That there below is a picture with all the musicians who performed at this competition I judged at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad a couple of years ago. Incredible talent! I'm looking forward to some really cool music coming from these guys in the years to come!
That said, as far as music competitions go (or any kind of art competition for that matter), as promised, here are my remarks:
They don't make any sense at all 😊! Music is not about competing, it's about expressing yourself, finding other people who you vibe with, then expressing collectively. Every musician has his or her own personality, every band has its own personality, and the point is to bring that out to the fullest extent possible and put it out there.
Likewise with theatre competitions, likewise with
art competitions, likewise with dance competitions. Why bring the coarseness of comparisons, evaluations and competitiveness in fields that are essentially about expressing humanity? If you love your
art, then just work on it with all your heart and soul just for the love of it
and put it out there, and make the world a more beautiful place to live in!
Just figure out what you love, find your calling, and pour yourself heart and
soul into it. Work hard, work very very hard, but do so for the love of it, to
make this world a more beautiful place, a more livable place not to get a first prize in some competition 😊!
As the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok famously remarked: "Competitions are for horses, not artists."
Then when we are old fuddy duddies (as an erstwhile colleague used to remark
good humouredly) and hobble about on our walking sticks (my addition 😊), we
can tap our sticks on the floor and go "Oh yeah, you bet I've
"lived"!".
That's what it's about man 😊! Or at least that's my conviction and that's how
I live my life 😊!
It's about Jammin' 😊. Not Competin' 😊!
PS-1: Don't even get me started on those god forsaken personality and beauty
competitions 😏! If you are being authentic, are beautiful within and are
living with energy and zest and loving people around you, you are beautiful,
you have a rocking personality 😊! And that's that 😊!
PS-2: The purpose of this post is to emphasize a thought process. Yet, if you are an artist who needs to compete in order to survive and thrive in today's world, then you need to do that. It's a rough world for art and artists anyway. Don't compromise with your art - but don't harm yourself by not participating either.
A school teacher I know had this to say when I shared this article with her:
ReplyDelete"The competitive streak is so ingrained that when I involve my students in any activity they want to know who the winner is. They get disappointed when I say that whatever I plan will always be more about collaboration than competition. They simply don’t understand the need to perform and have fun. For them fun is when they win over others. So it makes my job super tough :-/!"