Music is not supposed to be about competition at all! Yes, in today's society, competition exists in every industry resulting in the industry only taking in the best but music is supposed to be about so much more. Music is itself unity. Music is able to activate the entire brain at one time meaning it is uniting the brain as one. Music has the power to quiet thoughts, and focus your spirit and soul into one direction. It does this because it's trying to communicate something; something that can only be understood when one's entire essence is focused into one view.
The number one thing I have always hated about the amateur music world from my experience was watching one performer perform in front of another.
Instead of supporting each other, working together or gathering inspiration from each other, they tend to compete with each other.
As soon as one amateur musician watches another perform he or she instantly compares him or herself to the other. The musician takes notes on how much better or worse he or she is compared the performer and then walks away with whatever self-esteem he or she has left after all this.
As soon as the performer begins playing, the spectator instantly begins to take notes. How much better of a guitar player is this person than me? How much better of a performer is this person than me? How much better is this person's voice than mine? How much more creative is this person's original music compared to mine?
Notice a pattern with these questions? All the questions are about comparing the performer to the spectator!
Amateur musicians will base their entire career on this fact, "If I'm not better than this person, then I don't have a chance to make it into the industry compared to this person".
This is exactly what I hate most about the music world; comparisons!
Music is not supposed to be about competition at all! Yes, in today's society, competition exists in every industry resulting in the industry only taking in the best but music is supposed to be about so much more.
Music is itself unity. Music is able to activate the entire brain at one time meaning it is uniting the brain as one. Music has the power to quiet thoughts, and focus your spirit and soul into one direction. It does this because it's trying to communicate something; something that can only be understood when one's entire essence is focused into one view.
Only when one's entire essence is focused can music communicate its magical language. Music is trying to share with us an incredible secret; the secret of unity!
Music is meant to unite us! When we each listen to the same music, we will each feel and understand its single message, whatever the writer was originally trying to express.
By listening to a writer's music, you become one with them because you feel the same things the writer felt as he or she wrote the song; you're becoming one with the writer!
This is a beautiful thing, and like all beautiful things, our world has found a way to make it ugly.
These days, all musicians seem to do is compare each other even though they should understand the unity of music better than anyone! They base their entire worth under the comparison of another and if the stats don't meet up, then they label themselves worthless.
Can't you see? It's not about who's the best or better. No musician is better than another. We each have a different story to tell and a different way of telling it. Sometimes the message comes out stronger from some musicians than others but really that depends on how much stronger that musician feels about whatever topic he or she's performing about. After all, it's only natural for a stronger expression to be felt deeper.
Anyway, the point is if musicians truly love music as much as they say they do and express it from the bottom of their heart, then no one is better because if someone was, that would be saying they are a better person all together. No one is better, just different. Music is not meant to separate the bad from the good, it's meant to unite everyone to one understanding; the understanding of the writer. Everyone has a different story to tell and if that story is told full-heartily, that that story is as beautiful as any other.