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Originally Posted by xXMunchXx As a budding talented bassist I am looking at what are the hard facts of making a living as a bassist.
1. what are the fairly easy reachable goals for working as a bassist if I am stunning and creative as a bassist.
(ie. Are there alot of excellent bassists... never finding their way out of their basements?) |
I'll answer your last question first - yes, there are loads of excellent bassists who don't play outside their own houses.
Reachable goals? Depends on how you define reachable. If you want to tread a path that's already carved out, then your first step will be playing cover tunes. could be top 40, jazz standards, blues, country, rockabilly - whatever, that's where the majority of working bassists make their money. The pay scale goes from appalling through to pretty good salary - very few people are getting rich doing this. But if you want to get rich, music is about as reliable as doing the lottery.
If you're up for carving your own path, then it's possible to create your own career - write your own music, promote it, book gigs, get radio, play festivals, collaborate, release CDs etc. That's a bit more of a 'bespoke' career, and everyone's route into it is different. My leg up into a solo career came from having written for a bass magazine, teaching at a fairly respected college and doing a few notable sessions. But there are other ways to do it.
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2. Is more work in certain types of bass styles etc which types?
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see above
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3. What types of work make for a reasonable ability to make a decent living playing bass? Studio? Internist? (forget the word for that... )
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Not sure how a musical intern would work. 'getting a career as a studio player' is pretty much a myth these days. There are a handful of really well known players who get called for sessions, and lots of less well known players who do sessions for friends or people they bump into in bars, or people they swap skills with... the world of original music has morphed partly into an old school bartering culture - swapping studio time for drum loops, or bass tracks for guitar tracks - you play on my album, I'll play on yours etc...
So it's back to my first point - the nearest to guaranteed work as a musician is covers gigs, and from there you've just got to network network network and see what else comes along.
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4. Do most guys end up playing 2 bit gigs most of their lives?
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depends how you define 2-bit - very few people end up playing arenas, lots of people reach the lofty world of 5 people in one van sharing a hotel room touring for the t-shirt money. I also know a far few people who manage to pay sizeable mortgages playing in high quality function bands.
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5. In other words... does talent/skill+creativity quite often go nowhere?
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If the opposite of nowhere is huge commercial acclaim and wealth, yes. I'd say that skill+creativity never goes 'nowhere', as it's primary use is about defining who we are as creative people, but in career terms, there are a lot of very very creative people who can't pay the bills with music.
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Hopefully I am asking guys who have a fairly good/bad experiences...and how it happened for them. (Was luck/connections mostly involved?)
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I've seen both ends of it - still see both ends of it from time to time - and chance encounter definitely plays a very big part in it. Also just being a nice person counts for a lot. I know that I don't choose the people that I tour with based solely on their musical expertise. They have to be the kind of people that I'd be happy to drive round in a car with for two weeks. I don't care how talented you are, if you're a pain in the ass for the 22 hours a day that you're not on stage, I really don't want to be touring with you
So, be nice, work hard, learn as many songs in as many styles as you possibly can, always carry a business card, practice your recording technique so if the break comes you don't mess it up (recording is a very different world to playing live), and write music for yourself - if it happens to sell millions, that's a bonus, but write it for you and you can't lose.
Steve
www.stevelawson.net
) - and he's currently on tour in the UK (see 
