About a hundred years ago, I was in a
writing master's program at Naropa. Part of the degree requirements
is that you attend a month-long intensive each summer. Near the end
of one, while I was cranky in the heat and tired of sitting on a hard
chair, there was a concert played by writing majors. The main
take-away from that concert is: just because you good at one art
form, doesn't mean you are good at another. While there is overlap
and exceptions, most of the time you are good at something because
you've put in the time...which is time you DIDN'T put into other
things, such as acting, singing practice, painting, and onward.
As I've gotten older, I've seen that
there is a strange sort of thinking about the arts, ESPECIALLY in
music, that takes this to a new level. It goes something like this:
because I am a good musician, that means I am a good person. The
better musician I am, the better person I am. So if I'm better than
everyone else in my instrument/voice, that must mean I'm a better
person than anyone else.
Only life doesn't work like that. The
skills to be good at music and the skills to be a good person aren't
the same. It doesn't mean you can't be both, but it does mean that
you need to work at both. I guess I've just seen too many cases of DU
music egos running rampant over the last few years. Since I'm a good
decade or so older than them, I get tired of the bratty attitude. I
know I had a touch of that after I got done with my undergrad music
degree. Eventually I realized that acting like an ass doesn't show
the world how superior you are, it just shows you are an ass. Life
will move on and hopefully rub the edge of those egos a bit. Because
the world has enough bratty folks and I know I'm tired of them. The end.
An Erinku:
So cold
So cold
my sock
over there
