Double Bass Day Jobs/Making a Living (DB forum thread)

[emilio g]

To those of you who work 9-5 jobs...what do you do?

To those of you who don't...how do you pay for things?

I've been talking to some friends who graduated college last year and all of them got a day job somewhere, went to grad school, are still living at home, or got lucky and are gigging/teaching enough to scrape by.

Graduate school (at least next year) isn't an option and neither is living at home so I'm trying to get some idea of how I'm going to support myself after May of 2010...

As for employment, people have advised me to do almost everything under the sun from bar tending to playing weddings to getting an IT job. The cruise ship thing seemed appealing at first, but not being able to take lessons is a major drawback for me. Basically as long as I have the time and energy to keep playing and practicing, I'm happy.

Also, looking past my own needs, it seems that there are a decent amount of people here who are or will soon be in the same position so I think this is an important topic!

 

[Socalef9]

Im flight instructing and doing aerial tours of los angeles. still live at home =(

 

[electracoyote]

I retired from public education (secondary English) about 7 years ago and it has been music or bust since then. I started my own entertainment company (mobile DJ and lighting) doing primarily weddings and corporate events, strictly black-tie stuff for clients with deep pockets. I also teach bass, guitar, mandolin, averaging around 20 students a week most of the time. It all pays very well, but it's not being a musician, so after this season I auditioned and got hired by two good local bands. I'm hanging on to the students, but I can't gig with a band and do the DJ events at the same time, nor can I book my bands for black-tie events, split the money 5 ways, and maintain that income. I'm about to see my income drop drastically and this very well may be the move that results in the "bust."

 

[fdeck]

Physicist, with day job as an engineering manager.

At one gig I overheard a couple guys discussing an upcoming bartending gig in terms of the amount of tip money they expected to make. It was for some sort of private event. I was envious.

 

[Marcus Johnson]

No day gig for me, but I do studio work (playing, producing, arranging) and teach bass privately. Married, so two incomes.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I teach full time at the local university. It ends up being about 1/4 to 1/3 "legit" theory and the rest miscellaneous jazz duties, including jazz bass. It's nice to be immersed in music during the day, but it's a day gig just the same.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Software Engineer for a major audio technology company. It feeds the habits.

 

[Marc Piane]

Gigs, clinics, composing, arranging, engineering, a little producing, private lesson teaching, shoveling snow, and mowing lawns. I'm also co-founder and md for a theatre summer camp for 5th-8th graders at the University of Chicago. My wife is also a school teacher so we have 2 incomes.

I used to teach 2nd grade homeroom then jr high and hs strings after that. I went cold turkey and quit about 6 years back. I made a commitment to do only freelance music stuff. It was a little dicey at first and it is still a daily hustle but I wouldn't change my mind for anything. Best decision I ever made (next to marrying my wife and having kids).

 

[Marcus Johnson]

Maybe an interesting subplot would be... How do single double bassists survive? Happy to say I'm not one of them, and no, it's not just the income. Ms. Johnson is very fine, thanks.

Yes, I know the joke, and the punchline.

 

[Uncletoad]

I've been fixing guitars for 20+ years for day money. Opened a storefront for it in 1997. In my neck of the woods maybe a dozen musicians make real money, the rest starve, have wives that work, or have some kind of day work.

It doesn't matter what you do during the day to make coin. If you can do it in music you're lucky. I'm lucky.

The biggest thing is to try to find something flexible enough that you can gig, rehearse, take off for several days or at least do stuff during the day with other musicians. Years ago I was tied to a day job I couldn't get time away from and missed sessions and tours and the like where I could have advanced my musician career but couldn't for want of paying the bills. That's a choice I wish I could have back.

 

[jallenbass]

Desktop Support Specialist. Ironically, the 2 IT jobs that I've had came from my musician connections. My wife has a lucrative violin studio so we have a dual income household. I personally enjoy the balance I now have between a solid income with benefits and my gigging/teaching lifestyle. As a fulltime musician I didn't make enough money and eventually burned out from working too much. Now I have the best of both worlds (to me). My present job leaves me with enough energy and flexibility to pursue my musical fun.

 

[Paul Warburton]

Been lucky enough to just play, teach a bit and invest in basses for resale. Big fun.

EDIT: Oh. GO BRONCOS.

 

[Marc Piane]

The biggest thing is to try to find something flexible enough that you can gig, rehearse, take off for several days or at least do stuff during the day with other musicians. Years ago I was tied to a day job I couldn't get time away from and missed sessions and tours and the like where I could have advanced my musician career but couldn't for want of paying the bills.

