This is the universal rule in life and music is no exception: Everybody sucks at everything at first.
Now, we can see the development of skills or ‘merit’ in music so easily, whether that is singing in tune, playing an instrument to a high level of accomplishment or in the compositional and improvisation process or even the way one handles oneself on stage or in front of an audience.
It is a fact, that to build ‘merit’ in music, there is a large amount of order involved. Order in one’s daily practise schedule, order in one’s commitments to do the right things that help in the furthering of one’s goals and the avoidance, as much as possible, of those things that are obstructive or destructive to said goals. These are all implied when one moves up in a meritocracy, one cannot become good or better without the hours having been put in, and one cannot put the hours in without a commitment, deliberate or not, to devote a part of one’s life to the art and science of music.
Once one realises that we are living in a society that inherently values merit, whether it is disguised or not by the prevailing ideology, the goals that we set ourselves are more attainable. Yes there are some that seem to be more ‘gifted’ than others, but behind every gift is a person who has struggled to realise what their gift is and then worked like mad to bring that talent out into the world.
Now I know some of you will be saying something like ‘What about all those 'artists' that are obviously talentless but are making huge amounts of money?’. Well, are we talking about the same thing? If someone is rich does that necessarily mean they are good, or to put it another way, do they have merit based upon their wealth? Obviously, the answer is no. Merit comes from ability, not wealth. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven all struggled for money. That does not affect their standing in the world or relieve them of merit. It is a fallacy to think that wealth is a sign of anything other than wealth and I’m sure that the idea to the contrary was dreamed up by the very wealthy themselves.
I remember when I was a student at M.I in London, I used to commute there daily on the train. Obviously, I could not play the guitar on my way in and out of the city, but I found myself reading scores, analysing music and doing theoretical work in my head as I sat surrounded by others. Not intentionally at first, just out of speculation. Such behaviour though soon becomes a pattern that leads to where the goals in life are situated.
So don’t forget, everybody sucks at everything at first, but that is the wonder of it, from zero to hero is possible in a meritocracy and that is what music proves life to be, the most beneficial of societal systems. No more blaming others or scapegoating society for a lack of success, I can imagine trying to explain that twisted idea to Jimi Hendrix or Miles Davis. One has to suck, but for how long is up to each of us, alone. As Bill Mollison said when someone commented how lucky he was in his success, ‘yes it’s funny, the more I work, the luckier I get’.
I’d like to paraphrase Winston Churchill:
“We shall go on to the encore. We shall practise arpeggios, we shall work on the scales and modes, we shall jam on the beaches, we shall rehearse on the landing grounds, we shall perform in the fields and in the streets, we shall rock in the hills; we shall never surrender to iTunes.”
And with that in mind, I’m off to practise.
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