WHY A MUSICIAN?

Two things terrify  most people more than anything else: talking in front of an audience, and performing in front of an audience. Doing either of these things well is quite another story again. So from the start, we as beginning performers have our work cut out for us.

I am a beginning performer in that I have not been at it all that long: just 4 years. Four years ago, I did some recording at home just to see how it would turn out. Then as a pure whim, I submitted a demo to a music festival. Never believing in a thousand years I would ever get accepted, I forgot about it.

Then the fateful call came: they had accepted me into the festival to showcase. I kept asking them if they had the right person.

A mixture of extreme elation and then sheer terror set in. I had not performed publicly in ages. And I dare not show up at the showcase with no performing under my belt between now and then.

So it was off to open mike nights. Thank God there were so many of them out there, and that audiences (mostly beginning performers like myself) were so supportive and friendly. I learned early on that other performers were my lifeblood for making it in this business.

The night of the big showcase came and I was ready: I had practised the tunes into the ground, had rehearsed some decent between-song banter, and had been to many open mike nights to hone my act.

I came with a good friend of mine, who brought along cameras and video equipment to catch the moment for posterity. But more importantly, we decided from the outset that whatever happened, good or bad, we were going to have fun.

Sure enough, I had the time of my life up there on stage. I felt strangely at ease and exhilarated to be performing. Yes, I was nervous to start; but it subsided as I got into enjoying myself. And I did make mistakes: some minor, some more major. But I wasn't phased at all because I was having the time of my life and letting the audience know it through the comments and the stories I was regaling them with. I was hooked and have been ever since.

Watching the video later confirmed my feeling: it really looked like I was having a great time up there, despite the mistakes. And the audience was very supportive: they wanted me to do well.

So I was hooked. And the next four years? No, I did not manage to get a record deal. I did not get a massive following. I did not hire a manager, a lawyer and a booking agent. I am still trying to get a small break, let alone any big break. I have a very small niche market: instrumental fingerstyle guitar. Yes, I know those nice tunes of mine would go well with some vocals, but I am not a singer, I am an instrumental guitarist.

Am I disappointed, frustrated, discouraged? Sometimes: it is difficult not to take it personally when things seem to be going badly.

Will I give up performing, recording and composing? Not on your life! It has become the heart and soul of who I am. In the end, I do it because I love it. The music makes the happy times that much happier and the sadder times a little more bearable for the simple fact of being able to express how I feel through the music. Performing and recording gives me the opportunity to bring that same joy and comfort to others. As, I said, I am hooked.

WHAT I LEARNED

Over those four years, I did learn a few things, some of them even about music. This is what I hope to share with you.

To make things a little more manageable, I honed in on four major areas: Performance, Recording, Promotion, and Tech.

PERFORMANCE

Thick Skin: No surprise here, and the thicker the better. I learned very quickly that not everyone liked my music. Many people just could not get past purely instrumental music. People talking during performances sometimes became the status quo, the louder the better, especially in places that served booze (probably a lesson there). It did not seem to matter how amazingly I thought I was playing, even when I had the recording of the show to prove it.

One of the more excruciating performances was for the wrong audience: fingerstyle music for a rock and roll crew. I played well all the same and got paid very well, so the thick skin came in very handy and helped me appreciate what being a professional was all about.

Enjoy Myself (Even If No One Else Does): The hardest thing to do is to enjoy yourself and your music when no one else seems to be. When the audience gets to that stage, I have learned to shut them out and to play for myself. If I cannot enjoy myself, then what is the point?

On the other hand, when the audience is really attentive and is really grooving to the music, I find it that much easier to reconnect with what first inspired me about the song: to get "in the zone" where you and the music are one, so much that you get lost in it. It does not always happen, but when it does, being "in the zone" is mind-blowing and better than any drug.

Nervousness: It is part of being human. I think even the most experienced performers still get nervous before a show, just not as nervous as they used to. I try to think only of relaxing into the groove, getting into the zone and playing well. I avoid thinking too much about the audience and how they will react. I do a few run-throughs of some of the tunes in the first set to make sure I am in tune and in the groove, make sure the gear is ready to go, then try to go blank until I go on stage. The more I perform, the less I even think about being nervous. I even sleep peacefully the night before; that was not the case when I first started.

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