Have you ever noticed the difference in how musicians feel about performing compared with how listeners feel about it? Most people are very appreciative of performances, but sometimes people view things very differently. There are those who presume that anyone who gets on stage is in it for the applause, or is egotistical, or a narcissist. You might be interested in a survey about this (see below).
More to the point for teachers, perhaps, is that sometimes parents or others seem to think performances only look like fun if everyone’s smiling!
To me, music is fun because it engages each person at his or her own level. It’s hard work but rewarding, and in doing that work, we learn that having fun isn’t all about smiling, relaxing or playing games. As a musician, this is probably obvious, but it’s good once in a while to think about it, and if you have an angle of your own on this, or a story to share, by all means add a comment at the end of this post.
So, to what degree is music about showing off, self-expression, self-esteem, or just plain self? Are musicians narcissists?
Drew Pinsky, a physician who cohosts Loveline, managed to get 200 celebrities to fill out a “Narcissism Personality Inventory” survey, and found that the least narcissistic celebrities were…guess who? Musicians.
The study suggests that the more actual content, discipline, and skill your work requires, the less narcissistic you are. So musicians scored low on the survey. Apparently the narcissism level of female celebrities is greater than that of men (although among noncelebrities, women generally test lower than men), and the narcissism of reality-TV stars is off the charts! This is perhaps not too surprising, since these are stars who became famous without actually needing any skill at all.
Some aspects of the music biz can involve hype, buzz, connections, status–but the bottom line is an inescapable reality check: how you sound. It’s very real. The skills of musicianship and communication of music to listeners are hard earned. And those hard-earned skills are fun. It’s fun to make progress, to be able to play music you couldn’t play before, to be able to play a piece for people just the way you want to play it.
Fun isn’t just about smiling and relaxation and games. Working hard to learn a piece of music, and performing earnestly, is fun–even without the smile!
by Stengel99 — Sat Feb 9, 2008 @ 10:53 am
by Ed Pearlman — Tue Feb 12, 2008 @ 10:16 pm