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.
