Do you become someone different when you are playing music? Or is it a different part of you than the business side? My answer is ‘yes’.
Do you become someone different when you are playing music?
This question was asked of me by a friend as we were discussing a recent podcast of mine. At first the answer sounded shallow and predictable to me, though correct. But as I thought on the subject a bit longer, there were some layers that cascaded down unto the question as I delved into it a bit deeper.
Well of course when I play my music it is still me – and the songs I’ve written represent slices of my mind and/or my heart so again it is still me. And yet, the act of my being myself in a leadership role amongst my business interests and the act of my being myself at the keys of a grand piano playing a song of mine are VERY disparate acts indeed.
The urge to have myself known for my music has been an ever-present and lifelong recipe for pain, humility, and energy drain for me. But one of the greatest compliments I can have is for someone to hear a song of mine and like it without ever knowing who wrote it, or sang it. The same thing may happen often with ideas of mine in the business world, but “success” is defined differently there.
Do you become someone different when you are playing music? How about when you are running a business?
I think of leading a business is a bit like being the captain of a vessel and crew during a storm, or perhaps like being a coach of a children’s soccer team. Perhaps that is why so many self-help books on leadership in business find apt source material in either the Navy or in the sports world. But the relationship between a songwriter and someone who hears the music is one nearly opposite at times when contrasted to the pyramid of leadership in an organization.
Effective leaders at times must create a separation between themselves and those they mean to inspire and have authority over – while simultaneously allowing them to gain faith and appreciation of YOU.
Whereas as a musician I often find myself reducing walls, gaining comfort with vulnerability, and allowing myself to wither and disappear entirely until all that remains is a song, or a melody; disconnected and separated from any aspect of “I” such that it may be taken in by another – I must have the “I” disappear until a “you” can take it in and make it their own “I”.
Do you become someone different when you are playing music? Switching channels in a way…
There are many types of businessmen, and likely many of them may be musicians at some level or another. But I think the singer-songwriter type of musicians among those business leaders are frequently going to have a bit of a “channel switching” mode if they take a stage to play a song they have written.
Post Script for the Do you become someone different when you are playing music blog:
Another good and related question I think would be to ask if a Diva type singer or spot-light crooner hound type vocalist and a successful business leader have to change who they are when going from one mode to another? I suspect the answer there is how they are more akin than a singer-songwriter would be to either of them.
Do you become someone different when you are playing music?************************************************
Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies are delivered from baby boomer singer songwriter Ed Verner. Weaving together lyrics from personal experiences and tales from a life of people watching, these Lyrics, Logic, and Lullabies present contemporary younger songs from a salty renaissance man.
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For more information on Ed and his Lyrics, Logic and Lullabies, visit:
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Do you become someone different when you are playing music?
