Show No Drama

“First coined by the philosopher Aristotle, the phrase ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ aptly defines the modern concept of synergy.  For anyone who has played team sports, it echoes the T.E.A.M. acronym—together, everyone achieves more.”  —T.E Wealth

Like Winfield, I am a band person.  I simply love playing in bands, and he does too.  Of his band Shinyribs he said, “I do love soloing and all that stuff, but…the feeling of an 8-piece band cranking it up…it’s a great feeling…when everybody’s on the right page. It’s a really magical feeling. My sister used to go, ‘oh you just do it for the girls’ and I’m like,”no Gwen, I do it because when the band is really cooking there’s nothing like that in the world.  There’s no other feeling like that you’ll ever get…I love it when you’re playing live and you got an audience and you’re feeding off of them and they’re feeding off of you. It makes you excited and makes you play better.  I love playing live.”

I completely concur.  I remember attending a program for piano teachers some years back where a college professor was discussing his ideas on what is best for high school piano students interested in majoring in piano performance.  He said pianists should not be in band, referring to high school concert and marching band.  He believed it took up too much time.  I admit, I was angry hearing that.  After all, I would not be a musician today were it not for my high school band program.  And I would not be the human being I am without having played in a band capable of being better than its individual parts.

Pianists already spend a lot of time alone in a practice room.  They are notorious for being very free in their concept of rhythm, meaning they typically don’t count well.  Yes, piano is difficult and does require a lot of technical work and patience with note-reading, but it is more fun to work out scales and chords in a room with other musicians.  Working on one’s ear is an absolute necessity if one wants to be a great musician, and there’s no better place to work on the ear than by being handed a tape and told to learn a song without the aid of a written chart. 

I asked Winfield how to be a good band member and he gave great advice:  show no drama (meaning no whining or bitching), listen to your bandmates’ playing and play with them, practice your own part so that you can play it to the best of your ability, be supportive, fit in and don’t try to stand out as a star, and be a good traveler.  Although I haven’t been to a Shinyribs show yet (they are coming to Nashville on April 27th performing at the soon-to-open Brooklyn Bowl downtown on 3rd Avenue), I would guess that Winfield also gives his all in each show.  

In fact, my most long-term bandmate taught me to always perform as if it’s my last show.  That’s a great way to go home at the end of the night with no regrets, feeling contentment.  For some people, playing in a band is life-changing.  Bands create very special friendships through shared experiences, both good and bad.  Bands who work well together serve the public by creating happiness or at least emotion-processing safe zones.  Good bands heighten parties and mark occasions by playing songs that are meaningful to their audience.  Bands with synergy change the lives of their members for the better.  Bands like this are families, and like Winfield, I am grateful for having experienced being in a band that can fire on all those cylinders.