A Matter Of Time

Time and timing is a critical part of playing music, especially in a group. You can get away with playing out of time by yourself, but when others are involved everybody's got to move to the same beat. That's true not just for music but for organizations of all kinds, big and small. But I digress.

In music (and in life) time is also important on a macro level. What I mean is that popular music is generational. I know I didn't care too much for my parents' music, and they didn't care too much for mine. Most of us still like listening to the music that we grew up with, and for the most part we find it hard to relate to the music of the younger generations.

Every really successful artist that I can think of achieved success at a young age. That seems to be the way the music business works. If an artist can achieve success at a young age he or she can go on to have a life-long career. It's practically unheard of for a musician to finally achieve success later in life. As we age our contemporaries are less interested, they don't buy records, and they don't go out as much.  So what was difficult when we were young becomes even harder the older we get.

So where does that leave those of us who still like to play music as we get older? At what point does it become just a fool's errand? These days I play just for the joy of it. It's still fun.  Hopefully that comes across to whoever happens to be within earshot. When the joy is gone, then it will be time to finally hang up the old guitar for good.