Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Dear Warren,

Thanks for your letter and your kind acknowledgements.

I wanted to write about a couple of things that you mentioned just because 
I 
have a very different take on them that I"d like to share.

You wrote
" I replied that I was a composer, working on some music, and he said, 
"oh, 
well, who isn't?" And, you know, despite the obvious differences of years 
of 
experience and study and dedication, at core I felt that he was 
essentially 
correct in his attitude. He was me 20 years earlier. It was shockingly 
humbling. So yeah, Rick (tho you didn't say this to me, it felt like you 
did), I don't put that much external value on my own musical creativity. "

Gosh Warren, I have such a different take on creativity than this young 
man 
who was so rude and dismissive to you.

I think that all people's creativity is valid and anyone who knows me well 
knows that I champion people being creative as a matter of course in my 
own 
life's work
so please dont' assume that I said this to you.  It's not in my being EVER 
to say such a thing to someone.   I actually really resent that kind of 
thinking.  It's small
minded and judgemental.  Ask anyone who knows me well and they'll tell you 
this is true.

My honest definition of an artist with a capital A is someone who has the 
courage to get up and do art everyday that they possibly can.   Having  a 
day job
or doing it proffesionally doesn't matter to me at all.  Honestly!

There are, of course,  times when  I will do a gig as a seasoned 
professional musician
where I may encounter a musical situation where it is obvious that another 
musician just hasn't devoted that much time to a particular task.     I 
think anyone
in any profession occasionally shakes their head at a newbies mistake or 
misstep but I don't think this is overly judgemental of 
anyone...........it's just part of the process.

Will a person who's played guitar professionally every day of his life for 
30 years be more accomplished than a young person who has played for 5 
years?
Of course he or she will.     Is that professional musician intrinsically 
more creative than the newbie?   Absolutely NOT.

If I thought so,  why on earth would I insist on having a lot of complete 
newbies at the festival every year?    I'm certainly never patronizing 
anyone by having
them (and I"ve had to actively defend my stance of including newbies at 
the 
festival to more experienced players at times----there are a handful who
won't play the festival anymore because of it...........thinking it 
lessens 
the quality of the experience.

Miles Davis was playing with musicians in their early 20's at the end of 
his 
life.   Why?    Because he wanted to be on the cusp of
what is happening and he wanted to be inspired by these brilliant, yet not 
completely accomplished minds.
His example completely inspires me and it says something about creavity, I 
think.

In Zen Buddhism,  there is the concept of 'beginners' 
mind'.....................that excitement one has when one is brand new 
into 
something they
are loving completely.   As with all things,  it's much easier to be in 
that 
excited, turned on, creative space when we are first in love with something
(from a musical style to a romantic interest to a new philosophy or 
religion 
to a new guitar).    It's a lot harder to recreate that experience over 
and 
over
again as we become more familiar with the new process.       A master 
meditator in Zen Buddhism has the ability to conjure up 'beginners mind' 
even
after having meditated for 30 or 40 years.     The ability to conjur 
creativity all along the way is one of the great goals of art and music, 
imho.

The process has nothing , intrinsically to do with 
money.............making 
it or not making it.

I wrote passionately at the start of this thread because I sensed a 
resentment and an anger towards musicians who have made their entire
lives about making a living.    This was shocking to me , especially on 
this 
list, which has always been people by exceptionally creative people: 
people
who , for the most part, have eschewed the dominant paradigms of music and 
commerce in this culture (let's call it Western culture though that's a 
terribly
lame an inexact title).

   When I was young, 'making it in music' was what almost every musician I 
knew aspired to, so I've been having some culture
shock around the fact that much of our culture lately feels like it's okay 
to take music from someone off the web with compensating the musicians
who both invested and made it.  There's a rise in the attitude that 
professional musicians are somehow part of the exploitive musical system 
that
almost everybody feels oppressed by.   This is just so nuts to me,  but 
it's 
quite obvious now that not everyone sees it this way here.

You also wrote:
"Can I possibly do better with Garageband than a teenager with hours every 
night to surf the web for beats and samples? Not likely."

I know that you later qualified this in your letter but I hear people talk 
like this so much that I wanted to respond to the concept:

To me,  this so totally misses the point of creativity.    I don't think 
it's important to worry about such considerations for this reason.
(and forgive me in advance for reposting this anecdote,  but I think it 
speaks so strongly to this discussion).

BRIAN ENO's anecdote about losing creativity

The great ambient/performance artists Brian Eno was once asked by a 
journalist if there were ever days where
he felt bereft of creativity (considering every day he is payed handsomely 
to be creative, whether doing an art installation or producing a record by 
Talking Heads).

To the surprise of the reporter, Eno said,  "No".

"Why is that?"    asked the reporter.

"Well,"  Eno answered, " if you took every single person on this planet 
who 
could comply with your wishes (whether they were young or old, man or 
woman, 
intelligent or retarded) and gave them a piece of paper and a red crayon 
and 
asked them to draw you a picture of a house and a tree it would produce 3 
or 
4 billion drawings of a house and a tree.     Not one of those drawings 
would be the same.  Not one!!! "

And yet, a house and a tree are not made of red wax and white 
cellulose..................so each unique drawing would be the result of 
that person filtering their vision of the world through whatever technique 
(or lack of technique) they have and then creating an analogue of that 
vision on the piece of paper.   Each person, consequently,  would have 
CREATED something totally unique with their drawing.

He continued "Human beings don't have to worry about whether they are 
creative or original....................they just have to DO.'


note: this is a paraphrase of a this quotation,  heard from someone who 
had 
heard him say this live...........I wasn't there but the spirit remains 
the 
same.

***********
So,  it's a different day..........a different era.   Quite obviously, a 
larger percentage of talented and innovative young musicians in this
culture are headed toward DJing and Remixing and making their own 
Electronic 
Music tracks than they are moving towards
mastering guitar or other instruments.   Of course, you see wonderful 
young 
musicians everywhere using very different modes of expressing themselves
musically but in my thirty years of teaching trapset and percussion 
students,  I'm just not seeing very many serious students of the drums 
anymore.
For sure they're out there, but I think a typical kid is drawn to 
different 
things (my apologies to all punk, emo and indie rocker, jazz and country 
kids out there)
and so that's where the creativity is going.

My advice is to correspond with that kid who has all the time in the world 
to surf for samples and collaborate with them!

And, of course,  keep doing the really cool things I've seen you do before 
with your own music.

respectfully,   Rick