Focus

It's 1966, I'm in the tunnels under the Greek Theater, UC Berkeley, trying to get the strings on my banjo into some semblence of tune. The echoes down there are really something (or were at the time), and I try out one of my more "impressive" licks. I look up, and there's this old guy (hey, I was 19. EVERYBODY over 30 was old) listening to me. He smiles, taps his foot, and asks if I sing the words. Showing off, I sing a verse with an even more ornate accompaniment. He listens politely, then suggests I might like to do less on the banjo so that the words can take the lead.

This one one of the few times in those days I showed common sense. I listened, tried the next verse with a basic sort of accompaniment, and was rewarded with another smile. As I was making my way to the backstage area, one of the group I was with came up and demanded to know "What did he say? Did he like the song? Did he have any suggestions?" It took me a moment to realize that the old guy who looked kind of like Pete Seeger really WAS Pete Seeger, and that I'd just gotten some advice to which I had better listen.

I doubt he'd even remember the exchange, but for me, it was a major big deal thing. For the entire time I was performing, I kept the idea in the back of my head: let the words take the lead. It applies across the board. Decide why you're doing something, and focus on that.