Get Tools or Get Good?

I have two obsessions. Therapy, and music.I’m a big music enthusiast and have been playing music in a band since the dawn of raging hormones.I must confess. All my adult life, I suffered from G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome).

Each time I visit a music shop or one of those online musical rabbit hole websites, I’m tempted by the next new keyboard, a handy recording device, brand new software or some vintage stompbox. Even though I can’t afford many of these gadgets, some part of my rational mind believes that this new piece of equipment is going to irrationally save me from my creative dessert.

This is the story that lures me, even though, deep down, I sense something is wrong.

There is another voice, a tiny voice inside me that believes a different story. This voice says, “Focus less on the tools of music making, and more on improving the musician making the music. Say, let’s work on creating better choruses to compliment that verse…”  You see, I don’t care about technical proficiency, but I am deeply interested in crafting better songs. But after all these years, I still find myself with the same reply, “Yes, but…,” I have my doubts.

In therapy land, I suffered from an equivalent dis-ease called T.A.S. (technique acquisition syndrome). I hoard any and every book or DVD about psychotherapy I can lay my hands on. I devour every article, every piece of new “evidenced-based practice,” or the next best approach to healing my clients’ complex trauma since sliced bread. I’ve attended workshops that said, “If you don’t feel empathy for your client, fake it,” tap your meridian points to heal thyself, and speak to empty chairs. I succumb to all things shining.

There is no sweet song for the path of addiction. I must reset my gaze, leave the consumeristic mentality that has consumed my two loves, and return to the original devotion of a craftsman.

Perhaps I’m not alone in this. Perhaps some of us are in a bad trance of G.A.S. and T.A.S.

~

Notes to Self (and others who are like me):

1. It’s easier to get tools than to get good at songwriting.

2. It’s easier to adopt a handful of finite approaches than to pursue the infinite road of becoming a better practitioner.

3. The best tools are what I already have.~Let us learn from the artists that intentionally impose constraints on their tools, so that they can produce creative and better results.