THE NEIL PRINCIPLE: THE UNNEUROTIC RISE ONLY TO THEIR LEVEL OF COMPETENCE

SHELDON KENNEDY (NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE STAR)

Laurence J. Peter, a Canadian educator and hierarchiologist, is mostly famous for his PETER PRINCIPLE:  MANAGERS RISE TO THEIR LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE.  

Managers rise to their level of incompetence because the selection of these incompetent managers is based upon their performance in their current roles, rather than on the abilities relevant to the intended role. 

In my rambling today I’ll present the NEIL PRINCIPLE: THE UNNEUROTIC RISE ONLY TO THEIR LEVEL OF COMPETENCE. 

One’s competence should rise in accordance to the level of one’s reality.  For example, my reality: 

I am a faux busker – I am not a brutto temp busker.  I busk only in weather that is conducive to my romantic notions of busking.  When the sun is shining bright in a Simpson clouded sky and my buskspot is windless my consumers are more munificent than on dark and cloudy and rainy and windy days.

I love the sidewalk – I hate the stage.  WHEN I BUSK I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT – WHEN I GIG IT IS ALWAYS A COMPROMISE.

First there is a compromise just in getting the gig.  Performers have to convince the venue manager that they are worthy of taking the stage.  Initially, this screening takes place through an audition, which could be live but is mostly through video or even word-of-mouth.  Once the stage date has been set, the candidate getting the gig, if not going solo, must get some other players for a band.  This, too, is usually done through musician camaraderie, which is always a joy, but still a compromise nonetheless.  And once the band members have been decided, then so, too, must the playlist be decided.  Needless to say, debate and rehearsal are professional musts when assigned a formal gig.  The aforementioned skinny of this is that gig accoutrements, physical and mental, are more so than that for busking.

I am a strummer – I am not an arpeggio plectrum finger-picker.  (I never use a pick when playing guitar; though I often don fingerpicks when thrumming my banjitar.)  My strumming guitar style is free-stroke (referred to as tirando in musical theory), combined with a sort of frailing pattern, as is common with banjo picking.  Rather than any traditional strum patterns, my strumming is always an up-picking plucking “in passing” motion of my fingers, combined with a down-picking motion of my thumb.

I am a guitar-slinging summertime drifter – I am not a stay-at-home performer.  As a faux busker I tend to travel on buskation for approximately sixty days in the summertime.  My buskations have always been to elsewhere in Saskatchewan (Canada), Alberta (Canada), and British Columbia (Canada).  And I’ve been on buskation to the Netherlands and to Ireland.  This spring I am going back to Amsterdam to busk, and this coming summer my plan is for an Alaskan buskation.

Don’t get me wrong.  Gigs are valuable to me because they keep me on edge and in musical condition for summer.  Doing a gig means practice, practice, and more practice.  Doing gigs means to keep me song-writing (generally I only perform original tunes when on stage, the exception being an obscure ballad or two).

Don’t get me wrong.  Gigs are valuable to me because I get to gather with my musical friends.  I love the people I gig with.  I’ve met so many musicians, guitar-slinging singer-songwriters similar to myself and … since I am so narcissistic and I love myself so much, I cannot help but love my band mates.

Laurence J. Peter (of the Peter Principle) also came up with PETER’S PLACEBO:  AN OUNCE OF IMAGE IS WORTH A POUND OF PERFORMANCE.

This is my reality.  I know my limits.  I am simply a busker who employs a simple strum pattern on a twelve-string guitar.  All of my band-mates are more (much more) talented than I.  This is the very reason that whenever I organize a gig of rotating performers, I always am first to hit the stage.  Being first, I set the rating performance bar (pun intended – I ‘m talking about bar gigs).  I schedule myself, basically, as the warm-up act.  If I were to go third or fourth or fifth, there would be audience members throwing tomatoes at me.  I kid you not.

Now back to the NEIL PRINCIPLE: THE UNNEUROTIC RISE ONLY TO THEIR LEVEL OF COMPETENCE.  Being neurotic is to express thought and behavior deviant from the social norms, through maladaptive mannerisms.  And this is why it is so easy to recognize Peter-principle managers; they are forever fretting and yelling and blaming.  (Neurotic is not to be confused with Psychotic, which means to be out of touch with reality.) Such mea culpa managers who haven risen then fallen from grace, simply become neurotic meshuggeners, the constant theme of gossip for those they imagine to be directing.  To be neurotic means to suck at dealing with reality, the reality of not being able to do the job for which a Peter-principled manager has been appointed.

Though I am but a sidewalk busker who sometimes takes the stage, I never take on more than I can thrum.  I never rise beyond my competencies to perform.  Therefore, in such a regard I have so far stayed unneurotic and have risen only to my level of competence.  And I must mention that in spite of my reluctant stage-self, my level of competence seems always on the rise.  (I do believe that my gigging, having to publicly strum close the edge of my comfort zone, does provide the necessary cathexis for my musical self-improvement.)   

This brings to mind, a thought of W. Somerset Maugham (French novelist) or Jean Giraudoux (also a French novelist): ONLY THE MEDIOCRE ARE ALWAYS AT THEIR BEST. 

Then for buskers to be always at their best, they need only to stay mediocre.  And the formula to stay mediocre is simple, just never do gigs.  Not wanting to be a mediocre summertime busker, I will continue my wintertime gigging.

In fact, come Monday, March 14^th, 2016 my gig is at the CONEXUS ARTS CENTRE in Regina, playing for the Dinner and Silent Auction … a 75 dollar a plate dinner … sponsored by the SCHIZOPHRENIA SOCIETY OF SASKATCHEWAN (SSS)...  the keynote speaker is National Hockey League star, SHELDON KENNEDY (Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames), known for going public as a victim of sexual abuse by his Junior Hockey coach, Graham James.   

And I’ll stay unneurotic leading up to, during, and after this gala event because ... of Peter's Placebo, an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.  My ounce of image is my band mates, DARREN FORBES (lead guitar), CORBY MAGNUSSON (bass guitar), and MARK WILSON (fiddle).  My secret to illuding competence is to surround myself with the very competent Darren, Corby, and Mark.

FACTOID:  In their Junior hockey days, Sheldon Kennedy and my favorite NHL scout, Brad Hornung, played together on TEAM WESTERN (85-86). 

FACTOID:  Brad Hornung was the one who thought of this blog topic today, about not wanting to rise to my level of incompetence, after hearing about my Sheldon Kennedy gig.

IN MY SENESCENCE I KNOW WHAT I CAN DO … 

WITH COMPETENCE.

Finis.

SHELDON KENNEDY (COMING TO REGINA, CANADA, MARCH 14TH)