The 'Never Give Up' Spirit by Andrew Greeney

Greetings to all the drummers! I will keep this one brief. I feel it is important for any musician to develop the 'never give up' or 'fighting' spirit. In today's world, in America, being a musician is a tough job. The live band is many times replaced by a DJ and gigs can be very sparse. Most of the time, musicians have to work very hard just to scrape by in life, and many of the legendary famous musicians died a paupers death. At times you may ask yourself, "Why don't I just quit?".
For me, I have two different voices in my head that vie for control. The negative or deluded voice says, "your music ain't s**t", "you suck at drums", and "nobody wants to hear you play." The positive voice says, "music makes the people feel good", "keep on going and never give up", and "develop yourself for the benefit of the people". Both voices are always there but the positive always prevails. After I go through emotional turmoil and am at the point of quitting, the smoke in my mind clears and I come out playing better than before. At a certain point I realized that the negative voice is a manifestation of my own selfishness so I try not to listen to it. However, I usually still feel like quitting at some point every day, even though I know I never will.
I hope the people who read this can relate and it helps them keep going -- until the next time - SEE YA ON THE BANDSTAND!!!
Andrew Greeney drums
Lew Scott bass
Chris Pasin trumpet
Rob Fish trumpet