Colleague? Really?

So here it goes yall!

Welcome to The Good Colleague, my brand spanking new blog about working with other musicians in professional settings of all sorts, no matter how - ahem - "professional" (or otherwise) the situation may seem.

So why the word colleague? Who even uses that word? I had a music history professor in undergrad that we all thought was very stuffy and out of touch with what we needed to learn. Many of us learned later when working with her one on one that she was actually very helpful, and for me personally later on in grad school she was actually one of my former professors with whom I kept most in touch. ANYWAY, in lectures she used to refer to all of us collectively as "colleagues." At the time it just seemed stuffy, pretentious and old fashioned. We were cool kids coming back from Katrina to save New Orleans - we didn't know what we were, but we weren't "colleagues."

In recent years however, the word, like the musicologist, has really grown on me. In professional situations, we aren't always bandmates, and we're usually contracted so we're not co-workers. As musicians for hire, we often wear so many different hats: accompanist, soloist, ensemble member, backup, leader, supporting role, hired gun - how do you refer to the people you perform and work with? What about the crew, the stage hands, the sound guys, the costume and makeup staff, the drivers and all the other people that go into making a performance happen? I mean, you could consider yourself the only REAL musician and refer to everyone else as "The Others," "Those cats," or just "people". That would definitely be the basis of a reputation for being incredibly eccentric....or just a colossal jerk.

And isn't that what we're all trying to avoid? That's why we're here, or at least, that's why I'm here. This blog is about asking questions and looking for answers on trying not to be a jerk to the people you work and perform with. For starters, try referring or maybe even thinking of them as colleagues. Don't you feel smarter and more professional already?