I’m sure you have heard the old joke: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice.” Well, I know an awful lot of musicians that practice, practice, practice and they are still starving, starving, starving. All of a sudden that joke doesn’t seem so funny anymore, does it?

We’ve all heard the expression “practice makes perfect”, but is that really true? What happens if you practice something over and over again but you practice it wrong? Still perfect? I don’t think so. Now you are off to unlearn something which is actually harder than learning it right in the first place. I’m sorry, but I’m calling your 3rd grade music teacher to the carpet on this one. Practice makes perfect is a farce.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be and have anything you want to have. The bad news is that if you aren’t already doing it, being it or having it, it is 100% your fault. That’s right. I don’t mean to squash all of the excuses that help you sleep at night, but here are the facts. It’s not because you are too young, too old, too tall or too short. It’s not because of who you know or who you don’t know. It’s not because of where you live. It’s not your parents fault (even if they are nuts). It’s not even because you aren’t good enough. It is because of one of two reasons:

I received an e-mail a few weeks ago from another bass player looking to sub for me on a gig. I would imagine he’s a nice guy. Sounds like a good player. I’ll never know. His approach was so off that it really didn’t matter how nice of a guy or how good of a player he was. I never responded and I’ll tell you why. Here is the e-mail he sent me and I’m sure countless others (the only thing I changed was his name)…

For a majority of my life I have heard some variation of the phrase “get a real job” from someone once they heard that I was a musician or an entrepreneur. This little diddy comes in all different flavors, so don’t be surprised if you find it hiding behind the pseudonym of “you need something to fall back on” too. It’s all the same.