Guitar Gear

I’ve mentioned in the past that I do a weekly solo acoustic gig at a local restaurant. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been with the restaurant going on 11 years! But some places just keep you engaged. But more than that, I just love the folks that work there, and they’ve become close friends. But when I first started there, I made a conscious decision to simply approach the “job” with humility. Let’s not confuse that with letting myself get pushed around, but simply put, not letting my ego or my flawed estimation of my abilities rule how I interact with the folks at the restaurant – owners, managers, workers, and of course, customers.

I’ve let my ego get in the way in the past in other areas of my life, and all that created was bad relationships. No one wanted to work with me, and quite frankly, my ego made me think I was a lot better than I actually was. I was intimidating, and made people feel bad; and when I let my ego get in the way, I wouldn’t perform at my optimal level because I didn’t think I needed to give it my all.

To me, artistic performance – no matter what kind of artistic performance, be it music, dance, or otherwise – is all about passion. To make your performance believable, you have to let go of your ego to “feel” what you’re doing, and expressing that inner passion you have for the piece you’re performing. I’ve been performing on some sort of stage for most of my life, and if I’ve learned one thing it’s this: If I want to touch my audience, I have to shed my ego and give them who I really am and be passionate about it.

I have to be uncompromising about this. That passion may turn some people off, but the last thing I want to be is a fake, or act as if it’s a privilege for my audience to be seeing me. And make no bones about it: While technique and talent are important, they’ll only take you so far. If your performance is heartless, technique won’t save you – your audience will brush you off and never remember you, but more importantly, you’ll never connect with them. If you’re a conceited asshole on top of that, no one will want to work with you.