Playing music is analogous in many ways to playing sports. One of the key elements of being able to execute in sports is you have to be confident in yourself. But you can’t be arrogant, because if you’re arrogant, you not a good teammate—and the team doesn’t do well.
This last year, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. For their quarterback, Sam Darnold, this was the fifth or sixth team he had been with. He had been considered a bust, a draft bust, after unimpressive seasons with several teams. But today, he’s a Super Bowl winning quarterback.
His quote after the game was, “As long as you believe in yourself, anything is possible.” That translates well to playing music. You have to be confident, though not arrogant, to perform well. That doesn’t mean that you’re not nervous when you get up on stage; most of us are. You play for your audience, and there’s a little anxiety connected with that, because it’s risky, and you’re taking that risk.
Some people just play for themselves. That’s musical arrogance. And even if they play great, it’s not moving to listen to. If you show up and have that kind of attitude, play just for your own amusement and amazement, well, the way that works in music is you just don’t get hired again.
A difference between confidence and arrogance is that confidence is earned. In order to play music that means something to someone, you have to play confidently. It’s not something you’re born with. You have to work your way up to it.
Consistent with our recurring theme, that learning to play and perform music teaches you valuable life lessons, the confidence you earn learning to play well and collaboratively is one of those life lessons. Learning to play music can be humbling. It takes a long time. It’s hard. However, when you get to a point where you play well enough to have a little confidence in it, that confidence transfers to everything else you do in life.