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Hi! I'm Courtney and I want to talk about something that I think affects a whole lot of
musicians
and that's competitiveness.
Now, I don't mean, like,
chair challenges or when you go to a state or regional competition and
actually
perform for prizes. I mean
the dumb kind of competition.
The one where
you measure your own success against other people. A little competition is
healthy in just about everything.
You know, sometimes,
you see someone else progressing and it pushes you to do better, and then you both improve, but...
when you just get
angry or jealous that someone else has improved
and then you try and tear them down no one
wins.
So what's the point? Singers are especially guilty of this, I've known plenty of
instrumentalists who do it, but...
singers tend to be a bit more
bit--VICIOUS! :)
And I think it's because we interact directly,
we don't
have a section or a chair.
Instrumentalist may measure themselves by what chair they're in, but at the end of the
day you all play the same music.
Singers go up for roles and for solos
all the time which means that we have a little bit more
direct competition with one another. I still don't understand why people
would measure at their own success against other peoples'.
And then to take it the next step further, I don't understand it when
people claim that other people don't like them because they're jealous.
Speaking from experience if people don't like you they probably have a lot
more reasons than jealousy. Just...
putting it out there.
Recently,
I wound up having a conversation that was less of a conversation more like
a rant? ... No,
"rant" implies that one person was talking. I tried to start it as a conversation,
but...
I don't know where the breakdown happened.
But the point is: I was trying to talk to this soprano and
what wound up happening was
instead of listening to what I was saying she took it as an accusation
and then she said
basically that other people don't like her because they're
jealous because she's improving
and her teacher says that's gotta be why they're
so not nice to her.
And then...
she basically told me, after I had gone out of my way to try and make sure that
she and two other people knew their music for an ensemble that we were
ALL in,
"Well, I know you think you're BETTER than everyone, but..."
(If you want to get in a fight with a girl that's the
first thing you say.)
Thankfully I have more self control than an infant and and I simply told her to
go about her business and went back to my friends.
Well, it occurs to me later on: she really didn't have any friends to turn to because
she does things like this.
I don't understand it.
I don't understand being one of those girls that measures yourself against
other people because
no one will be happy.
you can't measure your own success against someone else's range,
or someone else's tone, or someone else's skill, or how difficult someone else's
music is. Because the end of the day?
You are in two different places in your lives and your training! Ok?
I really don't get the whole competition thing as long as
there's no actual prize on the line? I don't get measuring yourself against
other people unless
you're both benefiting from it. So...
I kinda want other opinions! Maybe make a response video or leave me some
comments? Let me know what you think about competition amongst singers and
instrumentalists. Do you think it's healthy? Do you think it's detrimental?
Do you think there's a certain point where you can't be friends anymore because the
competition gets so bad from one person?
So leave a comment down below or message me?
Let me know what you think about competition.