingredients, so you can look like a pro pretty easily there.

The people you want to meet and get to know better need to eat and they’d prefer to eat something good.

You can provide that and much more.

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

The Difficult and Unknown

1. We know the outcome we desire. We know what the obstacles are going to be. It’s going to be really DIFFICULT. Let’s dive in.

2. We know the outcome we desire. We know there are going to be obstacles but we have no real idea of what they’re going to be or where they’re going to come from.  It’s going to be really UNKNOWN. Let’s dive in.

We’re really good at the first one.  If we know what we have to tackle, we’re prepared and willing to do the tackling.

The second one is debilitating. The unknown is freaky, because we just don’t know how difficult it’s going to be. We don’t know what it IS yet.

If you open this door, behind it is a pile of a thousand bricks and you have to move them across the room in 10 minutes. No problem. I will train, I will plan, I will learn and then I will open the door and win the prize.

If you open this door, behind it is a pile of something and you have to move it across the room in 10 minutes, or you lose.  For most of us, that’s a door better left closed (and we DO have a choice of which door we stand in front of and which ones we open).

Knowing what the obstacle(s) is going to be, that’s a gift.

Not knowing what the obstacles are going to be, that’s the norm.

The unknown is scarier than difficulties.

Learning to overcome obstacles is essential.

Learning to invite (rather than avoid or dismiss) the unknown is revolutionary.

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

Explaining Your Music

If after you explain your music to someone and breakdown the interesting personal details of why it’s good and then they respond with…

“AH HA! I get it! I’ll buy a concert ticket, a t-shirt, and vinyl versions of all your albums!!”

…you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.

It’s awesome if you can make that pitch and get that response but that means you have to build your audience one ‘explaining session’ at a time.

It’ll work a lot better if you don’t have to explain anything, if they can ‘get it’ just by listening.

So back track for a second…With the music you have right now, what added explaining  do you need to  give with it, or are tempted to give with it?  

And the obvious next question is: What do you have to change about the music to negate the need for the explaining?

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

Hey Solo Artists

It’s true…We might not be able to totally understand what you go through since you’re solo, you’re the ONE…but don’t underestimate us. You can’t afford to in the long run. It’s lonely out there.

And if you start now, over time we’ll understand even more and better. 

This business can often be a truly lonely one. And a solo act, even more so.

As Bob Dylan once said, “At least The Beatles had The Beatles”.

But you’re solo, so you don’t have The Beatles.  But you have us…that is…the world around you.  

Let some of us in starting now so you won’t be as lonely later.

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

Music At Its Finest

Recently I’ve heard a lot of versions of “music is just the distraction we need right now”.

But that word ‘distraction’ has been like a rock in my shoe every time I hear it.  Although the definition of distraction isn’t at all necessarily negative, I’d like to offer something else…

Music at its finest isn’t a distraction…music at its finest is a recalibration.

A recalibration of priorities, of relationships, of the way we spend our time and who we spend it with, the words we use, the care and attention we give. It’s transformative. 

That’s the deepest power of music. Not to distract us from life, but to open our eyes fresher and deeper.

Oreo cookies, reorganizing the bookshelf, mowing the lawn twice in two days…those are distractions…at its finest, music isn’t in that category.

Let’s not seek to use music as a distraction.  That would be to intentionally limit it’s power.

Music is a force. Forces change and transform.  

Music isn’t a temporary way out, but a permanent way in.

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

Looking Up And Out

If you’re up on stage and you’re not sure what to do, slow down, open your eyes look at the people.

If, when you don’t know what to do, you do something that is sure to connect, then you take moments of not knowing what to do and turn them into some of the best most memorable moments.

Connection never gets old. Looking someone in the eyes and experiencing that strange, vulnerable, awkward, intimate, beautiful, fundamentally human connection never gets old.

The eyes are the window to the soul. (So take off your sunglasses)

When you don’t know what to do on stage the bottle of water doesn’t need you, the guitar player doesn’t need you, the backdrop of the stage doesn’t need you.

Slow down, breathe, open your eyes look at the audience and connect.  Just hold it, no need to rush.

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