Collaboration: two heads are better

My music act is currently a duo. The collaboration is with Zane Seubert. He’s a singer-songwriter and a percussionist. We are preparing for our first gigs. (Contact me if you’d like to book us.)

Multiplied by more than 2

Zane and I started our collaboration very organically. When I first asked him if he wanted to play in a duo, he said he had too many other commitments. But rather quickly, we began to play together at open mics around Ithaca.

Even as we played together informally, I was struck by the way that the music is magnified by far more than double. The interplay of his drumming with my playing multiplies the interest by a larger ratio than I could have anticipated. We “play off” each other and are inspired by our different interpretation of songs and rhythms.

I find this to be true in almost every true collaboration. If we are working together to create music (or any creative work), the interaction is so much richer than doing things solo.

Choir

You’ve read a few times on this blog about a volunteer choir I sing in. Trumansburg Community Chorus has been such a significant inspiration to me. I never would have dreamed that it would be such an influence on me. Besides the general sense of community in this group, they’ve inspired me to:

• write a song,
• create a global chorus, and
• to play it big.

Again, the whole group magnifies the process and the performance in a greater way than one could imagine.

Collaboration

What I really saying is that collaboration really works. If you are — as I was for so many years — trying to do everything solo, now would be a good time to look for collaborators. I have been reminded by my own recent experience about how much I — and you — have to gain from collaboration.

I accept that the collaborations I’m taking part in at the moment won’t last forever. While they last, I will experience and appreciate them to the fullest.