Consistency

There are a couple way to define how consistency works to everyone’s benefit.

The first is the consistency of a rollercoaster ride, a gas pump, or a good coffee maker.  It’s the same every time.  We need it to be.  That’s why we like it.  It’s consistent…ie. safe and expectations are met. (You can argue about whether or not the rollercoaster ride is good or not…but you can’t argue about it being different from one person to another)

The other type of consistency is that of the emergency room, the counseling office, or a personal trainer.  In this case the consistency we seek out is one with a lot of variance…we don’t seek to have the same experience as the person before us.  We need the consistency to be in treating everyone differently.


So as an artist it’s both, right?

We need you to play the chords mostly right and hit most of the notes every night.  We need you to hit the stage reasonably on time and remember the lyrics.  We need you to be a professional…or if you’re not, at least act like one.  Every night, consistently, we need you to entertain…

…which means you need to leave room for and plan for spontaneity.  Conscious spontaneity.  We need you to know how and not be afraid of veering from the ‘consistency’ of the show in order to consistently entertain…ie. treating this moment differently because that’s what it needs right now.

The goal is that professional consistency, over time, will give way to consistently entertaining, which is the bringing together of both types of consistency night after night…never in the same amounts ;) 

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

Learn With People

Learn with people. 

Dig in front of people. 

Sometimes you can’t make it on your own. 

You need to figure it out…with others. 

What does it look like to do this as an artist? As a producer? As a manager?

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

My Cross Country Days

When I was in middle school and high school I ran on a cross country running team that won 7 out of 8 state championships during those years.

Now I’ll be very clear about one thing up front…I was never good enough to run as one of the top seven varsity runners.  I was on the team, but I wasn’t one of the best on the team.

We were a very small town with an amazing coach.

We did lots of different types of workouts throughout the year but three of the days each week were solely dedicated to miles. Miles and miles and miles of running. In the summer 15-20 miles a day.

I still can hardly believe I did that back then.

At one of the cross country meets I remember someone asking my coach how he had such an elite varsity team.

And I haven’t forgotten his reply…”These kids love to run”.

(Another important note: I never loved running. I loved the way I felt after a race or when we were winning the meets…but the running in and of itself, nah…even though I was a full participant in practice :)

Those varsity guys man, they loved it.  That’s why they could put in the miles year in and year out and win those championships.

It turns out if you’re going to run cross country and succeed, it really helps if you like it. 


The same thing can be said for what you’re doing.

Do you actually like it? Do you like the work? Or do you just like the result?

If you truly enjoy the work, that’s going to be a key factor and even an ‘unfair’ advantage as you move along your journey of success.

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

Don’t Get Stuck On The Slide

All dream, no plan, no goal, no action= sleeping in your parents basement forever…with your big break always just a day away.

Dreams, plans, no goal, no action= a serial talker…big hat no cattle.

Dreams, plans, goals, no action= you know enough to know that you’re not doing the hard part, the action part. Ultimately fear and laziness are winning the day.

Dreams, plans, goals, action= change is happening for you and the world around you…you’re a true participant.

Wherever you are on the slide, keeping working your way down.

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

Your Feature

These days everyone has a feature on their record. This song by this artist featuring that other artist.

So…if someone called you up to feature you, what would they be calling to feature?

They probably want to feature the thing you’re best at and are known for. 

Do they need your voice? Ok, but why do they want to feature YOUR voice…is it the tone? Timbre? Your cadence? Your high range? Your low range? The lyrical content and style? Your conviction? 

If someone called you up to feature you, they would already know the answer to that question. That’s probably why the bothered calling. They would know exactly what they want to feature of you.  

Do you?

Do more of what someone would want to feature you for.  Regardless of having a feature.

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

Foot Massages Every Night

I was talking with a producer friend of mine, and naturally we came upon the question of what is the first personal luxury each of us would indulge in if money was no issue.

He had an instant, well thought out answer.

A foot massage every night as he’s going to sleep.

Great.

He would get into bed. Foot massage begins. Foot massage ends. Nighty night. 

So we decided to break it down a bit.  And it was a very fun, meaningless, presumptive, over-blown problem to figure out while standing around a cocktail party.

In order to pull this off you’d need to have a person on-call during a certain time frame each night.  We decided that time frame to be 11pm-1am.  At any point during that time, you send a text (and the masseuse would have to live fairly close…that’s a requirement), they show up already with a house key, let themselves in, do the massage and that’s it.

So you’re paying for two hours of someone’s premium time, and that person has to be really good at rubbing feet…and you’re also paying for them to be available any night that you’re in town.

We ballparked that someone who could fill these qualifications would probably work for a rate of $40/hr. 

That’s $80/day. And lets just say that you were in town every single night for a the whole year, which means they are on call every single night for the whole year…you’d end up shelling out $29,200.

Ok, yes, that’s a lot of money. Nothing to sneeze at.

BUT think about it, of all the personal luxuries, if that’s the ONE luxury that you’ve always wanted if money were no issue at all…it’s just not that much!

You don’t have to make a gazillion dollars a year to have someone come massage your feel every single night.


Here’s the thing. It’s easy to say how you wanna be a huge rockstar career and have stacks of cash everywhere so you can finally buy all the things you’ve always wanted…but when it comes down to it, they money doesn’t matter as much as you might think.  

My producer friend doesn’t need a bunch of #1’s and millions of dollars to have the luxurious night time routine he’s always wanted. He just needs $29,200.

They life you want is perhaps then a better discussion than the money you want.  

You might be a lot closer than you think.

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