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Are you musically frustrated with yourself?
Are you not the musician that you want to
be? Or not as good as you could be or should
be? Do you look with envy at other musicians
who are doing what you wish you could be
doing? Does reaching your musical goals seem
out of reach?
I think just about everyone has had these
thoughts go through their mind from time to
time. Fortunately, you are not alone and
there are things you can do to combat the
negativity of frustration. Many of the great
masters of music have been frustrated at
times with their own musical abilities. I've
provided four (4) examples from famous
classical composers:
1. Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827)
worked for long periods of time on his
compositions before completing them. He
revised his pieces over and over again,
reworking them, doubting his original
efforts. This was almost unheard of in
Beethoven's time. Many of you may already
know that Beethoven gradually became deaf
later in his life. Because of this,
Beethoven quit performing as a pianist in
1814 (13 years before his death). He stopped
composing in 1815.
2. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was so
frustrated with his composing abilities that
he spent twenty-one (21) years composing his
first symphony!!! He felt as if he could
never compose a symphony as well as
Beethoven. Brahms kept starting over with
his symphony, revising it, abandoning it,
starting over, reworking it, etc.
3. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) (master of
symphonies), revised his symphonies and
other works after having doubts about what
he had composed originally. Mahler kept
revising his works until his death. It must
have been frustrating to keep revising
pieces that were already published.
4. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) actually
stopped composing for about 30 years because
he felt that he had run out of new musical
ideas. He doubted his abilities to compose
anything worthwhile at the height of his
popularity. He worked on new music for those
30 or so years, sketching his ideas during
the day and throwing them away every time.
That is some very serious frustration!
Beethoven began composing again in 1817.
Many of his most important compositions are
from this last period in his life. Beethoven
broke new ground and had done things never
before done in music once he began working
again. Had he continued to let the
frustrations of his deafness paralyze him
musically, Beethoven would not be as highly
regarded as he is to this day.
After the twenty-one (21) period of
composing his first symphony, Brahms felt
relieved. The shadow of Beethoven was lifted
enough to allow Brahms to move forward. He
finally found a way to move on and deal with
his frustrations. He completed his next
symphony in less than one year.
Frustration can be help you or hurt you
depending on how you deal with it. As you
can see, Beethoven and Brahms eventually
found positive ways to deal with their
frustration and overcame it. Unfortunately,
Sibelius never did. He is perhaps the most
extreme example of a person who let
frustration destroy him musically. Sadly, he
died without finishing any substantial music
compositions during the last 30 years of his
life!
When I was a teenager, some friends of
mine (all guitar players) and I went to see
Yngwie Malmsteen perform in Chicago. After
the concert had finished, some of my friends
made comments about how they felt depressed
after hearing Yngwie and that they just
wanted to quit playing guitar completely. We
were all young and knew how much better
Yngwie was as a musician than we were. The
main difference between their reaction and
mine was they let their awe for Yngwie
frustrate them to the point of feeling
hopeless in their efforts to become better
players. Many of my friends stopped playing
their guitars for several days, one of them
actually did quit completely.
My reaction to the event was quite
different. I used my awe for Yngwie as a
massive positive inspiring force. I was so
inspired that I went straight home and
practiced through the night until I couldn't
keep my eyes open any longer.
The point here is not to seek to avoid
frustration, but to use it to your
advantage. I have always turned my own
musical frustrations as the biggest source
of motivation. I was always looking for
other players to jam with that were better
than I was. Of course that was easy to do
when I was a beginner and became
increasingly more difficult over the years
that followed. I got a lot out of those
experiences.
In a past article I wrote on
perseverance, I wrote of the importance of
believing in yourself and not giving up. I
don't want to be too redundant here, but
those points are worth mentioning briefly
again.
Too often players don't ever reach their
own potential because they feel they
couldn't measure up to other players or
their own expectations. Why compare yourself
to others. Does it really matter if you are,
or are not, as good as someone else? Of
course not. Music should not be thought of
as a competitive sport. It is, and should
be, an art. All that really matters is how
well you are able to express yourself.
Therefore the only question should be this:
Do you currently have the skills to express
yourself fully in music?
As much as I have never liked or
respected Nirvana'a
singer/songwriter/guitarist, Kurt Cobain, I
must admit that he was able to express
himself fairly well. Despite the fact that
Kurt's musical skills were primitive and
very limited, one could hear his personality
come through his music. It didn't matter
that he was not a good guitarist. It didn't
matter that his knowledge of music theory
was probably close to zero. It also didn't
matter that he played out of tune and had an
absolutely sloppy guitar technique.
Fortunately for him, what he wanted to
express didn't require any of the skills
that most musicians generally consider to be
good and necessary. Had Kurt wanted to
express anything more significant or complex
he would have been extremely frustrated
because he didn't have a lot of musicianship
skills beyond what could be heard in his
music. So in the end, it worked out well for
him and my guess is that he probably wasn't
very frustrated with himself musically
because he wasn't trying to be a better
guitarist, songwriter or singer than anyone
else. He didn't make those types of
comparisons between himself and the rest of
the music world. This is, in my opinion, the
only significant thing to that we can all
follow. Of course Kurt Cobain's approach to
not caring about those comparisons is
certainly not a new idea, countless others
before and after him have also done so. He
is used here as an example because most
everyone during our time knows him.
In my own life, the thought of quitting
guitar early on did occur in my mind
(although never very seriously). As a
teenager, I too was frustrated when I
thought I may never become a virtuoso
guitarist (like Yngwie or Jason Becker) and
may never become a master composer (like
Bach or Chopin). When I stopped trying to
compete with everyone else and made new
goals of self-expression, everything
changed. I stopped making comparisons to
other guitarists, composers and songwriters,
because with my new goal, those comparisons
did little or nothing to serve my new quest
to simply express myself fully through
music. I felt liberated from the burden of
having to compete with the rest of the
world. Beginning in the early 1990s, my only
focus was on gaining more of the skills,
tools, etc. that I would need to express
what I had inside me.
In my case, what I want to express does
require a high level of guitar and
compositional virtuosity, musical complexity
and integrity, etc. Because I need those
skills, my journey to reach a higher level
of musicianship has taken a lot more time,
effort, studying, etc. than it did for
someone like Kurt Cobain who had very
different needs to express himself than
mine.
Most musicians who will read this will
have much greater musical ambitions than
Kurt Cobain and so for you, you will feel
frustrated whenever you feel limited by your
abilities. The key is to use that as a
positive force in the form of motivation and
inspiration. Masters of all types of art
have gone through what you are going
through. Today you are at whatever skill
level you are at. Through your frustration
and motivation, you will eventually reach
your current goals. As you reach those goals
you will probably still feel frustrated
because your desire to improve even further
will make you establish new goals for
yourself. And so the cycle will go on and
on. But you too are progressing and
improving on and on....
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