They may well be working

Remember the portable audio technology of yesteryear? Years ago the only way we could listen to music on the road was if we brought portable cassette recorders or 8-track playback machines with us--which, as you may recall, were bulky, cumbersome and comparatively battery-guzzling by today’s standards. Back then, most portable playback systems played back in mono only, so for the most part we were content in those days to use an earphone designed for only one ear. Then Sony changed all that in the early 1980s with the Walkman. For the first time people could bring their music with them in a more compact format--and hear it in stereo. Nowadays, we have digital technology in the form of iPods and MP3-playing Palm Pilots.

Headphone technology since the birth of the Walkman, however, needed several refinements to get to the point where it is today. The early stereo headphones were, of course, of the larger, bulky type still used today in professional recording studios, and Sony wisely decided to come up with a much more compact design. Unfortunately, those early compact designs had a tendency to leak sound, much to the chagrin of those people in the immediate vicinity of the average listener who were not listening to Walkmans themselves. And bass response in these early compact headsets was poor. As a result, compact headset technology has now reached the point where people can hear the music at the same volume as before, with a far more faithful equalization curve to the recording artists’ intent than before, while at the same time imposing the music on others at so much lower a volume that the others can barely hear it, if at all.

This stage of development in portable headset technology is both good and bad for musicians who use Walkmans, iPods and so on to review the material they learn for performance. It’s good in that it allows them to review the material and not disturb others in the process. But the degree to which it is bad depends on the music market they happen to be in. And I believe the reason it is bad has to do with the non-performer.

In large entertainment markets such as Toronto or New York, people are used to the presence of an entertainment industry right in their own back yard, and I submit that when they see someone listening to their portable audio device, they assume the person in question might be a performer reviewing their material--a musician reviewing his repertoire, an actress going over her lines and cues, a broadcasting student studying the nuances of vocal delivery inherent to that field, or what have you--and so they leave that person alone. In all the time I lived in Toronto and in all the times I have been visiting there since, I don’t ever recall anyone looking at me listening to my Walkman or MP3 player and assuming I could hear them or was willing to turn my focus over to them.

Let’s take Ottawa as an example of the opposite extreme. Ottawa has become so government- and high-tech-saturated a city that it doesn’t know how to make room for an entertainment industry. In recent years, every time someone has brought forward a proposal to build another concert hall or performing arts venue, someone at City Hall has balked at the idea and said, "No, we have more important things to spend our money on." And when a major film production with a big-name star shoots in Ottawa, sometimes people flock to the set, wanting to see that star.

Such a scenario played out during the filming of Undercover Angel, which stars Yasmine Bleeth. One of the scenes was filmed at a Chapters store at Pinecrest Mall here in Ottawa, and a casting call went out for extras for that scene. More people showed up to try to meet Bleeth than to become an extra. The producers finally had to put their foot down and say, "Hey, we can’t afford this downtime--we’ve got a movie to shoot!" And the reason it went this far is that people in Ottawa don’t know any better. And the reason they don’t know any better is that Ottawa doesn’t have an entertainment industry to begin with.

Oh yes, there are musicians in Ottawa, and there are Ottawans who end up becoming internationally known--the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Alanis Morissette are prime examples. And we do have the occasional entertainment venue such as the NAC, the Ottawa Little Theatre and the Corel Centre. But a whole entertainment industry? Nope. If it exists, it’s of a marginal size at best when compared to larger markets.

This is why musicians here in Ottawa, particularly those playing in bands, tend to take on multiple projects, particularly if they’re viewing music as a means to make a living. (I would imagine this also applies to musicians in other markets that are similarly small.) Many musicians work in cover bands, and most cover band musicians don’t work from charts--it would be too time-consuming to set up for an entire band’s repertoire, even with modern music arranging software, and anyway not every musician can read standard music notation (witness, for example, the Bee Gees and Yanni). So these musicians learn from original recordings, being expected to pick out their own parts from them.

However, there is more that a self-employed musician has to worry about than just keeping his playing in tip-top shape--there is also the administrative side of the music business, such as negotiating gigs, keeping accounting records, going to the bank to deposit revenue monies, shopping for office and computer supplies, producing promo kits, updating web sites and so on. For the most part, big-name musicians have other people take care of that stuff for them, but small-name musicians have to do that themselves. This is doubtless true of performers in other areas of the performing arts.

So in this fast-paced world, in which our cities have become busier, noisier and faster, you must be wondering how a self-employed musician taking on multiple projects--or any performer, for that matter--can possibly have the time to review all the material for each project. Enter, as one possible solution, the portable audio technology I mentioned at the outset. In my case, for example, many of my administrative and personal errands involve taking the bus, and I take advantage of the commuting time by listening to a compilation of some 170 MP3s that I’ve created. These files consist of my three bands’ combined repertoires and a huge sampling of German pop music, much of the latter of which I’m currently developing for performance in my solo career.

However, I feel that the smaller the entertainment market, and thus the larger the degree to which the general public is used to there not being much, if at all, of an entertainment industry in that market, the greater a danger such a review approach poses. If a member of the general public in such a small entertainment market sees someone listening to music, particularly with headphones designed not to leak out any sound, what’s the likelihood that the person is going to anticipate that the listener is an entertainer reviewing his material? I’d say slim and none. In fact, the person may erroneously think the listener has his headset on at such a low volume that he can hear people around him. So how do you think the listener is going to feel if he is a performer reviewing his material and the person tries to talk to him?

Right. His momentum is going to be disturbed.

Now, can the listener afford that? Not if he’s working in multiple ensembles! If he does a sloppy job at preparation, be it through force of circumstance or his own neglect, it’s going to show through in his performance and thus affect his future marketability as a performer. And today’s entertainment-seekers want the best--they expect polished performances from the professionals. Would you go see a play if you knew in advance that one of its actors was going to flub up his lines big time for lack of preparation? Or a musical performance if you knew in advance the lead singer was going to stumble throughout the show, again for lack of preparation? Of course not. How would you feel if you saw a performer stumbling in his performance and you subsequently learned you were responsible, in whole or in part, for his lack of preparation? Not too good, I would imagine.

Many people listen to music just for pleasure, but performers listen to their material as a condition of their job as a performer. So if you live in an area where there’s not much, if at all, of a music market and you want to talk to someone who is listening to music, please do them a favor and don’t assume they’re just listening for pleasure. They may well be working.