critcism conversations

Its been a busy couple of months. I’ve now finished my graduate degree, and am technically out in the real world now. I recently just got back from a music festival, and now have some auditions and a few gigs lined up. For those of you who don’t know, music festivals are places musicians go during the summer to play (typically musicians who don’t yet have a full time jobs, but depending on the caliber of the festival, this is not always the case). They are located all over the country and the world, and vary in their scope as to what they do, how big they are, who will be there, and how they are run. They’re typically (but not always) in nice, wealthy or touristy areas, and usually serve as a tourist attraction for the location. Depending on the festival, the perks can range from being a job in which the musicians are paid and otherwise do what they want when not in rehearsals or performances, to the complete opposite side of the spectrum where you have to pay to attend, and must participate in master classes, coachings, lessons, etc. in addition to rehearsing and performing (in essence, a summer school). Regardless, festivals are usually pretty nice for the musicians, since we probably wouldn’t otherwise visit the places they’re in, and it gives us something to do during the summer (and hopefully make a little money). Anyway, I began thinking the other day after listening to someone talking about their thoughts on a conductor. Why is it that musicians, seemingly more so that other people, always seem to feel the need to give, and often argue, their criticism of something? I’m not just talking about what they think of piece, a conductor, a teacher, a lesson, a festival, management, but it often gets down to even non musical things…like analyzing movies, a meal, a restaurant, how someone said something. It seems musicians are trained to develop a thought/criticism/feeling on everything…to find the good, and find the bad in whatever it is they’re doing or observing. It seems as though nothing can ever just be enjoyed for what it is…never just listened to, absorbed. A judgment always seems to need to be made. Even if you don’t want to participate in one of these conversations (which, if you have ever sat around with musicians, it is inevitable that these judgment conversations will arise), you will feel the need to participate, especially if you don’t agree with what is being said. This environment leads you to make these opinions and judgments, which you may never have wanted to make in the first place. Secondly, not only did you not want to make the opinions, but you’ll find yourself making them before conversations even arise, so that you won’t need to figure it out when someone wants to challenge you on it.

I suppose it derives from our field. In order for ourselves to improve as musicians, we constantly need to be listening to each other, and more importantly to ourselves: making judgments and criticisms, finding what is good and bad, and figuring out what needs to be fixed. I suppose if we didn’t do that, we would be stagnant, and never improve. It also tends to stem, I believe, from the lack of professionalism and structure that the music business often fails to live up to, compared to the business world on the “outside.” It becomes overwhelming, I suppose, when you are constantly listening to others’ thoughts on a conductor, piece, management, or something. You may have a gut feeling about something, such as a piece when its over, as we all do…but why is there are always this need to discuss and argue it? And as I say, it often turns into arguments, when if you think about it, all you’re arguing over is something very trivial and opinionated anyway. A musician’s mindset is often one that is seeking perfection and that whatever is being performed can probably be better. This may or may not be healthy, but hopefully is and will lead to improvement. However, when we are being analyzed by others, the mindset that you must find something wrong may be unhealthy. What if there is nothing wrong? Maybe the passage was played in a perfectly acceptable manner, but perhaps wasn’t exactly along the lines that specific listener was looking for. True, more than likely, whatever was played wasn’t played perfectly, and suggesting a different interpretation is always acceptable…but you can see where I’m going with this. When is something good enough? Regardless, I always find it refreshing to sit and have conversations with non musicians. At least they seem to be able to have conversations about things other than criticizing what they do.