My wife and I are on our way to our last gig for a number of months.

My Ford Ranger pickup is full...keyboard, stand, speaker, cables, etc. sometimes I'm amazed at how much gear we haul for a one hour gig.

Then unloading, set up, tear down, reload the pickup...unload the pickup again when we get home.

Ooofta.

In Italian that would be "OOOFAH !!!"

But you are right ... I've pretty much always said "I get paid for setting up and breaking down, the music I do for nothing" ...

You can make more money being a home player.....no travel expenses, no special clothes to purchase, no equipment wear and tear, no medical expenses ie. muscle strain from hoisting a G70 onto a stand or a 15" speaker onto a pole, or a heart attack from seeing a drunk spill a drink on your spanking new GENOS. The savings will far outweigh the $100.00 you make on the gig. I can say that personally, I have MUCH more discretionary income since I stopped gigging .

chas

I'm blessed. I leave everything set up. I walk in, pull the tablecloth off my keyboard, plug in my power strip, turn on the kb and start playing. If I get thirsty I signal the bartender or waiter. When I finish I get a gourmet meal. People drink enough to think I'm good and they seldom BOO.
And on top of all that they PAY me pretty well to be there! Yes it's four hours, but no set-up time, no lifting and plugging and all that stuff. I don't make as much as pilots, but it ain't bad either, and I don't have to worry about the plane crashing.

Sorry, Chas, to disagree. I made a pretty darned good living doing those one hour jobs, but as you can see in that video I posted on another thread, my rig was very streamlined, lightweight, and until my health went to Hell, which was at age 75, I was able to do two to three jobs a day, loved every minute of it, and was able to buy a lot of neat stuff and travel to some far away places (such as Benton, LA), and back. Since my unfortunate retirement, the checking account has slowly, but surely fallen a bit, while during the time I was performing, it managed to climb every month. Now, if I'm able to sell the boat, a big chunk will go back into the checking account, and if I stop drinking Jim Beam Honey it would likely stabilize, but so far those plans haven't seemed to work out like I was hoping.

Guitpic, from most of your recent posts, it appears that you are growing weary of being a performer/entertainer. I have always looked at this as a business, a fun business, but nonetheless a business. In many ways, I guess I'm an old Ham, loved being on stage in front of a crowd of adoring fans, loved the applause and never really looked at the clock. Consequently, some of those 1-hour jobs lasted a bit longer than an hour, for which the ADs and audiences were quite appreciative. My point is, if you are not having fun and enjoying every minute, then maybe it's time for you to hang it up and take up golf, fishing, basket weaving, race car driving, or sailing - something entirely different. To me, if a job wasn't fun and interesting, I would have exited, stage left.

Something to think about,

Gary

Gary.......then again you've got to remember the worst of this job is still head and tails better than the "best" of most other jobs. Thinking that always kept me in check on the "poor me" days.

Well, for me it is a God-Send to be a paid performing musician. I have played professionally since 1955 and have been very fortunate to have played with some of the best know big bands in America. I took about 30 years off and never played note during that time. When I started playing arranger keyboards - about 12 years ago I started playing for retirement homes and now I am lucky enough to select the ones I will book and still will play about 250+ gigs this year.

Chas, like Gary, I am sorry to disagree with your idea about extra money.
I keep very good records of miles driven, equipment costs, on the road food stops, marketing costs and anything else that is deductible and it is not very difficult to nearly break even. The money I earn pays for a lot of fun things for my wife and I and we never have to touch our normal income sources for these fun things. Thanks to a very wise accountant I have been able to buy whatever equipment I wanted to try out and nearly break even on it when applied to our overall tax situation.

Anyway, that is how it has worked for me and even at age 77 I am still going strong and have no intention of giving it up in the very near future.

Deane

I often thought of it this way....each event is a different experience, never the same old 9-5 daily, I'm traveling to gigs and seeing different parts of the land all the time, eating the best of meals, meeting new people, experiencing the prestige of being viewed, respected and treated as a professional, the enjoyment of making people happy, and.....picking up a paycheck on top of it all. Plus.....I'm my own boss!

I don't ever remember (up to when I burned out four years ago) not enjoying what I was doing (and even feeling guilty for getting paid for it).

I'm sure I said once before....but I'll say it again. Someone asked me "would you rather be driving a taxi on the night shift somewhere in the Bronx?" Thinking about that always kept me in line when I needed to be "kept in line!"

Unfortunately, though......it ain't like that anymore!" Hence, my "burnout!"

And that's the other side of the coin. Pick your poison!

After playing jobs for many years. In 1968 I decided to become a stock broker (an agent) Took the test, passed it –I my first two weeks’ pay check was $3,150. Trips to vacation resorts and parties; the latest in clothes and cars.

I quit in at the end of 1969. Why I was not having any fun. It was all business; even the trips and parties was business.

My saddest day has come; I have to leave the playing and performing business.

My point; The joy of playing and the joy of getting a new instrument has nothing to do with dollars. How many dollars you make playing is a different talent.
My friend Gary has done both. Amen!

John C.