Clayton Blizzard’s First Letter To The Herefordians

To The Students of Hereford Arts College,

Greetings, Siblings.  I hope this finds you well. 

I had so much I wanted to say to you that we didn’t have time for when we met last.  First, it was a pleasure to meet you. 

Your tutor had suggested that we speak about things which we really only had time to refer to in passing.  Such is the way with education; your tutors work hard on what to share with you, but there isn’t time for all of it.  (And they are probably fully aware that many of you will only take what you really need and leave the rest….as the gospels say, some seed falls on stony ground.)

As one lecturer remarked to me in a class many years ago:  “This is about seventeen courses rolled into one because of what the university calls ‘rationalisation’, therefore we must pretend we understand things when we really only know a few keywords.”

There are advantages to the broad scope of a course of study; you will have many opportunities to try things and be creative. 

Please do not underestimate the importance of trying things and being creative.

I wanted to tell you that I am not used to giving advice, and that I am usually reticent to do so, even when asked.  This is not your problem, of course, but I wanted to be honest about the pitfalls.

In our discussion, we spoke about specific places where you might be able to play.  I am not an expert on this, and don’t want to mention specifics here in this public forum; to be honest, I get asked to play places and I usually say yes, and that’s how it usually goes for me.  But to give you the benefit of my experience, I will share some observations that I hope will be useful.

Don’t be in a rush to get paid; do what you love and it will benefit you.  Your talents are worthy of reward, but your fulfilment will be greater if/when you are concentrating on the work rather than the rewards.  And the rewards will be great; money is by no means the only reward, and not the greatest one.

Also: Don’t be afraid to ask for money, or about money.  (Is there a budget for this event?  Is any of it going to the bands/performers?  Is anyone making money from this?  Find out how things work.)  Your talents are worthy of reward, and others will recognise that.  If someone makes money from your performance, it’s only fair that you see some of it.

Why do we make music?  (You don’t need to know the answer to this right now, or ever; I had been making music for years before I ever really thought about it.)  Almost nobody ever does it for the money, because it is very hard to make a lot of money from it, and there is a lot of competition.  It used to be possible to make lots of money from other people’s music/talents/creativity, but not so much anymore.  (This is, in my opinion, a positive development.)

So, if making a lot of money is important, making music is probably not the career for you.

If you really want to make music your career, and have some longevity, the rules are basically the same as in other careers: don’t be a dick.  (Despite all the films about creative troubled genius types, most people don’t get away with being a dick to everyone.  And even if you could, would you want to?)

Be a pleasure to work with, be helpful, be professional.  This is all very simple, and you know it already.  Prepare well.  Turn up on time, sober and ready to work.  Appreciate your bandmates, and everyone you work with.  Appreciate and respect your audience. 

And this next one is very important: Be cool with the sound engineer; learn their name and remember it, and listen to what they tell you. 

Enjoy your work, encourage others and be aware that you might have to deal with a lot of bullshit to do the things you love. 

Rest assured, it will be far easier for you than it was for your parents’ generation; technology has made it possible to contact people all over the world with ease, and share your work with anyone.  (You will know how to do this better than me, because I am part of your parents’ generation.)

You have opportunities at your fingertips that they had to work a long time to get.

It’s worth considering that most of us share music without any money changing hands as a first step, and think about getting paid for it later. 

To sum up: share your talent, and the rewards will come.

Why do we play music?  As I mentioned when we met:

So many lives are a thankless grind
That’s why we must sing all the time…

Something no one ever told me when I was young that might have helped: There are worse things than embarrassment; some of what you are doing now will seem stupid later on.  This is normal. 

(You may well look back on pictures of yourself and laugh at your appearance.  This is also normal.)
Your first attempts at something are not likely to be your best, and this is a very good reason to keep at it – keep creating, keep playing, you will get better at it.  Keep moving forward and you will keep it interesting for yourself and anyone else who is paying attention.

For my bandmates on the night (Hal, Pacho, Tom, Alex: MEAT RAFFLE, YO!):  First, Thank you.  It was great fun.  I hope you enjoyed it – bless your friends for coming along and getting into it, and blessings to everyone else that was there.  Appreciate your audience, especially when they are not content to be mere spectators, but get involved and make it great.  They are the extra special ones, and we love them. 

Look up when you are playing, look at your bandmates, communicate.  Anticipate changes that are coming.  Don’t be afraid to improvise, but know that timing is everything; the real skill is knowing when to mix it up and when to stick to the script.  You will learn this in time, and you will most likely learn by making mistakes; it’s a very effective way to learn.

Finally, a massive thank you to all of you.  I have not done much of this kind of thing before, and it was a pleasure and privilege to speak, and play music with you.

I hope to see you all again.

THANKS AND PEACE

Clayton Blizzard