The Steel Guitar Forum

There are as many reason for a person to play in a band as there are people but here lately I’ve began to see more and more folks on fixed income SS, SSI, Workmen’s Comp, unemployment insurance etc. forming bands to supplement their income.

I see less and less opportunity for the person who works at a full time job to play in week end bands.

Persons on a fixed income:
Would enjoy band practice and prefer to practice during the day time hours.
Considers the gig pay as the most important factor.
Feels they can’t play a gig that is far enough away that the transportation expense would eat to far into the gig pay regardless the quality of the gig.
Wants to carpool to save money. Usually means cramped up in one vehicle and hauling everything in a trailer with your equipment getting beat up during the ride.
Will tolerate a great deal more abuse from the folks who hire them because they think it’s worth the money and maybe they will get hired again.

Where most of these things are viewed completely opposite for a person who works a full time job and is thinking in terms of recreation and not a part time job.

Bo
Let me say how sorry I am for you having to live under such oppression -- may God bless you in your endeavor for a weekend band job .

A well-thought-out perspective on music as a job versus music as a hobby.It's still pay-to-play,but the economy is giving a lot of folks a big incentive to make sure that the consumer pays US to play.

Good luck with your full time job...

Be great if you could find one for that son of yours too.

I'm gonna be collecting my entitlements for a looooong time. Be nice if you two will help by holding down a job that deducts some SS.

Enjoy

Around here there are many groups that do not want a steel on stage......they claim it labels them.

As a youth, I've played more than my share of 'freebies'......, places like The Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon Youthful Detention Center, a host of Orphans and elder car facilities, Old Folks homes for various LODGES, etc.

In later years I've discovered more older musicians playing with a strong commitment toward hospitals and elder care homes.

I can't even afford the expense these days to drive to such events.

How times have changed.........

Bob Hickish wrote:Bo
Let me say how sorry I am for you having to live under such oppression -- may God bless you in your endeavor for a weekend band job .

My work place and time schedule are of my choosing even extent of overlapping a gig or practice if I so choose. So this scenario is not a problem for me personally.
I just notice in all the bands I’m getting calls over the past year to play in have no musicians in the band that work a full time job.

Bo, I think you're basically correct that people who work a serious full-time job have different priorities than people who are either retired or doing this for a living. I turn down most offers to play because I'm just so damned busy at work I can't catch a break. Unless people do things in a way I can handle them, I can't do the gig. Not trying to be a PITA, but that's the reality.

On the other hand, if one has plenty of free time on one's hands, it's totally different. I look forward to a point where I can take plenty more gigs. I expect this won't happen until I retire, and hopefully I'm not so destitute that I have to take crappy gigs that don't pay hardly anything just to try to pay the bills - been there, done that, didn't like the smell. In a free-enterprise system, you must have some competition. For me, in this situation, it means I must have something else I can do that can compete with gigs if they get so crappy there's no point in doing them, and it's better to do something else. Look up "Utility Theory", I happen to like this paper - http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream ... 000291.pdf. Economists sometimes overemphasize the issue of consumer preferences in buying goods, but utility is equally useful to compare any type of alternatives with different potential outcomes. My take.

Bo Legg wrote:

Bob Hickish wrote:Bo
Let me say how sorry I am for you having to live under such oppression -- may God bless you in your endeavor for a weekend band job .

My work place and time schedule are of my choosing even extent of overlapping a gig or practice if I so choose. So this scenario is not a problem for me personally.
I just notice in all the bands I’m getting calls over the past year to play in have no musicians in the band that work a full time job.

Bo
Maybe i didn’t catch the premiss of your narrative , sounded like the fellows were going out and buying a guitar and gigging or starting up bands to make extra money .
I see now its the fellows that have put in there time playing music ,but time has run them down (aka old pharts ) I resemble that remark , big time . The last group I picked with had an average age of over 70 -- we worked at selling our group - I guess you call it privet enterprise , - sell your product -- we did good and didn’t hurt the young guys playing R&R -- we were western swing and there is a market for that .

I just now noticed why you came to that conclusion.
"Finding less and less opportunity to play in weekend bands?" The question mark that implies “are you“ is missing.
When I copy and paste the topic title in for some reason the question mark didn't show up.

OK,that clarifies things....The answer is that there is just as much opportunity as ever to play in weekend bands.Perhaps more,if you take into consideration the innumerable venues who have multiple indie/original bands several nights a week,plus an open stage night and karaoke on the nights they don't have live bands.Just like karaoke,all these gigs pay only in the satisfaction that comes from bringing music to the people,and for players who have other money to defray the cost of performing,things are looking pretty good.

Hope they don't discover folks are having that much fun playing for nothing and start charging folks who play.

Stuart Legg wrote:Hope they don't discover folks are having that much fun playing for nothing and start charging folks who play.

Shhhh.....Stuart,don't even THINK that! Someone will read your post and start auctioning gig slots on Ebay.

Shhhh.....Stuart,don't even THINK that! Someone will read your post and start auctioning gig slots on Ebay.

No sweat Stuart...Hey Dave... the secret is already out around here. I have not participated in this practice (yet), but there are club and restaurant owners in the area who grant weekend gigs to bands who will sell tickets to their own gigs in a darn restaurant.
And I wonder how many folks have had to have a "friend of the band" count the heads who have entered the gig location between 8- midnight so that there is an accurate count on the "percentage of the door deal"? I have not done the "Big Door Percentage Deal Gig (yet) either. I know musicians who have.

IMO...It doesn't take too long before the quality of the music matches the quality of the food, drinks, and service in these small gig locations around here. I guess , rightly so. I'll take the "no pay" nursing home gig/ benefit gig first. Sorry for the quasi-rant, and I should move to Tasmania.