The Servant Musician

Tommy Foster, Servant Musician

What is Servant Musicianship?

If the servant-leader leads by serving others first, the servant-musician makes music through serving others first. Tommy Foster masterfully reads his crowd and engages audiences in his performances. It takes a tremendous amount of experience and skill to be creating what you are about to do while simultaneously creating in the moment. Some might say it isn’t even possible as it is generally accepted that we can only focus on one new or creative thing at a time, and anything else happening is repetition of learned skill. But…I’ve seen him do it. I’ve watched as he takes a song request, converses with the requester while simultaneously locating and withdrawing the lyrics, chords, bass line and strumming pattern from his memory, employs humor based on random occurrences in the audience, and also sets up his rig for the requested song. During this time he would also have thanked someone by name who dropped money into the tip jar, asked someone else walking by how their dog is doing (referring to both by name), and let the girl walking by know that she had dropped her sweater in the street. This is all before playing the requested song which will probably have at least one verse of improvised lyrics that tell a story about something everyone listening can relate to promoting social connectedness.

Contrast Tommy’s leadership style with that which puts the musician first over those listening, where the set list is predetermined and selected based on personal factors, the focus of the musician is aimed inward and on their own promotion, and meaning and purpose are self-serving. If a musician’s attention is on self and a perfect performance then you have a very different experience than one that considers the listeners first.

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https://themusiciancoach.substack.com/p/the-servant-musician