“From Wikipedia
An opinion is a belief that may or may not be backed up with evidence, but which cannot be proved with that evidence. An opinion is neither right nor wrong. It is normally a subjective statement and may be the result of an emotion or an interpretation of facts; people may draw opposing opinions from the same facts.”

If I have the time, I love to listen to other people’s opinions, on a subject I am interested in, then with my
limited 76years of living, I make up my own mind.
Fred Wren

Without a doubt, the audience. Although, I do enjoy the nods I get from other musicians. If the audience likes you, you will get the work. I've heard it so many times, we hired you because you are their favorite.

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

This is easy!!!!

My opinion counts..first..

If I am pleased with what I do..the audience will also be pleased....if the audience is pleased...the owner will be pleased.$$$.....As for pleasing other musicians..who cares?..Why aren't they working?..

The opinion of my fellow members here at SZ is what is MOST important to me...

Or, at least, it SHOULD be, given how badly I get flamed whenever we happen to disagree!

From what I seem to get, it appears that, all posting here to the contrary, only their own opinion is all that matters to SOME people

Interesting. I wasn't looking for a concensus. I was looking for what's important to individuals. There is no right answer. All I know is, for me, when I got an old school sax player here named Duke Madison (think guys like Cannonball) to smile and let me solo when I was around 12, I was in heaven.

To me, approval of my peers is paramount. If I were an entertainer, it would be different. I'm not.

Thing is, involvement in music is so rewarding on so many levels.


What a GREAT busines to be in.


Russ

(P.S.) Thanks for ALL the responses. They showed thought and individuality. And, we were all civil, which I REALLY appreciate.




[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 04-22-2009).]

I think three opinions combine to influence me - my own opinion of my music, the audience (& here I would also include any fellow performers) and the client - probably in that order.

At the risk of catching Diki's wrath, I'll follow Russ's statement that all opinions are valid on this post. So, yes, my own opinion is most valuable because I feel I am the best judge of my abilities and choices. I am very self critical and if I feel I've done extremely good or bad, I'll be the first to acknowledge that. Also, I believe I have a good feel for what the audience wants/should hear, and I'm usually right.

The audience (and fellow performers) also influence me. If they are not reacting positively to my music, then I need to change that. If I'm calling the songs, then maybe I need to share the input for a while.

Lastly, the client's opinion obviously matters a great deal, but it's not the final word (unless he's threatening to fire me on the spot). The client is usually not a super knowledgeable music person. He/she is paying for you to entertain an audience he/she is hosting. How many times have I (you) been hired to play a certain genre of music, but quickly find out that the guests want no part of that music. That's where the audience and my opinion step in.

I would certainly like to think that peer opinion is of the utmost, but as we all know some people are constantly negative, some always positive and some just plain ol' insincere. I don't want a friend to tell me that 'that was great' when my experienced mind tells me 'it sucked'.

OTOH, cassp, we have all seen musicians who beat themselves up constantly for not matching their OWN lofty goals, while all around them others tell them how good they really are!

Personally, I really think that ALL opinions are important, but it remains down to each one of us how we weight them, and act upon them... After seeing an audience throw adulation upon someone with virtually no talent at all, but a good stage presence and nice looks, is that REALLY how you want to judge yourself? Or watching musicians heap praise upon a 'player' who leaves just about any audience cold and uninterested, again, is that how you rank yourself? Or listen to other musicians, who obviously rate ONLY their own inflated opinion of themselves, no matter HOW dreadful they really are...?

Somewhere between the three, there's a consensus... whether we want to admit it is another thing!

BTW, fear not the 'Wrath of Diki'! Even if incurred, I won't at least stoop as low as some here, and insult you personally..

When I said I wasn't looking for a concensus, I meant that I wasn't looking for all of us to agree on which was the most important or significant source of evaluations of musicianship/entertainment ability. I simply wanted everyone to get a chance to share what opinions/evaluations matter to them.

Most of us have Done that.


Thanks,


Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 04-24-2009).]

Sorry, Russ... I wasn't implying a forum consensus, merely a consensus in our OWN minds about how to weight the different sources of opinion. Sorry if I got confused...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 04-24-2009).]

Diki, from your prospective, what you say certainly makes sense.


Russ