Bill Harrison wrote a great piece on his blog recently elaborating on some of the issues I discussed in the latest installment of This Crazy Business. He writes:

There’s an old joke in the biz: Q: “How do you make a musician complain?” A: “Give him a job.” That is as succinct an assessment as I can imagine about this rather subversive business of making art. Even though we love to play we are constantly struggling with the practicalities of making a living doing this. Just a few of the inconvenient truths are: the unpredictability of a freelance income (never knowing when or how much you will work, how much you will be paid and when those checks might arrive); dealing with incompetent and/or arrogant conductors, band leaders, contractors and fellow sidemen; traveling to or finding the venue, parking and unloading unwieldy instruments, amps, etc; competition for gigs from other players of one’s instrument and on and on.

He also discusses life in the “zone”and how the analytic part of the brain has a difficult time grasping the power of these moments. Great stuff from Bill! Definitely check out the complete post. He’s completely right–there’s no substitute for being in the “zone”.

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