Another point worth pondering for those who treat music as a calling . After years of struggling to survive as a creative player , you then get married and have children. Your world gets turned upside down when you find that you have to sometimes play music that you hate , in order to put food on the table for your family. As simple as it sounds, it can become soul destroying . There were so many times in my 55 years of gigging that i didn't want to have to do that gig. A lot of times , doing what you're passionate about as a job , doesn't make sense. You can lose the love pretty quickly. I was fortunate to get a lot of session work. As a married player, session work was the best job for me. I'd be at the studio most mornings , starting at 10 am. I felt like a tradesman . As a family man, this felt different. I felt like i had job security to a degree , with a pretty good idea of how much money was coming in each week. This made my homelife less stressful. If you're super passionate about your music, think twice before making it a career. Maintaining the love can be incredibly hard.
Your words about helping those around you resonate very loudly. I found serving those around me in my band helps makes my mistakes when I play less noticeable. I’d rather have a bandmate who’s a little less talented but lives his life and plays his music with love and honesty.
Step 1: Learn to play better than anyone else. Step2: you will learn everyone out there plays as good or better. Step3: go trade school and learn a trade. Step4: don't peruse music for a career , so it as a hobby. Ps. I made more money playing local gigs corporate, weddings, clubs playing on weekends then I ever did touring for months at a time. Ppl don't realize touring in a buss etc has wwaaayyy more expenses then you know. Good advice though.
I'm not a gigging musician, but a sound designer. I compose, play bass, guitar, drums, and piano, record music, voice act, and do ADR recording, but they aren't my main revenue stream. Everything you mentioned could apply to just about any creative job. This is fantastic advice for anyone whether they be a musician, actor, painter, sculptor, or any other artistic job. I want to cosign the hang. Almost every job I get is a repeat client or a referral from someone that enjoyed working with me. Everyone has off days in any profession, but if you're having an off day it can be really easy to ruin the hang, and a client. One of the most stressful things about artistic work is that you're one mistake away from losing a client; sometimes the mistake isn't even your fault but you get blamed. The hardest thing for me was looking past those lost clients and focusing on keeping current or repeat clients happy, while still building good relationships with new clients.
Hi Josh - very nicely done. As a studio owner and also a musician - you gave some wonderful information. We (my wife and I) hope you will do a second follow-up on this subject. When you do - please emphasize that you have to be on time. Punctuality, professionalism and positive personality will reward you in many ways! Cheers to you both!
The full saying actually confirms what you mentioned: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” You should definitely specialize and be known for a particular thing where you might excel at. However, you need to to be able to do more than just X or Y. In my case, I do live sound, I do productions, mixing and mastering + I play guitar and bass and I sing a little bit. All in an effort to be as useful as I can.
I agree! Similar situation with me, started on guitar, had to switch to drums because I was the most consistent drummer in our band. Now I have consistent job doing sound for 1 band, am the drummer for my own band, and just joined as a guitarist for another band that I was doing sound for, but have been 'promoted'? Haha plus a bit of mixing and mastering. Like you said, just try and be as useful as you can! People will notice your effort, even if you aren't the flashiest or extremely talented at what you do, you just gotta be 'good enough', and put in the work!
Some of these gigging guys need to have 150-200 songs available. Try keeping those all in memory. 🤣 Plus, believe it or not, not every player is passionate about playing and some just play the notes in front of them without ANY connection to the tune. They don’t know Amazing Grace by heart. 😂🤣😂
There are more than just cover gigs out there. Charts are a 100% requirement for theater work, musicals, some studio work, etc. I agree that an optimal scenario for a cover gig is to do the homework and really learn the charts. There are other situations where many times I will get called to sub a gig with less than 24hrs of prep time to play 35-40 songs for a wedding or corporate function - with no rehearsal. If there are some tunes I'm unfamiliar with, then I will certainly make a cheat sheet for myself. Do whatever it takes with the allotted time to provide the best show possible.
Oh and step 4: Don't be a buzz kill or an asshole. People hire you because you're easy to gel with. Not your playing skill. Also check the ego. There are many ppl in line for your gig who will do it for less and maybe better. It's reality.
