So far, this column has been all about the magical and auspicious elements that come together to create musical moments and experiences, but what happens when it seems like nothing is aligning? It\u2019s like those days we all have when things just don\u2019t seem to be working out and we feel like maybe we just shouldn\u2019t have left the house. It\u2019s those times where you sit down to write a song and the creative process just isn\u2019t flowing, so you stop frustrating yourself with trying, and choose to step away for now.<\/p>\n
In particular, though, I\u2019d like to touch upon what I have always felt as one of the most elusive aspects of being a working musician. It\u2019s those times when you show up to play a packed house but somehow no one listens to the music. Thankfully, it\u2019s rare, because even in a room full of patrons, there\u2019s always at least a handful of folks that will appreciate and make up for the others. Of course we all want to play the shows where everyone is there to support us, but if a non-famous musician is making a living as a full-time artist, sometimes performances happen at a venue that is not expressly a music venue, which can be very beneficial for making new fans and experiencing spontaneous moments of musical connection and appreciation.<\/p>\n
This is why it\u2019s so disheartening to play for what I like to call a \u201cdead room.\u201d No matter what you do, what songs you play, how talented you are, how awesome your equipment is, and how loud you might turn things up, you just might as well be in your living room playing for your cat. I, for one, certainly don\u2019t take these kinds of gigs personally. I like to use the metaphor of being a nice inviting fire and if no one wants to come in close to warm their soul, then that\u2019s their loss.<\/p>\n
The most baffling thing, however, is when connecting to the music isn\u2019t a choice. When the \u201croom is dead,\u201d it\u2019s like you\u2019re invisible to the eyes and hearts of the people there\u2026 or rather they simply can\u2019t see the possibility of tapping into the music because maybe they never have. Maybe music has no real value or importance in their lives. It\u2019s just a voice on their phone or ambient noise at work; it\u2019s something that can accompany a long drive or complement a dinner. It’s not a real person at the winery or brewery actually doing the thing in real time. It\u2019s not an entertainer that the venue has so graciously hired to provide musical relief. When the music has nowhere to go and nothing to bounce off of, it seems like it just won\u2019t ignite. It\u2019s not a waste of a fire. It just didn\u2019t really rage, and all those elements just get thrown back into the alchemical musical cauldron to be remixed and re-enlivened for next time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve known musicians that decide this working musician thing isn\u2019t for them because of the this. Everything in this column is really just speculation, because I\u2019ll never really understand the dead room phenomena. In my case, though, it\u2019s not something that would deter me from the craft. It\u2019s more just one of those things I don\u2019t like about the job sometimes. I think if we are truly committed to making a living as a music artist, we have to learn to put our ego aside and embrace that we are in service to the world. Talent is an honor and most of us are incredibly grateful to make a living doing what we love. Touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So far, this column has been all about the magical and auspicious elements that come together to create musical moments and experiences, but what happens when it seems like nothing is aligning? It\u2019s like those days we all have when things just don\u2019t seem to be working out and we feel like maybe we just shouldn\u2019t have left the house. It\u2019s those times where you sit down to write a song and the creative process just isn\u2019t flowing, so you stop frustrating yourself with trying, and choose to step away for now. In particular, though, I\u2019d like to touch upon what I have always felt as one of the most elusive aspects of being a working musician. It\u2019s those times when you show up to play a packed house but somehow no one listens to the music. Thankfully, it\u2019s rare, because even in a room full of patrons, there\u2019s always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-alchemy-of-music"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25660,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25659\/revisions\/25660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}