The Obstacle Is The Way

[David A. Davis]

- stop lusting for gear. It does nothing for you as a musician. It doesn't matter (though most posts in similar forums are about gear lol).

- suffer. Becoming good at something requires suffering. A lot of it. It isn't supposed to be pleasant. Seeking pleasure everywhere (i.e. dopamine shot) is 3 year old mentality. No pain, no gain. If your goal is mastery, you can't do it without suffering. If you don't suffer while practicing, you're doing it wrong and stay in your comfort zone.

- only the most disciplined of us will make it on their own. Most require strong external pressure, such as music school with tight exam schedule and despotic teacher. If you're one of the procrastinating types, you won't make it on your own. Not in a hundred years. That's the purpose of formal music education - to do things in time + achieve measurable progress.

- music is a rat race, where you have to have a killer instinct. You have to have an ambition to be better than your peers. Without that kind of drive, you'll always stay mediocre. That's another reason why formal education is necessary - there you get pitted against others of the same stage. Later you'll be competing with them for jobs, and musicianship is one of those areas where everything is clear about you after 5 minutes of picking your instrument. Uber transparent.

- Bass guitar is a very limited instrument. You have to play DB if you want to be a versatile bassist. Check out any classical concerto for DB with a decent player, and you'll see that all the Wootens and other pop stars pale down in comparison both in terms of sound, virtuosity, content, maturity, thought, complexity, and so on and so forth. That's like cello vs ukulele. Hamburgers vs gourmet. You can debate it to death, but there's no comparison really.

Pretty much everything in this post is false. Just change everything to the opposite and you will be on a much better path.

 

[Thuddy Waters]

Pretty much everything in this post is false. Just change everything to the opposite and you will be on a much better path.

Just out of curiosity, what are you disagreeing with in the following:

"- stop lusting for gear. It does nothing for you as a musician. It doesn't matter (though most posts in similar forums are about gear lol).

- suffer. Becoming good at something requires suffering. A lot of it. It isn't supposed to be pleasant. Seeking pleasure everywhere (i.e. dopamine shot) is 3 year old mentality. No pain, no gain. If your goal is mastery, you can't do it without suffering. If you don't suffer while practicing, you're doing it wrong and stay in your comfort zone.

- only the most disciplined of us will make it on their own. Most require strong external pressure, such as music school with tight exam schedule and despotic teacher. If you're one of the procrastinating types, you won't make it on your own. Not in a hundred years. That's the purpose of formal music education - to do things in time + achieve measurable progress."

 

[David A. Davis]

1. "lusting" I would consider myself a gear head. Do I "lust" for gear, no. Someone would have to show some evidence of how it hurts you as a musician.

2. "Suffer" I have never "suffered" while practicing. I think the OP may be confusing suffering with making mistakes. Compromise maybe? If you want to Master anything you have to make compromises. Time being the biggest.

3. "Discipline" people do things for one of two reasons, inspiration or desperation. Discipline is only needed if there is a lack of desire. If you really want to do something (desire) then you will do it, there's no other choice.

 

[Quinn Roberts]

1. "lusting" I would consider myself a gear head. Do I "lust" for gear, no. Someone would have to show some evidence of how it hurts you as a musician.

2. "Suffer" I have never "suffered" while practicing. I think the OP may be confusing suffering with making mistakes. Compromise maybe? If you want to Master anything you have to make compromises. Time being the biggest.

3. "Discipline" people do things for one of two reasons, inspiration or desperation. Discipline is only needed if there is a lack of desire. If you really want to do something (desire) then you will do it, there's no other choice.

I think you two are describing two very different types of musician. Me personally, I pretty much agree with the original list. However, the hobby guitarist, weekend rocker, or what have you would probably say otherwise.

 

[ErikP.Bass]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! Please keep them coming.

I listened to that Wellington clinic on Friday, lots of great stuff in there. That guy is on another level. From someone whose put in the work I'll sure take his advice. Thought it was wild that Randy Kertz was there and that they know one another.

I think something that I need to start doing is setting specific musical goals and tracking my progress towards them with a journal. Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone!