sports vs. music

I love watching sports, and have been doing so a lot these past few days…and will continue to do so in the next few weeks, as we are in the midst of March Madness: a fantastic competition of college students playing to win a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and ultimately win the championship. Just a note: although I do enjoy watching this tournament, I’m not one of those people who thinks college sports are way better than professional sports. I mean when it comes down to it, while the games can be exciting especially during the post season, unless its one of the top teams, they really make a lot of mistakes. Missed shots, botched plays, etc. I mean, they’re students, not professionals…that’s fine. But often people say, “But at least they’re playing with heart and not for the money,” and I say, “No, they’re playing with heart to get the money.” This may or may not be true, but, especially when you’re looking at the top teams, you can bet the players are playing for a spot in the NBA. A small tangent.

Anyway, when I’m watching sports, I’m often comparing it to music. Whether its thinking about how they practice, what they’re thinking during the game, how they react under pressure, etc. Obviously many books have been written and other comparisons have been made when it comes to the psychological and mental aspects of sports relating to music. Of course, it almost always goes that way….sports to music, and rarely the other way. Can you imagine during a basketball practice a coach referencing musicians to some aspect of their sports’ practice or athletes reading books on how musicians practice? “If you guys would just practice your free throws like musicians practice their scales, maybe we’d win our next game!” Highly doubtful. I wonder why that is. They’re often doing that to us in master classes, lessons, and other training we go through. It doesn’t bother me, as it often helps…its just interesting. Regardless, there seems to be a close connection between the two. They’re both forms of entertainment, but music tends to lack the competitive aspect, and doesn’t tend to draw the crowds or attention (probably due to the lack of competition in performances, as this is what draws the crowds) that sports does. Obviously we musicians don’t get the monetary perks that most professional sports athletes have, but then again, we don’t have the exorbitant fines they often receive too, thank goodness. Unfortunately we don’t have the endorsement perks, signing bonuses, (free) personal trainers, or other benefits and help they have either. All these things annoy me. But I think what makes me the most annoyed is their reward, whether monetary, fame or whatever else, for the work, skill, or talent that is, lets say, equal to, the work, skill, or talent necessary to be a truly successful musician. Granted, the chances of becoming a professional athlete are slim, and are very competitive. But then again, so is becoming a successful musician. In fact, I’d argue its harder, takes more work, costs you more money, pays a heck of a lot less, and may or may not be less rewarding. While there is a draft for most sports every year, you’d be lucky if there were four good auditions (four spots) for a position of your instrument every year in an orchestra, at which every musician who plays that instrument and is actually pursuing getting a job will be there (and not just college aged musicians, but grown people who either don’t have a job still, or want a new one). Not only this, but they might not even be spots in great orchestras, or well paying positions…regardless, there will still be a whole lot of hopeless musicians there. To be a soloist is even more ridiculous…perhaps more rewarding monetarily, but crazy hard to achieve the status, let alone keep it. Not only this, but music demands less mistakes and is less forgiving than sports. Sports will allow for a missed free throw here and there, a missed shot, a botched pass, a bad game, a bad week, even a bad season….heck, look at A-Rod…the guy sucked for like half the season, granted he got some flack for it, but he still made ridiculous amounts of money, and kept his job. Music…not so much. First of all, an audition for a job won’t really allow for a mistake. They all say you can make a mistake and still win, and sure, you could probably crack something, but certainly not again, and definitely nothing major. When it comes to the job, you might be able to miss note here or there, but not again, or you’ll get looks. And it better not happen much…or you’ll be getting a talk. That’ll happen even if you’re playing out of tune, or say hitting all the notes, but your sound starts to suck. I certainly don’t think someone should be able to get away with schlock playing, but when comparing it to sports, it seems so trivial. Whatever…I’ll still go on watching sports, and enjoying them, and I’ll definitely keep playing music, and hopefully enjoying that too. So, unless someone figures out how to get 50,000 people to consistently attend classical music concerts (at a stadium I guess), get people to wear XYZ Orchestra ‘jerseys,’ start selling beer and hot dogs at the Opera Café, have an Orchestra Super Bowl, and maybe having some sort of Classical American Idol, it looks like things are just going to have to stay that way.