guitar

Sometimes we are going to be able to take the lead and have the spotlight on us, but for a lot of our time we’re not. We can benefit from finding the joy in being on the side of the stage, tirelessly keeping the song on track with the drummer while the other band members flaunt themselves about in a way that will definitely embarrass them in years to come.

 

By Rob Argent

As a kid learning to play the guitar, a part of me—and let’s be honest here, a big part of me—wanted to be the guy up front on stage.

Singing, playing lead guitar, or even both—(it didn’t matter)—there was something exhilarating about not just being good at performing music, but about being the main focal point of the song. The big guitar solo or the killer chorus hook that gets people singing along: what cool things to aspire to, man!

Over the years however, my complete inability to hold a note ended my vocal aspirations, and my wayward practice routine meant that my guitar skills could just about hold down a few chords, but certainly not hold down a paying gig. My vision of a shining career in the music industry instead met the far less glittering reality of playing local gigs and practically begging friends to turn up and hear my band drag ourselves through our hastily rehearsed knock offs of far more popular, and objectively better, songs.

And who am I kidding, that wasn’t my band, I was allowed to tag along.

But during this time of fumbled notes and crushing realisations, something shone through.

No-one was noticing what the bass player was doing. Conversely, if I stopped playing then the complete lack of low end would have been painfully noticeable.

Now, after embracing Mahayana Buddhism, and a wishful belief to salvage something worthwhile from those days of ringing ears, audience apathy and stale, stale beer, maybe this silent good work is the Boddhisattva vow in action. The vow itself is an undertaking to find enlightenment for all of us and not just for our own selfish, grubby ends. After all, no-one else wants to hear about your grubby ends!

To do so means forsaking one’s own enlightenment and personal success (goodbye record deal, hello open mic nights!), although in doing so this could ironically be seen as a greater personal triumph. Following the Six Paramitas of generosity, ethical conduct, effort, wisdom, patience and meditation, brings about a selfless state of mind that lets others benefit before ourselves. Or it should, but sometimes we just can’t fight that urge to grab that last cool band tee that’s on sale at the gig, but you get my drift.

And so, let’s hear it for all of the rhythm section players out there.

The bassists, drummers, the second—and third!—guitarists, the keyboard players and the back-up singers; without you the song would be a little less fun, a little less colourful. And isn’t that a great metaphor for life?

Sometimes we are going to be able to take the lead and have the spotlight on us, but for a lot of our time we’re not. We can benefit from finding the joy in being on the side of the stage, tirelessly keeping the song on track with the drummer while the other band members flaunt themselves about in a way that will definitely embarrass them in years to come.

And now that everyone has a camera with them at all times, maybe those tight leather trousers weren’t such a good idea eh?

It’s easy to forget that our practice isn’t just on the cushion or in the sangha meeting; it’s everywhere, every day, just like the dharma. Sometimes it will be in a calm, quiet situation that is reminiscent of our time in a meditation hall. Other times it will be at an absolute dive of a backroom of a pub where the carpet is sticky and the crowd really does not want to hear your experimental new tune that your friends warned you against playing. Being there for others can look like a lot of different things, and that’s not a bad thing.

Just try not to mess up on the chorus riff, ok?

 

 

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

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