I haven't read every post in this thread, but I'd like to offer a somewhat different view of competition than the posts I've read. (I've posted this opinion in the past.)
I think competition among musicians is absolutely vital. It's one of the key ways that you get better.
When I was a kid I loved being the best harp player in the neighborhood. Other kids'd show up at the jams all cocky and I'd let them play first, and then I'd blow them away. This'll sound terrible, but I didn't feel so bad when word got around that one of them had given up the harp after hearing me.
Then one day my mentor took me to the house of a kid out on Long Island. He was 14, I had just turned 16. He was a fat little rich kid named Tom. He said, "I hear you play some harp. I do too."
I was not worried. He suggested that I whip out my axe, and I did and played my hottest stuff. Then he whipped out his axe and sliced me into little pieces. He was unbelieveable, one of the best harp players I have heard to this day.
I seethed. I couldn't stand the idea that someone was better than me, much less THAT much better than me. I decided to start hanging out with this guy until I had learned everything he knew. He liked me more than I liked him, but I wanted to learn everything he knew. We played on the streets of New York, and I would choose his toughest licks and learn the heck out of them.
This became necessary when another kid, Jon, asked if I'd show him some harp. He was a couple of years younger than me. I was happy to teach him stuff. I also taught him that the goal was to make fantastic music.
Within a year Jon had gotten pretty good. I noticed that he'd show up at the local jams gunning for me. He'd give me the "This time I'll teach YOU a thing or two" look.
I was not worried. Not only was I constantly learning Tom's licks, I had learned how to invent my own, and of course I was learning how to use them by listening to all the great hapr players on record. I'd always let Jon play first. He was really good. He'd shoot me a look, so as to say Beat That.
And I'd beat that, no problem. I had a few years on him as a player and I was learning as fast as he was.
A few years later I was at a jam with Tom and as we were walking to our cars he said the classiest thing to me. He said, "You know, when we first met you thought you were hot, but you couldn't play squat. But now you've passed me by."
Unforgettable.
I am absolutely certain that without having a deep competitive need to catch Tom, and to stay ahead of Jon, I wouldn't have become a good musician. That still took a few more years and alot more work and study, but I would never have gotten there without those guys. I'm grateful to them both. They are not famous, and I haven't heard them in years, but they are two of the best harp players I ever heard.
I have heard that when Lennon and McCartney were kids they would sit across from each other and write songs. When one of them came up with something terrific the other one is said to have smiled politely but seethed inside and was motivated to out-do the other.
Lennon and McCartney made each other as songwriters by leapfrogging each other. There were lots of good professional songwriters out there, but these guys made a point of becoming the greatest, and they didn't start that way, they competed with each other all the way to the top.
In athletics people compete to get better and better, with the goal being speed or whatever. You don't get better at basketball by playing with people who are worse than you, but by playing with people who are better. And only if you try to learn how to beat them and move on up to the next better player.
In Kansas City in the 30's if you had a gig at a nightclub and someone came in to jam, and that guy played better than you, you packed up your axe and hit the road because the other guy got the gig. You had to get better, you had to compete to get a job and put food on the table, but the result was immortal swing music, being played by a whole bunch of people whose talent would never have been realized if they had stayed back home on the farm and not competed with their betters.
I believe that we become the best musicians we can be by measuring ourselves against people who are currently better than we are.
Now the other side of this Gunslinger issue is that some people walk into the room like they can blow anyone out the window. Sometimes they can, too.
You don't have to be a schmuck like that in order to be competitive. There are over a billion posts on Harp-l where someone says "I met so-and-so famous player, and he was a really nice guy."
Be sweet and kind and help anyone who asks, but compete with your betters and you'll - um - get better. The really good players rarely act like killers. They let their music speak for itself.
Your music will be more beautiful for having done so. -Ken
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