Mark writes about the topic of fear in live music performing.

Author:  Mark Seymour.

Date: 25 August 2022.

Original URL: N/A.

Article Text

That feeling of impending danger. The sense that something bad could happen to you. Something painful or distressing. The heart beat quickens, fists clench..

It can happen at anytime. When you least expect it..

But fear is a strange thing.

it doesn’t have to be connected to anything real. Or physical.

People talk about feeling threatened by an atmosphere. A word. A look.. getting ‘triggered’

by the clothes somebody was wearing. The length of their hair, or their SKIN colour..

See, fear can be inherited.. learned by one generation then passed onto the next in the way parents educate their children.. Fear was something you got used to feeling because the strap was always hanging on the hook behind the pantry door. And so, you came to expect punishment of some kind many years later, even when there was none forthcoming.

Or the fear of god.. the possibility of eternal fire after death, that some nun drummed into you at the age of seven. Now there’s a dud rage if ever there was one. You gotta die first kid, and THEN you burn. Bugger that!

The sex was infinitely preferable.

Still, at risk of making light of trauma, the appalling evidence of which spills onto our streets daily, people driven to despair, lining up at food banks.. the crushing of innocence. There are victims everywhere, no doubt.

And that’s because, fear has always been deliberately cultivated, by demagogues, control freaks, narcissists, dictators and churches..

I mean there’s nothing new in it. Fear is in us by way of instinct. So why not manipulate it for your own personal material benefit?

Hello capitalism..

Still, there ARE some fundamental lessons worth learning. Fear CAN be useful. Afterall, You SHOULD be afraid of putting your hand into a pot of boiling water. I may not be across the science but hey, boiling water will hurt you..

But eternal hell fire AFTER DEATH for mere disobedience? Seems a bit heavy handed to me..

See either way, death is coming and given no one’s ever gonna lob over the fence after they’ve gone and tell you what it feels like on the other side, you may as well assume that whatever misgivings you might have about life right now, like the fear of getting offended or threatened, these things kind of pale in comparison..

I’ll be honest though. I don’t feel it much anymore. At least not as much as I used to. Because the older you get, the closer you are to the end anyway, so if you’ve got any lingering issues you’re gonna have to park them one or another. How you do that is entirely up to you..

Let it be said though..

Life without fear is infinitely preferable.

So best to come to grips with it. Recognising it for what it is.. and knowing when it isn’t needed..

Which is where creativity kicks in. Simply making stuff. Songs, plays, paintings.. sure, a bit of fear will get your blood pumping, but too much and you freeze. Assume the posture of the victim.. waiting to get eaten.

So try galvanizing a room full of musicians. How to turn noise into song.. Someone’s always gotta jump first, he or she who backs themselves in the moment. Who steps forward.. despite the risk..

And yet, there will ALWAYS be someone in the room ready to tell you what MIGHT go wrong. The audiences are going to plummet.. the money will run out or people won’t like it ‘cos it’s a ballad’.. and it’s got the word ‘love’ in it.. or it may contain sentiments that threaten the guy’s masculinity.. I’m serious here, if you can believe that last bit but then again, it happened a bloody long time go.

Let me just say though, I box for my sins. Yeah ok. There are those who will howl on hearing that. Oh, that low vulgar shabby sport.. indulged in by the unenlightened. One thing I’ve learned about it though, if you can LEARN to be afraid you can learn NOT to be.

So don’t be..

There really is nothing to fear..

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