Abby, people are paying to listen to your performance.
So they don't really have to say something llke "Thank you sir! We had a great evening!", right?
If for the last month not a single person told you that he liked your performance will you continue to perform because you still get paid?
Hello Panos.
Yes I will actually, and they don't have to say thank you sir we had a nice evening.
I am paid to perform, not to be thanked. I know when I have done a good job and
when I haven't, and do not need an audience member to tell me so.
Mike (Mikf) said it best in another thread.
He said "Amateurs practice until they can get it right; pros practice until they can't get it wrong"
I jokingly compare it to parachuting out of an airplane, you make sure you never get it wrong.
I practice obsessively to make sure that I never get it wrong.
So even if an audience member says nothing, I'll still know when I have done a good job.
And that is good enough for me.
This might sound like overconfidence, but it's the end result of having done nothing else
but practising playing since I was a kid.
I put in up to 4 hours a day every day in the months when I don't gig so much.
2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night before going to sleep.
I find that learning anything just before going to sleep helps better in memorizing
what you've learned.
Even now I still practice on the one day each week that I'm free from performing,
Best Regards.
Abby.