Who the hell cares anyway ? Not me .. I do what makes ME feel comfortable, but for those times when I play out, always with the goal first and foremost that I entertain my audience.

Musical snobbery on an arranger forum of all places.. Geez.. I find that to be pretty much an oxymoron in and of itself.

I'm kinda proud that I have some "musician skills". I've worked on them to the best of my ability, pretty much to the point that, even if I might be a few notches below the top echelon, I wouldn't be embarrassed or afraid to sit in with pretty much any band on the planet.


That said, I also realize how egotistical musicians can be, me included, and I'm really trying to move just a little bit away from that, because in reality, the majority of most audiences couldn't care less, as long as we can bring something that they want to see and hear.

Personally, I very much enjoy listening to quite complex musical structures, but the majority of the folks in both my family and general circle of life do not. That's just the way it is.

Chick Corea put it in perfect perspective for me in an interview a while back. For those who may not know Chick is a phenonenal keyboard player, who writes and plays some very complex music. One night he was interviewed at a Paul Simon concert. He was absolutely gushing over Paul's work. The interviewer seemed a bit surprised and suggested that it had appeared to him that what Paul had played in his sets amounted to very simple music, but Chick stated that he himself has nowhere near the ability Paul has to write lyrics and string harmonies together. He seemed to be pretty much in awe.

I do what I do depending on the audience, and when I do occasionally get a little egotistical and feel the need to "mark my territory" ( yep it happens ), I turn off all the "junk" and let fly with some ripping solo stuff. At the same time, I could wear the chicken hat if I felt the need to...

Oh yes.. I DO bring my laptop.. always. Reason being is it's chock full of VSTi's and Sample sets, and there isn't an arranger on the planet that can make some of the lovely noises that my laptop makes.

After a couple things that nearly kicked the life out of me ( literally), I think I've begun to see what is really important in life ( at least for myself and my family anyway ) which also helps a little to at least partially let me get "over myself" , and really, I think that helps a bit to make me a happier person in general. On the other hand, each day that I wake up, mostly just because I'm still here, makes me pretty happy.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 07-14-2007).]