On the GA Forum Ian mentioned mentioned:

"It's not just arranger playing...I work hard at giving myself at least a tiny bit of individuality with an arranger by assembling my own styles and writing my own arrangements, but I just don't feel that satisfaction I used to feel when playing at my restaurant gig. I don't want to do these gigs anymore as it stands now."

This got me thinking about as what may(?) be the cause. Apart from Beakybird and Beachbum(?) and perhaps a few others, most contributing members play covers of songs written by others. So even if we interpret songs OUR way, we're basically still playing other people's creations. Could it be that the loss of interest may be the result of knowing that we're merely reproducing someone other's work and not our own? After all, playing a cover means that there are many others doing exactly the same song and people usually want to hear it played the way they're used to hearing it on CD/radio/TV. Sure, we can give it our own special touch but, once again, people are creatures of habit and don't always welcome something they're used to, is presented in a different manner.

Now those that write their own material, their creavity is several notches above that of the cover players and by playing their own material have far greater control over how they perceive how it should sound. After all, they wrote the song themselves.

So perhaps the creative types, those that write their own songs, are less prone to feel the way Ian's feeling now. In a way they're playing from the inside out and the cover players from the outside in (does that make sense? it does to me.) I believe that the former is like a lamp that keeps on shedding light while the latter is like a candle. Playing one's own material, and having an audience that likes your songs might help keep one from burning out. After all, how many musicians/singers retire after a hit, a couple of hits or many hits? Usually they keep going on and on and on. While they may no longer be in the limelight, they still have the edge over the cover players, don't you think?

Then again, this may be totally unrelated to what Ian's going through but it's how I think of it.

Regards

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

[This message has been edited by Taike (edited 12-31-2009).]