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can i live from music?
- Thread starter Ingratil
- Start date
Back in the early 90s I had a job taking care of indoor plants (like offices, malls, etc) the pay was not bad, but it wasn't professional level (the sales staff did better, but they are miserable "normal" people). One day I was introduced to a new co-worker, a cute black girl who seemed familiar. I found out that she had spent the last 4 years touring the world in one of the most popular bands in the NE (RI and Northampton MA), very eclectic, knew PJ Harvey and Sinead O'Connor etc etc. Her band was on the 4Ad label and they packed local shows, they had not fans. but worshipers. When they toured Europe they were amazed that the kids knew all the words to the songs! (No they were not The Pixies, just very close in time and local) Her name was Leslie. That band (still exists in a different form) made NO MONEY, they slept on bare mattresses in a junky un-heated house and still lived on Raman and peanut butter. For Leslie, making $12 an hour watering plants in malls was a lucritive and relaxing break from her ordeal with international fame. (One day Leslie heard some guy downstairs from her trying to learn her bass lines from their albums. She almost knocked on his door because he was getting them all wrong. Imagine that...)
Have I given my standard speech yet? In brief: I make a good living playing music. I just finished doing seven 5 hour gigs in the last 8 days. In a nutshell, here's my advice:
A) You have to go to where gigs are. Not necessarily NY or LA, but a major city. Wedding/function bands make very different amounts of money depending on where you are. Research those markets and figure out where the money is.
B) Learn A LOT of songs. Jam in E is not a song. There are hundreds of songs to learn that are standard repertoire. Get started now.
C) Develop other money- making skills besides bass. I play electric and acoustic, ceremony guitar, ukulele, do PA, DJ, I'm the booking agent and bandleader and most importantly...this is the biggest thing I can tell you...in my mind this the entire tweak to whether or not I can make a living playing music... I sing. Lead and backgrounds.
LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING.
A decent bass player who sings is worth 20 times as much as an amazing bass player who doesn't.
A) You have to go to where gigs are. Not necessarily NY or LA, but a major city. Wedding/function bands make very different amounts of money depending on where you are. Research those markets and figure out where the money is.
B) Learn A LOT of songs. Jam in E is not a song. There are hundreds of songs to learn that are standard repertoire. Get started now.
C) Develop other money- making skills besides bass. I play electric and acoustic, ceremony guitar, ukulele, do PA, DJ, I'm the booking agent and bandleader and most importantly...this is the biggest thing I can tell you...in my mind this the entire tweak to whether or not I can make a living playing music... I sing. Lead and backgrounds.
LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING, LEARN TO SING.
A decent bass player who sings is worth 20 times as much as an amazing bass player who doesn't.
My main worry would be the insurance and ability to sock money away for retirement, etc.
I mean, there are other concerns as well (like the fact that for every musician who "makes it" there are 5000 with just as much drive and skill who never go anywhere.
You are young so you should go for what makes you happy, but (I don't mean to sound like a wise old man or like I'm talking down to you because you are some ignorant kid) it makes sense to think about the future as well.
If you get seriously ill or suffer an injury, you could both temporarily lose your livelihood AND go into major debt. Not to jinx anything, but what would happen if one of your hands got injured and you lost the ability to play permanently? It's always good to have a solid backup plan--something to fall back on. Get a degree or learn a trade of some kind maybe so that you can earn money from other skills in case things don't pan out.
All that boring adult crud said, good Luck to you! Rock on in your youthful abandon!!!!
I mean, there are other concerns as well (like the fact that for every musician who "makes it" there are 5000 with just as much drive and skill who never go anywhere.
You are young so you should go for what makes you happy, but (I don't mean to sound like a wise old man or like I'm talking down to you because you are some ignorant kid) it makes sense to think about the future as well.
If you get seriously ill or suffer an injury, you could both temporarily lose your livelihood AND go into major debt. Not to jinx anything, but what would happen if one of your hands got injured and you lost the ability to play permanently? It's always good to have a solid backup plan--something to fall back on. Get a degree or learn a trade of some kind maybe so that you can earn money from other skills in case things don't pan out.
All that boring adult crud said, good Luck to you! Rock on in your youthful abandon!!!!
Don't die wondering. Listen to the concerns raised here but if your passion is music give it a shot!
there are hundreds of people in every town competing for those gigs.
all the people that i know that litterally survive off of just music have to do a ton of differnt things to make ends meet. teach, perform, session work, instrument setup/work, ext.
its really, really hard to do. unless your one of the maniacs thats absolutely compelled to go into music professionally, look elsewhere.
that being said, i am pursuing music as a career, with all of this in mind..
this sounds about right..
you need to be versatile, to add on to my last post.. you need to be able to play acoustic bass arco or pizz, to do chamber work, orchestral gigs, and jazz, as well as electric bass for jazz, funk, rock, pop, all that, and anything else you might get paid for. you should probably learn other instruments, and like he said, and i absolutely agree with, you need to become a competent singer. that doesent mean to practice singing your favorite zeppelin tunes while you drive to work, that means studying voice with a good instructor..
