Music has been a huge part of me getting better mentally the past few years, but I’ve found pretty much nobody is that interested in hearing me play, and I’ve further noticed that nobody is interested in hearing anyone play anything outside of music they’ve already heard a gajillion times the exact way they’ve heard it a gajillion times, and that does not interest me at all.

Doesn’t hurt that I play mostly French and Spanish songs in the United States (guitar, naturally).

I’ve been to a few open mics. The “best” one was just really cliquey. Another one was really isolated was just heartbreakingly isolated–that is, people would sit at their tables, go up and play, and then sit down again alone at the tables, and maybe someone might come up and say, “nice set.” Why bother?

I also haven’t run into much possibility for collaboration. Everyone once in a while, I might run into sax player, but basically everyone is playing guitar or maybe keyboard and just wants to play and sing solo, unless they’re dating someone that wants to sing. I keep dabbling in clarinet and lap steel just so I can eventually have something else to offer musically, but don´t know who would take me up on it.

Music used to be a social pursuit, I understand, but I’m kinda coming to grips with it being an almost absolutely solitary pursuit at this point. Like, I don’t think about performing anymore, I just play for myself, and it just makes me a little bit sad.

Any ideas or suggestions?

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I think the language barrier is huge for a lot of people, which I guess I don’t get because I find most of the English lyrics I hear might as well be nonsense syllables. We get it: you’re in love. For fuck’s sake. And I find I usually can’t really understand any of the French songs until I sit down and read the lyrics with a dictionary next to me, but I still fall in love with the songs, so I guess I feel like I’m not asking the audience to do anything I wouldn’t do.

      I have a friend who tells me I should just translate the songs, but that’s not the way songs work! Listening to a Billy Joel interview with Rick Beato and Joel is talking about writing Honesty. He said he knew the song has to be “something-something-ee”–that is three syllables ending with ee–and he drummer immediately offered, “sodomy” as a lyric. In a panic, because he knew “sodomy” would get stuck in his head, he came up with “honesty” immediately, despite him acknowledging he was a lying sack of shit that should by no rights be writing a song about honesty, and the song was by force of phonetics born.

      That sort of gives me SOME support for words-as-music-not-meaning, but I’m afraid it’s a dead letter with most audiences.

      But language trips me up constantly. Like I have a cover of a 70’s folk song, but I feel like it needs a spoken introduction in Spanish. I can’t help it. If I want to be authentic and true to myself, that’s just how it goes. I’ll play around with adding an english chorus or a spanish verse to some songs, too.

        • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          The advice I’ve heard from troubadours is nobody is there to hear you talk, but I’m guessing those are guys that make their living playing Hall & Oates and other songs everybody knows (I love Hall & Oates btw). Not a bad idea to try to make a personal connection with the audience so they can make a personal connection to unfamiliar music.