Greta wrote:I guess, though that's an awful blurry line. Bear in mind that "mediocre" and "uninspired" are subjective terms. There are times when I think my own efforts have been inspired and high quality, yet I know other musicians who would consider every single thing I ever played to be mediocre because I'm untrained and have limited scope. Obviously I'd disagree
I do get what you're saying, though. A Leunig cartoon nicely described the difference. A husband (sax) and wife (drums) duo were playing at a wedding function and a drunk guest has walked up to the stand and said "Play the Golden Wedding again" ... and the sax player has an expression of browbeaten existential despair and defeat on his face. There you have an example of an artisan. Usually we start playing music with passion and grand dreams of playing fabulous music to informed and appreciative audiences. Then the reality of most white people's painfully dumb music taste hits home ... but the bills still need to be paid.
A real life example. When I was young and unemployed I picked up a job selling paintings door-to-door. The paintings were mass produced, and if there is one thing that separates art from cynicism it's mass production. For the record, I sold no paintings and lasted one day, most of which I spent being force-fed wine by a nice couple who instantly recognised my plight and tool pity on me
-- Updated 05 Feb 2015, 16:18 to add the following --
Sorry or the overuse of emoticons. The devil made me do it!
No worries about the emoticons (or misspelled words for that matter, talk about a Forum Intro bordering on pomposity...)
I would not be self conscious on your playing skills for a couple of reasons. First, to my mind, the difference between artist and artisan is one of circumstance and skillset, not of importance or skill LEVEL.
As an example, if a band of intermediate players tries their hand at a pop hit, their product will be mediocre and they are not artists (as they are artisans). However, if they write and play their own material, they are now artists, even though their skill level has not improved. One can make the argument that although they are only mediocre players in general, they have played their original material in the best possible way (assuming they achieved the sound they wanted).
The perfect example of this (and my original premise) is Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen. Firstly, they did not write the song. Their recording is from an objective perspective, mediocre in the extreme. It is so bad, in fact, that it's defects are part of it's charm and hence artistry. Players of infinitely better skill can and have recorded covers of this song, but will forever be covers only. The original Kingsmen recording is the Standard, true Hall of Fame material. OTOH if the Kingsmen covered anyone else's discography they would be dismissed as hacks.