In the past week and a half, musicians I respect a lot have made these statements about me, 1) “I love how musically you play”, and “You make really great musical decisions. All the time!” And then, yesterday, another person left me this message, “Your playing is refined and deep. You are a great listener and feeler … Amazing what a difference a drummer makes” And, yes…I’m bragging about it a little bit. =)
We can’t always look for complimentary statements about our work. It’s important to always just do our best at all times. But, sometimes, things can happen that cause me to question whether what I do is worth anything to anyone but me. So, it is really nice to get positive feedback sometimes. It’s encouraging. And, if you don’t dig what I do and actually wanna keep things 100 and want to be helpful, then pull me aside and say, “Hey, brother. I would call you again, but before I can do that, I feel like I want more of this from you, or more of that from you. Perhaps you can work on that a little more and then maybe we can work together again.”
That is a constructive way to relate to folks. But, of course, it is a very un-Hollywood way of doing things. How about a paradigm shift? Can my ego take a little constructive critique? I hope so.
David, as a musician and drummer, I like your performance style. You make me look at drumming in another light. Drumming make music livelier and at the same time it can convey different emotions. You are not only drummer, but a true musician.
As a music teacher, you make music education fun especially a novice like me. I feel encouraged in music study given the time management challenge that I have. Your encouragement and patience make me feel hopeful that I can succeed one day as I do my practice and enjoy it. I become more aware of all the beautiful components of musical sounds while listening to music these days. Thank you YP.