content over delivery
I was just talking to my good friend about the ups and downs of performing our music in front of people. The way you perform, and record your songs are no doubt important, but I don’t think it’s the MOST important thing.
The delivery is how you get attention, but the attention is always pointing at your content. Not the delivery.
Does that sound confusing?? It does to me, and I wrote it.
What I mean is… we as artists and performers are just that. Artists AND performers. The performing is very important, and we spend so much time rehearsing and working on our technique trying to be better singers, or instrumentalists, that we sometimes forget it is just the delivery method. It’s the way we deliver our message.
We judge ourselves SO harshly on how we perform. “oh man… I sucked tonight.”
“I just couldn’t sing as well as normal”, or “I felt a little uncomfortable, and couldn’t play as well as I do when I’m in my room alone”
All those things can bum you out real quick if you let em. And maybe they should if all you’re doing is mechanically playing an instrument, or singing.
But for those of us who create music need to remember that what we created is the most important thing. Whether it’s a song with meaning, or whether it’s a piece of music that really expresses something, the delivery is only the vehicle that gets the piece of art to the listener.
Sure, if you were bringing the Mona Lisa to an art gallery you’d want to put it in a nice case, but if that case got dropped, stepped on, and all scratched up once you got it there, you wouldn’t forget about the painting and throw it out.
The content is more important than the delivery.
So let’s all quit practicing and learning, and just wing it.
No, that would be self-defeating.
But let’s remember, that even if you have a bad show or your record doesn’t sound amazing, it doesn’t take any value away from your art or you- the artist.
March 1st, 2010 at 11:46 am
Cory,
While I am not a musician, I very much understand this mentality. As a writer, the content of my art is the most important part. While I’ve performed my art a few places and received pretty decent recognition for my “performance” it was, ultimately, the content of what I was delivering that made the impact.
Without content, my art would be utterly useless. Sure, it could be performed in an entertaining way, but there would be no reason for it, really. There would be no heart to it, no soul behind it. Which is why I very much get your point here that content is important.
What it comes down to is what you said, that “what we created is the most important thing.” Right you are, Cory. The art we create is the important part. How we share it, that is also important, but the bottom line is WHAT we create in the first place.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:20 pm
There ya go! Good point Adam. I’ve seen poetry slams where people perform their poetry and are judged by their performance. If they can’t sell it on stage, no one will listen, but if they do, then the content of what they wrote gets attention. Just sucks if they are great writers, but are shy on stage.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Ha! Unfortunately, I’m that guy who is shy on stage. Which is why I try to rely on my content most. I realized ages ago that I couldn’t perform to save my life (I have a few times, but it wasn’t anything to write home about), so I began honing my skills as a writer, and trying to focus on the fact that it’s WHAT I write that is going to be important, not how I write it or how (and if) I perform it.
I just hope and pray that without any real means of performing, my writing is strong enough to hold its own.