> NOW- the thrust of this is : If I did not enter these competitions > I > would not put forth the effort to learn, understand, express and > perfect. I would only learn and play - and it would be acceptable for > my audiences. I love performing more than I do competing, but the > competing , I believe make me a better performer! > Thanks, Toby fo all the great comments and information you share! > Mary Umbarger > Harmony, NC
It sounds like you're getting some real positive benefits out of them, which is really great.. Probably because you're able to keep the whole idea of the competition in very reasonable perspective. Alot of people wouldn't be able to keep that reasonable perspective (including myself), which is why I'm not up on musical competitions. They would be very dangerous for me. I admit, I probably wouldn't be able to keep a reasonable perspective about them if I were to allow myself to take part in them. I would end up sitting up all night, every night, practicing those tunes till my fingers bled (which I've actually done before). That wouldn't be healthly for me or for my music. If it doesn't come through in email :-) I'll let you know that I have sort of an intense, fiery, focused personality. I guess you could say I've never been one for half-measures :-) It makes developing certain abilities come easy for me, but it makes it so very easy to lose perspective on things. As I've started to get a little older, I've developed coping mechanisms for dealing with my own personal intensity. For instance, I decided that I wanted to get away from being a "fiddle player" (which I spent a number of years doing very religiously) and focus more on being a musician that plays music on various instruments, including the fiddle. So I've made a decision to consider the forest, instead of focusing on the trees. So now my music has become a comforting creative outlet, whereas at times in the past, it was basically a caber toss. This is healthly for me. I'm actually having alot of fun with it again. Whereas in the past, the fun somehow got squeezed out in the all-out effort to get "good".. The interesting thing is, now that I don't care whether I play well or not, playing comes an awful lot easier.. BTW, some of my ancestors immigrated from Scotland to Western North Carolina. My relatives live in Statesville, Granite Falls and Boone. All of which are a stone's throw from the little town of Harmony, NC. where you live. I used to drive up through there twice a month on my way to Winston-Salem. It's a small world. -- Toby Rider ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) "He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That puts it not unto the touch To win or lose it all." - James Graham, Marquis of Montrose Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
