How competitive are you?

[virtuoso80]

Being a relatively mediocre pianist at this point in time is a difficult thing for me, because I'm competitive as all hell. I more or less have to tell myself whenever I listen to someone else that, "Yeah it's good, but with some practice my interpretation would be way better." If I let myself believe my competition is legitimately better than me, then I start to think about how I can dispose of the body without getting caught (I'm just kidding...yeah).

How competitive are you?

[bronnestam]

I am not competitive at all. Maybe I was, once in a while.

OK, I am competetive with myself. I have some inner standards, or whatever you'd like to call it, which I measure myself against. In that way you can say that I compete with myself. But I am tired of, or not very interested in, comparing myself to others. We are all different. To me, this comparison thing is hard to understand. Like asking which book is the best or if the colour blue is better than the colour red.

I have considered, lately, to apply to a competition. Not this year, but later on. NOT because I want to win or need to win or something, but because it would be an interesting goal which helps me to give my practice goals more structure. And it would be fun to be there and meet people, perhaps. (My major goal would be to qualify at all: I expect it to be very difficult!)
But in general, I think piano competitions are rubbish, actually. Like when I took my dog to a dog exhibition. I suddenly realized the stupidity in letting a judge, a complete stranger of no importance, tell me that my best friend was not the best and most beautiful dog in the world. Because he is! To me!

And the same with competitions. "He play better than you". Ok. So? What to do about that? And what if I don't agree with the judges - am I wrong then? Or are they wrong?

So I guess I am not competitive at all. I don't admire people who are, I pity them.

[ted]

I am entirely lacking the competitive aspect in anything, certainly in music. It was the reason I stopped playing tennis and table tennis in younger days. I was a very good player and enjoyed a hard game, but winning and losing didn't matter. It caused bother because they had to put me in the higher grades and I didn't fit in.

[dcstudio]

as a pianist how competitive am I?   oh man, I am bad about this. lol.

I come from a family where everyone played... 4 of us went to music school..  we constantly tried to one-up each other.  I married my guitar player and our daughter is 1st chair Fr. Horn, all state vocalist, and she also plays guitar and piano.  My husband and I have been performing together for 26 years and arguing about who is the better player the entire time...lol.   We still say "ha! I can play this and you can't!"  It's silly, but it keeps us both motivated.  It's like I have to play it better than he does or do what he says I can't do... and it's the same for him...    what can I say--we've been together a long time.

guess it's shallow and narcissistic... but whatever... we have fun.

If there was a piano competition that I could sign up for I would do it and love it. Maybe someday I will find one. 

don't pity me... I LOVE what I do

[indianajo]

Not very.
One of my peak experiences was high school band, where we were all about as good as each other and we played some really incredible music, correctly. We also made some intricate patterns on the marching field.  The key point was I was in this group making beautiful music, not the fact that I was second chair (first year) or first.  I did compete in district, regional, and all-state band competitions, but this got me a chance to play even more beautiful pieces with a group of people that could learn them in six or eight rehearsals.  
My piano hobby, my teacher didn't enter me in any district or above  competitions, even though I was maxing out I thought at the local NatPianoGuild competitions. Lots of blue ribbons and little gold flash pins resulted, whoopie.  My teacher got to smile in front of her teacher friends.   No great loss, my travel budget included bicycle tires and tubes, nothing more.  I was out there on the flat Texas suburbs very recently cow pastures, making music from printed scores without even having heard them on LP's I couldn't afford.  As a result, I have a real individual style.  Nothing like people I've heard.  Kind of rare in this group think world.  Some style is better than others and wins competitions ? Not likely I'll waste much time learning it.    
So compete, figure out your grade level, blah blah.  I play 6 or 10 or 18 beautiful pieces these days that sound a lot better on my $1000 piano than any sound system I couldn't afford. (and mine is $1500 plus a lot of electronics upgrades).  
Work, all those co-workers tried so hard to make me look stupid.  I made a process innovation between being notified of layoff and the final day.  You're so smart guys, you worked ten more years while I stayed home and played the stock/bond market with my squirrel hoard.  And practiced piano.  Who won? Their homes & vacation homes and boats were bigger.  My music was more beautiful, IMHO.  Seeds versus songs, I suppose birds keep count too.  

[outin]

I've never been competitive against other people, but I am horribly competitive against myself. Another word for it is perfectionism, which can be quite harmful.

[perfect_pitch]

How competitive am I? Have you SEEN this thread???

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=51107.4950

[outin]

How competitive am I? Have you SEEN this thread???

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=51107.4950

OK, I take back what I said...

[keypeg]

I like reaching quite high, and achieving what I can achieve.  I am the most impatient with the idea of a teacher who would want to make it "fun" and aim for "instant success", while depriving me of the tools that would get me somewhere - the danger of that for an adult student is quite real.  I cannot see "competing" as playing any role in music, because music is about self-expression, about expressing what is in the music, of imparting your own enjoyment and discovery.  How can one "compete" with this?  When someone plays very well, I want to find out what the ingredients are, so that I can learn from it for my own quest.  When a fellow student advances (real advancement - not hurtling through grade levels), then how is he practising, what is his strategy, and how is he being taught?  It always goes back to the same thing - what I want to reach in music myself.  It is lack of knowledge and lack of learned skill which are the greatest obstacles, which are going away one by one (the obstacles, I mean).

[virtuoso80]

I like reaching quite high, and achieving what I can achieve.  I am the most impatient with the idea of a teacher who would want to make it "fun" and aim for "instant success", while depriving me of the tools that would get me somewhere - the danger of that for an adult student is quite real.

In teaching I've learned that most people think differently than I do about learning hard pieces. I've been working above my level forever. Even if I couldn't get an piece fully, my technique improved by trying. Other people need to have that feeling of 'done' with a piece. But for me it's not about done, you're never done, it's just about getting better and better.