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Kent Lassiter's avatar

Wow. Another great article Shane

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Jan Peters's avatar

I definitely confer with these wise words of wisdom. Although the inner critic when performing live does still rear his gnarly head at times, I have learned to not believe him.

There are certain negative type of mental patterns, whether it's regarding our musical performance or something entirely else, that we may never be completely rid of. But we can definitely learn to smile at the critic, and say something like thanks but no thanks, or simply cultivate an inner smile that is founded in knowing that this in our head doesn't get to define the day. Doesn't get to rob us of why we are on stage in the first place, the joy of performing and with beloved bandmates.

Perhaps a tad ironically, this reminds me of another type of negative voice that can arise in me regarding other players.

In short, the other gigging harmonica players around here are lazy - they don't truly care about their bends, and they don't push themselves to learn and grow when not on stage. They are in default mode, and I have let that really bother me because I feel like it does our instrument a disservice.

But you are right, the majority of audiences don't care what you play, they care how you play it.

This one guy around here in particular is always impressing people, but he doesn't even know how to play in the chord, from one moment to another, just sucking and blowing with a big sound because he's a big guy with a huge jaw. He has no knowledge of how to play even a simple blues progression, he just does the same riffs, especially relying on and over using the four draw bend, the easiest bend of them all. Pretty much only serious harmonica players and real blues musicians would even notice, or care…

But this is another type of negative voice I am learning to let go of, to not give a fuck about, because it doesn't matter, and it has nothing to do with me.

And to cap off what I was saying and relating to about that inner critic attempting to ruin the party, another way of putting it is this:

I've learned that even when I know I've done a passage or bend that didn't come out as I heard and felt it in the moment, the way I meant it in the moment, to take a deep breath and bring all my love and attention into the next note, the next phrase, the next bend.

Greatly appreciate your writings, and of course your wonderful playing.

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