WARNING! THIS ARTICLE COULD BOOST YOUR SELF ESTEEM AND HELP GET YOU PAID!

No shortys! (No not the urban rap meaning)

I mean don’t go and shortchange yourself or your talents! You have a Stick and you play a Stick, and IMHO that’s quite an accomplishment. You have risen above the din and the crowd, chosen an intelligent path to make music and advanced from your previous level of musical training.

Next time you walk down the street or in a mall, figuratively point to anyone and say, "They can't do what I do!” They are not as creative as you – I am sure you hummed, strummed, or noodled around on a melody that is yours and yours alone. They never did.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Please be aware I am not pointing anyone out here, that is not my intention, however, too many times I see or hear this- “Well, I completely suck, but here’s a clip…” First, the clip is pretty good and secondly, the playing, warts and all, is better than anything those people you figuratively point at could ever do.

Don’t shortchange yourself- you wouldn’t do it in “real” life, and you shouldn’t do it to your own talents. If you worked at a retail store, and the item was listed as $10 USD, you don’t check the person out, “OK, it’s $4 USD” yet we do this in our own life in assessing our own talents and often for less than half of what we actually are.

First, the public doesn’t buy disclaimers – “like I’m not that good, so here… “ Did you ever see an album with an excuse sticker on it? NO! They will judge you how they judge you. Putting that out there first, appears to be asking for some sympathy or leeway for something you could correct, improve upon or revise. If you ever talk over one of your demos “the drums could have been up more, opps hit a wrong note there, vocal is a little hot” stop- go back and fix or remix it. If a million of your albums sold, you couldn’t be in everyone’s living room sitting beside them on a couch, giving them a play by play of how you let an unfinished work go out.

Next, don’t UNDERVALUE your talent. There was a big Internet discussion recently about against playing for free and/or for EXPOSURE (see cartoon). I believe the ONLY exception is if the gig or event will network you toward paying situations. The old adage rings true, why buy a cow when you can get milk for free! Once you play for free, in my long experience and other’s experience with club owners, they have memories like Elephants and say “you played for free last time, why do I need to pay you now?” Yes these people exist AND own clubs. Also you are UNDERVALUATING your talent when you play for free. Ask for something $20 -$40 dollars. You can always go up from there. If you say I’ll play for -0-, what does that say about how you think about your own talent? You can use a tie in. “I’ll play for free this time to show you I can draw, but next time you will agree to X” Foot in the door, with a TIE IN AMOUNT AND A GUARANTEED GIG IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

So look your self in the mirror, and smile. A good positive self-image belongs and begins right there. …. And then say “Baby, I’m Worth It! Baby, I’m Worth It!” like Fifth Harmony’s hit!

Hope this helps,
Dave B “DBro”

*cartoon has a "bad" word!

Noted.

You rock, DBro. Very inspiring. Love that Oatmeal comic.

Heck yeah!

I had a gig last night with my band. I still get really nervous when I play the stick, live, but it gets a little better every time. I recover from mistakes quicker, my channel switching gets smoother, I look at my hands a little less. I still get impatient and want to be better sooner. Even though I consider myself an experienced musician (or perhaps because I do), I know that there is a process that I need to work through and practicing at home will only give me so much.

Although I considered the gig to be kinda so-so, I still walked away from it feeling really jacked up about the progress and positives that I saw in myself and the band as a whole.

Confidence, for me, is a slow build. Maybe the result of having a very analytical mindset? I spent an hour and a half earlier in the afternoon tweaking all my tones on my POD X3, balancing volume and gain levels between different sounds and instruments. That's something that plagued me in other shows. Even though I was using the clubs provided backline (a small Yorkville(?) bass head through an Eden 4x10 and a Vox AC30) which I had never used before, it was pretty straight forward getting a good sound out of my POD. I didn't feel the need to adjust anything during the set, which helped me feel a lot more comfortable in my performance.

...and Jim Meyer came out. YAY JIM

Great post as usual Dbro.

cheers,
k

I know how you feel. Totally. I just joined this band, they are some older fellas and they like playing THE MOST MUNDANE cover tunes ever. My function is as a bass player, but the stick brings a lot. Actually, I think I hate playing with guitarists, especially guys who play with a pick, but that's a conversation for another day.

It's actually pretty simple for me; I treat the Stick as a bass, play the tunes pretty much on the bass side, and kepp the 'form' of the tunes together. When the guitar player forgets his place, or doesn't know a part, I'm there to fill in. Kinda like a keyboardist I guess.

I feel like I am really not living up to my, or the instrument's potential, but I learn something new EVERY time we jam. I have fun, the guys have fun, we play and get paid and I have a lot of people asking questions about my "crazy guitar"... Every time, even when it train wrecks. lol

Getting there.

Dbro, there's no greater truth than what you wrote. To the last part, however, I would like to add this: people don't mind paying when what you bring is truly unique.
I've been a professional musician since 17 (am 42 now) and I've seen a lot. One thing is true everywhere I went: there will always be someone willing to play for half of what you charge, and there's always someone that will play for fun/free. But, if what you do is something no one else does, if you're polite and a good professional, in my experience and if people can afford it, they will pay you what you ask. Just saying cheers Rodrigo


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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY[/youtube]

K!

Yes, fine words again from the Dbro.
Thought about this lots lately as I try to get out of home and on a stage as much as possible.
So on the first points my main golden rule is to never "apologise" for what I'm about to do or just did, that kind of annoys me at open mic nights, its an open mic, people don't expect the world, and its the best place to grow in a live sense and get really good at cruising through mistakes and disguising them!
Stay confident , unique, professional & entertaining , thats my goal, whilst getting a little better each time out...

I see plenty of kind words, but as we all know, actions speak louder than words.

I am using this to support my friend and his ideas about self-worth.

I think this is great:

http://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10577

Following the Bandcamp model, anyone who also thinks it is great is welcome to PM me for where to send the money.