[TPIN] Great players vs. ok players

[Scott Carson]

On 13 Jul 2006, at 15:08, robbiev at midsouth.rr.com wrote:

> I get compliments all the time, especially at my church.  It's not so
> bad when people say, "It sounded good today" but for some reason, lots
> of people seem to think I'm this really incredible player, and those
> types of compliments bother me, since I know I'm not.
>

It could be that they're just trying to give you a compliment because  
they enjoyed your performance, regardless of how good it was on some  
objective scale of excellence, and they may be afraid that "it  
sounded good today" or something similar will come off as half- 
hearted, so they wind up going too far the other way.

I've noticed a similar phenomenon, at least in my neck of the woods  
(Athens Ohio, a university town but in the middle of nowhere). I go  
to lots of different sorts of concerts and other entertainment events  
here, and people almost ALWAYS give the performer(s) a standing  
ovation at the end. When I was a kid standing ovations were given to  
genuine virtuosi who had turned in remarkable performances, but  
nowadays it almost seems as though it's just a way of saying "I  
really liked this show". This summer I'm playing in an extremely  
informal "summer band" that consists not only of university students,  
retired faculty, and local community folks, it also has a sprinkling  
of high school students, and even WE get the obligatory standing  
ovation at the end of the show. I'm not saying we're lousy, but we're  
certainly not that good.

It occurs to me that one possible explanation, again, at least for  
this town, might be the fact that folks don't get to hear a lot of  
orchestral music here. Athens has a great bar-music scene, but the  
nearest symphony is in Columbus, an hour's drive away. Maybe they're  
just so grateful to be hearing some real music for a change they want  
to show their appreciation.

Scott Carson