That's exactly why I left teaching in a school. Too rigid of a schedule. I fortunately never missed anything big but I was always afraid I might.

 

[Mark Perna]

Consulting medical physicist. I own my own company, make my own rules and schedule. I don't have the flexibility to tour (wouldn't want to anyway) but I can take days off for sessions or gigs if they come up during the day. I generally arrange my medical physics work around my gig schedule. Unlike a lot of guys who take the day gig just to make coin, I actually like my day gig almost as much as music. And sometimes I like it more like when I'm stuck playing a lame wedding or something. It certainly pays better. I make more money doing medical physics work by January 5th on most years than I'll make in a year playing music at 8-12 gigs per month.

Sometimes my worlds collide in odd ways though. Around '99-00, I was booking a club in Pittsburgh where I usually played 4 nights per week. One day I got reamed out by the owner/manager of the club for starting the first set with a medium blues. He said it was too "dirge-y" and really reamed me out way out of proportion to whatever offense I'd committed. I really suspect that he had other issues weighing on him and I was just the lucky target he took his anger out on. The whole time he was yelling at me, I was struck dumb because all I could think about was how earlier that day, I had been advising the CEO of a 45 million dollar per year hospital system how to run his organization with respect to the use of radioactive materials and radiation-producing devices and here I am, six hours later, getting yelled at by a glorified bartender for not playing "peppy" enough. He later apologized but for a while I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

There have been a few other instances. I'm the Radiation Safety Officer for one hospital I go to. A couple of Christmases ago I was part of the band playing for that same hospital's administrative staff's Christmas party. I'll never forget the double take the COO did when he saw me playing bass in the band. He'd had no idea of my "double life".

mark

 

[john allemond]

Steelworker/welder by trade, 32 years in industry.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

f the club for starting the first set with a medium blues. He said it was too "dirge-y" and really reamed me out way out of proportion to whatever offense I'd committed.

I'll bite. How is it possible to play a dirge over a medium blues? I'm confused.

 

[jallenbass]

I'll bite. How is it possible to play a dirge over a medium blues? I'm confused.

Just goes to show you how talented Mark is!

 

[Mark Perna]

I'll bite. How is it possible to play a dirge over a medium blues? I'm confused.

I'm just reporting what the guy said. He wanted peppy and we were more on the mellow side so he used hyperbole and called it "dirge-y". We weren't literally playing a dirge (if I remember right we played "Things Ain't What They Used To Be").

The place was a restaurant. I had to make a call each night as to how to approach the music. Some crowds clearly want a show, others were clearly there for dinner and conversation. I didn't feel that night's crowd wanted to be hit in the face with something jumpy and opted to be more in the background. It was a gut instinct based on my experience playing at the place. The manager disagreed with me. Like I said earlier though, the guy probably had other issues weighing on him and just used me to unload on. He usually wasn't that invested in the content of the music. He later apologized. The Twilight Zone moment was the juxtaposition between advising a CEO how to run his 45 million dollar per year facility in the morning and being yelled at in the evening for not playing something peppy enough.


mark

 

[mesmithnm]

I work as a software architect for a major government R&D lab. I don't know if this info really helps out emilio g. Like calivox (and fdeck), this kind of day gig is something you have to prepare for - you can't just become a medical physicist by staying at a Holiday Inn Express. I suspect to do his job, he has least one graduate degree in a technical field. I also enjoy my job and I ended up here after studying music in college (Berklee and the University of TN), realizing that I didn't have enough desire to hustle a living in music and getting a couple of engineering degrees. For me, this was the right path - I still get to play music and I have a good job that I enjoy (well, at least most days). But whatever you choose to do, make sure you like to do it. Going into any field just because the money looks good will sooner or later fail you. If you have to make music every day, then you'll need to figure out how to blaze a path like Marcus or Chris or fingers that may not be all gigging but it's all music. Paul is an exceptional case that takes exceptional talent!

Mark

 

[Monte]

I manage a wholesale florist providing flower shops and event planners in N. Mississippi & W. Alabama with fresh flowers from Ecuador, Colombia, Holland, New Zealand, and the rest of the world.

Love it, except for the very early hours. Do get home pretty early for long naps though.

Side benefit is I get lots of wedding / party gigs through florists I work with.

If you want to break into that market, make yourselves a decent card, a pricelist, and a short demo CD. Find the busiest wedding event people in your area and promise them a certain cut if they book gigs for you....benefit is they know budget and if they are getting a cut they will often book for more bread than you might have asked for.