ethics of musicianship

When I moved to LA, I happened to see that a lot of people didn’t take music as seriously as I always did: I would happen to bump into a show, at a bar or at a street event, and listen to the bands that would play.

Out of tune guitars, off beat drums and debatable singing (not to mention, many of them players were clearly under the influence): I remember I was surprised, who would hire such a band? I also thought “if this is what I have to compete with, it’s gonna be smooth sailing!”

I couldn’t be more wrong: I soon would realize that quality was not something that people would value as much as other countries I lived in, not only many musicians, but audiences too. And venue owners, what do they care, as long as the band brings a crowd and packs the house?

Then it hit me: not everybody is trying to make a living out of music. Some people would just be happy to play for a few bucks or for free, not really putting their time, effort and money in perfecting their skills or crafting their sound. It would make sense if they were kids, as of course no one can expect to be paid thoroughly from the get go without previous field work, but these were adults.

It made me ever more mad, to think that those people would still have opportunities. Mind you, it doesn’t have anything to do with the genre one plays, I love every music genre, as long as it’s performed with proper professional attitude.

Not only I would hear about people playing shows for little to no money, but some would also agree to “pay to play”: it started to sound ridiculous (not unheard of, but still). C’mon, venue owners acting like they’re doing you a favor to allow you to play in their venue?

I soon realized that, maybe because of my musical background, I was different, not better, just different from such musicians: I always took music very seriously, to the point of not taking gigs if I realized it was too much effort or drama for me. I also quit working with some musicians at some stage because, even though it would have been profitable, I wouldn’t have wanted to be associated with them and their toxic personality.

Thankfully later, I got to hear and play with amazing bands and musicians too. One day I would like to share my LA favorites with you!

Sometimes, maybe because they ‘re young, some musicians don’t realize the damage they’re doing to themselves, and I know because I made such mistakes myself, in my youth. Let me enlighten you with an example.

When I was a kid, I wanted to bee seen at all costs, and I thought it would have been cool to be seen singing and playing guitar, so I wrote and recorded a song called “It’s over”, then somehow (I really don’t know how) that song won a contest and I got the opportunity to make a music video. It was the cringiest video, it sounded and looked bad, so much that there’s comments of people saying “What a loser!” and “Your mum called and said turn that stuff down”. You can go check it out yourselves, if you feel like literally hurting your ears.

The thing is, after establishing myself as a bass player, I tried to get that video deleted from YouTube, but since it was uploaded by someone else and they lost their credentials to access their account, it became impossible, even trying to get YouTube to remove it, as it says “there is no violation of the Privacy Guidelines”.

At the time I thought I was doing something “grand”, a guy from a small Italian city singing in (broken) English, but it got old and I regret it, to think that if people look up my name on YouTube, that aberration of a video is the first thing that pops up.

A testament to the fact that one should be mindful about the things they do today, as laziness and lack of professionalism can backfire at anytime at a later stage. In synthesis: hold yourself to a higher standard, practice, don’t play for spare change.