One of the best comments about competition that I have ever heard was made by Rolf Cahn during a conversation in a restaurant in Berkeley in 1959. Someone who was looking for singing jobs in the area asked him, "What's the competition like?" He answered as follows:—

"Competition? I don't know. I never think about competition. Look, I once had a chance to hang out with the Mercedes team during the thousand mile Mexican Road Race. There were Jaguars, Porsches, Ferraris, Allards, Cunninghams, they were all there. But during the strategy meetings, none of the other cars were even mentioned. All the Mercedes team talked about was how to get the Mercedes from point A to point B as fast and as safely as possible. I figured that there was a lesson there. So I don't waste my time and energy worrying about competition. I just try do the best that I can do."

During my time among classical musicians and music students, I found that there was less of a spirit of competition and more one of sharing information and knowledge and of helping each other. There were exceptions, of course, but those who tended to "be competitive" generally didn't get very far. They wasted their time and energy on the inconsequential. I've encountered about as much "competitive spirit" among singers of folk songs as I have among classical musicians. It's not the kind of music one plays or the milieu within which one plays it, it's more a matter of individual orientation. Be they classical, jazz, or folk, most of the really good musicians I have met simply want to do music, are eager to help others, and don't sweat the small stuff.

Auditions? Sure. You can think of them in terms of competition (and lots of people do), but that is really a waste of time, energy, and most importantly, concentration. Just go out there and play and/or sing the best you can. If you divert your attention from the music you're performing by worrying about how you compare with the other people there, you're just asking to be interrupted with a "Thank you, that will be all. Next, please!"

Just do the best that you can do, whatever and however you conceive that to be, and let the chips fall where they may.

Don Firth