For the Love of the Art

Almost 2 weeks ago, an article was published in the Straits Times, Life! section - front page - about how there are too many live music venues in Singapore, and not enough good quality musicians.

Before even reading the article, I wondered to myself - where are Singaporeans GOING to listen to music???

In my opinion, upon returning to Singapore after 6 years abroad, 2 of which were in Bangkok, the quality of music here has improved and is increasingly encouraging to the fledgling musician.

So I tried to put my immediate doubts aside and read the article as unbiasedly as possible.

Several valid points were brought to my attention.

Musicians: More venues are hiring musicians and offering live music to attract customers. As a gigging musician looking for work, this is definitely not something to complain about - as in ANY job market, the availability of jobs helps create more demand. It may seem that the supply of good musicians is small..., but c'mon Singapore, give human beings time to learn and grow! We spend years and years studying in schools to receive paper creditations and appropriate skills for jobs... but more often than not, the gigging musician is in it for the love of music and performing. Not because they have a pHd in Gigging. So giving musicians time and support to improve is vital.

But also, musicians - hey! it's time to work harder and try to improve in more areas musically... don't grow complacent just because one audience likes 5 of your songs. haha... Take pride in your skill - try to offer more, don't let a bit of criticism or the occasional setback demoralize you too much. Instead, let it be a stepping stone to further achievement and success! :)

Audiences: Your energy and feedback helps musicians in their performances! How many of you love to sing at KTV lounges? Fun?

Well, imagine that your friends ask you to get up there and sing - you pick your favourite most best-loved number - the one you've practised singing in the shower a million times, and know you can belt with full confidence. You muster up your confidence and get up to sing... and realize - the microphone is not on. Oh wait, yes it is - just that the volume is at +1. You ask them to turn the volume up - but the waitress says, sorry - the table next to you thinks you're too loud. So they turned you down.

OK, nevermind - you can sing louder.

So you do.

You can barely hear your voice coming out of the sound system...

And as you sing, you notice your friends are not listening - they're just talking to each other.

In fact, they're talking in increasingly loud tones because someone is blending a mojito in the bar, and they can't hear each other over the sound of the blender.

Their voices drown out your own hardly-miked up voice. Hmmmm...

The song ends, you give your best ending note with gusto and wait for applause..... except none comes. What? Were you singing out of tune? Was the microphone still too soft? Arghh.... you NEVER want to sing in front of people again!!!

Well, let's just say - this is often somewhat of a similar scenario to the gigging musician - there are so many factors that audiences are not aware of.

The times when musicians perform better are when: the audience is actually looking at them, feedback (ie. applause at the end of a song), song requests, smiles, etc. -- stage performers feed off the energy of people in the audience. Just go to ANY rock concert and you'll see that.

You can help the morale and even quality of the stage performer by being kind and respectful of what's going on on stage. :)

Venues: Hire with wisdom, compensate honorably, treat us respectfully. One thing mentioned in said article was that song repertoires are often too repetitive or narrow in genre. To this, I can only say: You get what you pay for.

What motivates people to work harder at their jobs?

Compensation.

What happens if, at your job, your boss starts to demand more of you - maybe they send you for workshops or trainings, or say that if you hit a certain target, you will get a bonus or maybe even a promotion.

Question is: Do these incentives exist in the gigging circles?

I mean, don't full-time musicians deserve the same sort of incentives and motivation?

If a repertoire needs to be expanded, this means more research and learning time, rehearsal time, and effort! Will a musician want to learn 100 more songs for a venue if there is no motivation?

Don't get me wrong - many musicians DO keep learning new songs and improving their techniques, etc. But this is NOT always because we are getting paid more. We do it because we LOVE our jobs. We do it for the love of music and for professional integrity.... or even cuz we're bored of our own songs. Yeah, please stop requesting Hotel California, Love Me, and Britney Spears songs... PLEASE!!! :p

Support: Instead of saying "oh the music scene in Singapore is sad and lacks support", what can ANY ONE PERSON do to help? Honestly, this is SO much easier to answer than you'd think.

*Appreciate what we've got. Stop comparing us to the bigwigs in the American entertainment industry - oh please, like I wouldn't be a Lady GaGa too if I had millions of dollars pumped into publicity, audio engineering, wardrobe, etc. *Learn to actually listen. Yes, I know - you went to the restaurant for DINNER, not for a concert of some unknown Singaporean singer.... but hey, listen every now and then. Smile, and it could perk up some tired performer's entire gig! *Support local music.This sounds kinda vague, but it's really not: Free concert? Try to make time out of your super-busy work schedule to go to at least one per year. Free downloads, facebook pages, check them out - c'mon, you know you peruse the websites of plenty an overseas artiste, why not our own?? Share them with your friends - YES, there is PLENTY of good local original music. And spanning many different genres too!

Heard of a local artist who's launched an album? Give the artist a chance - buy the album - it's someone's livelihood, and most artistes here are independent and could use ALL the help they can get! *Be kind & tolerant. Like I said earlier - everyone's gotta start somewhere. Many gigging musicians learn and grow a LOT musically over the years they gig. They often start out raw and scratchy, but a decade later, are all over the papers and radio. Next time you hear an out-of-tune note, just smile and give the person a chance - they're probably still in Gigging Kindergarten, so to speak. :) *Requests originals!!We know, we know - we know you LOVE us to cover your favourite song by that popular American/UK band... but show us your love & support by asking us to play an original instead - many or rather MOST musicians I know are creative muses and have plenty of lovely original music, just waiting to be appreciated. Who knows, you might be the first to hear an original song by an artist whose concert ticket might one day cost you a good $200! One good example - a friend of mine once mentioned that she in New York years ago, and wanted to catch a free concert of some unknown singer... but missed it due to a change in schedule. Guess who the singer turned out to be? Alicia Keys. (Of course the free concert was back when Alicia Keys was just... yes, a PUB singer.) Heh. So... forgive me for airing my humble opinions and quite possibly sounding a tad more than frustrated when an article on the front page of the national newspaper cites that musicians here are not of standard and (most) do not work hard. I can't understand where this is coming from! And worse, I feel that the general public will further misunderstand the nature of a musician's job!:'(

Many musicians I know, as well as myself, will of course keep making music, keep striving for improvement..., regardless of the hours, lack of applause, little improvement of pay, and much misunderstanding from the general public.

Why?

I'm not exactly sure.

The job is a LOT harder than many people realize - even those closest to us (not in the same field). All we can do is continue striving for our art, and encouraging each other.

Maybe music is a balm for the soul that is its own answer....

(Here are pics of the article.. sorry, quality not so good):