Drum Set Education Resources
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Drum Set Education Resources |
You Have To Pay Your Dues...but to whom? "You have to pay your dues" started out as a general suggestion to expect to work hard, learning the ropes along the way. So how has it become a euphemism for surrender by those with a low self-esteem, who think that no matter their skill or conviction, are never good enough to earn what is deserved. There is that awful movie with great actors called Whiplash about an ambitious drummer who must survive the tribulations of a collegiate jazz program led by an mentally and physically abusive professor. Having had a college percussion professor who treated his students similarly (fortunately not physically), I saw firsthand how cool it was (intended irony) to be chided, derided and subjugated by fear-based methodology. This particular tenured professor was just a bully, yet to many this experience was "paying dues" - but it's really just abuse. At that time I did in fact lack the esteem to know I did not need that or that I had an option. "I REALLY LOVE TENURE!" The dues you pay are the sacrifices you make to learn or do something you love. The time from friends and family. The money you invest. Other opportunities you give up. Facing mistakes and failures and resolving to overcome. These are the dues you pay. Outside of that, nobody should dictate what your burdon should be. Unfortunately many believe abuse builds character; others consider it entertaining to watch people abused or destroyed as we see with canned television "audition" programs with fake singing auditionees being sentenced to national ridicule by a panel of metrosexual actors. Most take abuse because they just have no idea they don't have to. They also may not know the intrinsic value of enjoying the participating in music, no matter your skill level. But the worst reason one might sustain the abuse of Simon Cowell's forked tongue commentary is to "win" and go on to bask in commercial glory - the gastrointestinal refuse of Maslow's Hierarchy. The glory of singing a song someone else already wrote and did a much better job. Egads.  But what about the abuse musicians/bands might take from a club that sadly has no standard of value for good musicians?
As a performer I find "You have to pay your dues" the go-to statement for musicians too meek or afraid to question the tyranny of a club manager and let's be clear - a default for most of us
performers. It is far easier to rationalize getting ripped off by a club and repeating the process under the guise of "paying dues" than it is to address the issue rationally and change the process of acquiring such gigs
- like not accepting those gigs or not returning to that venue; like setting up your own gigs not at that bar! While getting ripped off is going to happen
occasionally, do you have to feed the hand that smacks you? A subtext here is that musicians have to learn to say "NO"!
If this abuse is paying your dues just where do these hypothetical dues go? The same place as lost socks? I'll tell you where they don't go: your wallet, dignity, art, perspective or future. "Paying Your Dues" is the battle cry by those who have no value for what you or for themselves. When you have a positive standard of value for your skill, product or service you'll find you are less open to exploitation. Certainly attornies, doctors, mechanics, landscapers, caterers, undertakers, circus performers, prostitutes and snow shovelers have all figured this out. So how will you respond the next time someone tells you demurely that you must "pay your dues"? Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? I'm open to read your thoughts! |