Re: In Praise of Mediocrity (?)
I made the OP here, and have been enjoying the comments, whether serious or humorous. I find it interesting that, considering the wide range of musicians and luthiers -- from fumblers to masters -- at Mandolin Cafe, in thirty posts, no one has objected to the gist of what Tim Wu had to say in his article. To be fair to him, he used neither the word "mediocrity" nor "mediocre." The heading, In Praise of Mediocrity was probably created by a headline writer, who knows how to grab attention. I repeated the heading in the Thread title, where it certainly did get attention. I'm with Wu and with previous writers on this thread: we clearly don't all have the time, let alone the talent and focus to become great musicians or luthiers. Some people can do complex math in their head. Some can look at a motor and quickly figure out how it works. Others can understand Shakespeare or are able to do a back flip. We're not all blessed with both great "musical intelligence" and outstanding motor skills. No matter how hard we try most of us will never be able to play like (name your idol), any more than we can become Olympic sprinters or win a Nobel Prize for physics, simply because we weren't born with the inherent gifts. I don't like the idea of "mediocrity," but I'm willing to set more humble goals than "excellence." I've settled for being "competent" as my present musical goal, and if I achieve that, I'll aim for "good," and so forth. Like others, I never think of music as my hobby, but as Wu suggests, this is partly because of the degradation of the word "hobby." I have neither professional nor semi-professional goals, and my relationship with playing musical instruments fits the Oxford Canadian Dictionary's definition of hobby: "a favourite leisure-time activity or occupation." Wu's article reminds me to lighten up and not become discouraged by setting myself unrealistic goals.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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