> As artists (I use the term loosely in my case) there are things we can do to
> spread the appreciation of music. You don't need a soap box to stand on and
> try to convert people, I think it's much simpler than that...Just let people
> see how much we enjoy the music that we make. Share the joy of it with
> others.
I subscribe to this philosophy 100%. When I play at a noisy venue such
as a party or a restaurant, I run a little mantra through my head that
goes something like, "I am playing to give pleasure to anyone out there
who is tuned in."
I used to be a disk jockey on a VERY boring easy listening radio
station. I worked the graveyard shift (12 midnight to 6 a.m.) and after
a while, I got so bored with the rotation of Ray Conniff, Andre
Kostalanez, Vicki Carr, Johnny Mathis, that I dug through the record
library and found some terrific stuff by Duke Elllington, Count Basie,
Jimmie Lunceford, etc. I played it just to keep myself sane. No big
deal. It seemed as if, for weeks at a stretch, nobody was listening to
the station at all. But oddly enough, in this little bittie town in
rural Illinois where I lived, people would call in at 3 a.m. at odd
intervals and say "Hooray for you, kid! Have you got anything by Cab
Calloway?"
I took a lesson from this that goes something like, "You never know who
is listening." People having a conversation with someone else might be
trying to be polite to that person while straining to keep part of their
mind focused on your harp playing. I have had that experience myself.
So if I get bummed out or just plain drowned out by the level of noise,
I mosey on down to my internal "meditation room" and get that mantra
humming along.