Pat your self on the back

The reasons behind one becoming a musician is a lot more complex than just the simple fact that we love music. It’s like no one becomes an actor just because they love the art of acting. Let’s face it we look for recognition. And before you get all defensive about it, let me just say there is nothing wrong with it. It is within our human nature to be looking for recognition and validation. I personally believe these are much better driving forces than for example financial gain.

So when we write a new song, or learn a new guitar lick, we hope that our audience and fellow musicians notice and give us credit for it. But we must be careful. Trying to fish for compliments never looks attractive. And especially our fellow musicians will hesitate to give us compliments. After all, all we did was do our job… We are expected to deliver the goods. Or dare I even say, we are expected to be great. If we are not, we should not be doing this in the first place

Now if we do make a mistake, there are a queue of people waiting to point it out to us. And even if we don’t make a mistake as such, there will be critics waiting to tell us how we should have done it differently. One of the greatest singer-songwriters of our times Bob Dylan has spent most of his career getting dished out crap from the critics. It is the nature of the game. And it did not stop the people buying his albums decade after a decade.

So what are we to do? Where do we get our recognition? Well my friends, we need to grow a tough skin. We need to understand the fact that by people listening to our music, coming to see us perform live and supporting us is a form of recognition. In fact it is one of the greatest forms of recognition.

But in those moments when you finish that song you are so proud of, or you nail that guitar solo in a live show, give your self a mental pat on the back. You deserve it. And hold that face like nothing happened, like that’s just the way you always do it 😉

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE