A good musician has a great personality. Unless you can convince your crowd of your competence, you won’t convince at all.

Also, you have to be at total peace and happiness with your instrument and your progress towards mastering it.

A musician with a high personal competence needs to possess certain traits:

• Ability to self-motivate
• Desire to be appreciated
• Stand up for his/her principles
• Have a basic set of ethical norms and ideas towards music

The definition of a competence is as follows:

Knowledge + Ability + Ethical Stand-Point = Competence

Note that while Knowledge is good, and having technical abilities is even better, the lack of ethical or normative stand-points make these traits a real competence.

Why is this important?

Well, grab a pad and try to write down what your musical ethics are.

Let me help with this example: I love classical music. I respect the composers and I respect great interprets as well. But I personally think that one shouldn’t take classical music out of the context of other musical styles. I like to compare Jazz standards with Bach cantatas — that’s an ethical value.

Values make you a great personality, values define you and separate you from standard musicians. What are your true values?

Post from: The Good Musician