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I never gig but would like to. Maybe a coffee shop open mic instrumental or something. I don't have time for a band or the energy for additional drama.
I enjoy making "soundscapes". Sometimes it sounds great, sometimes it sounds like an amateur screwing around.
I'm a strong proponent of art therapy be it music, painting/drawing, or whatever does it for you. Not everything has to be done for monetary reasons.
I enjoy making "soundscapes". Sometimes it sounds great, sometimes it sounds like an amateur screwing around.
I'm a strong proponent of art therapy be it music, painting/drawing, or whatever does it for you. Not everything has to be done for monetary reasons.
I have never gigged and probably never will.
Sometimes I wonder if there are cooking forums where the 2% of users who are professional chefs and the 20% who are burnt out line cooks talk
about home cooks and then declare they would never pick up a knife again if they weren’t getting paid for it. 
Sometimes I wonder if there are cooking forums where the 2% of users who are professional chefs and the 20% who are burnt out line cooks talk
about home cooks and then declare they would never pick up a knife again if they weren’t getting paid for it. 
Strong post-content-to-username correlation.
I'm 68 and don't have sense enough to quit. It's a huge chunk of my soul. I'll quit when they drag my body off of the honky tonk bandstand!
Where’s the poll?! Next gig is September 11th in Greenwich Village.
Well - I have a regular Friday gig now with a singer song-writer during lunch. I do not really seek it. I like to play jazz and singer song-write type accompaniment but you can twist my arm to play country, Spanish or Latin music, funk and some pop. Not a rocker. I will do the odd wedding.. If I work it, I can probably do the casino circuit. But I am already busy with my job, my wife's business is closed due to Covid but the horses are still needing to be fed and she is not well / not having the strength she had before. My daughter just got hired by a FAANG - high tech company. So that's good and I felt me paying for her university education and sacrificing music carreer was not wasted.
COVID forced me to start score and orchestral composition and sound design. There are so many accessible tools and resources to let you do that and you don't even have to have a music school background. For the cost of a custom shop bass or an American FSO and a Mesa amp, you can get a good midi controller, decent powered monitors and a some libraries. Macbook or PC is extra but I already had those - in fact you can get a used one for under 1k with plenty of horse power.
I still play with creative types here in Santa Fe. Some are retired musicians, some even have played with famous people and some are attached to the symphony or opera. So people who play put but can play in as well. Due to COVID we do it less. That at least checks the boxes for playing with others but not really for an audience. But in the past the audience was a drunk crowd and I really do not want to do that anymore even if it means not qualified to post in talkbass and classified as a chair/forum musician only.
I did do some online instruction but I do not have bandwidth for that as well.
COVID forced me to start score and orchestral composition and sound design. There are so many accessible tools and resources to let you do that and you don't even have to have a music school background. For the cost of a custom shop bass or an American FSO and a Mesa amp, you can get a good midi controller, decent powered monitors and a some libraries. Macbook or PC is extra but I already had those - in fact you can get a used one for under 1k with plenty of horse power.
I still play with creative types here in Santa Fe. Some are retired musicians, some even have played with famous people and some are attached to the symphony or opera. So people who play put but can play in as well. Due to COVID we do it less. That at least checks the boxes for playing with others but not really for an audience. But in the past the audience was a drunk crowd and I really do not want to do that anymore even if it means not qualified to post in talkbass and classified as a chair/forum musician only.
I did do some online instruction but I do not have bandwidth for that as well.
At the moment I do not. Well, I play for my Church. Pre-Corona, it was every Sunday. Now it’s as can happen. We’ve played once this year. Practiced maybe 10 or 12 times. We’re going to play again end of the month. - I have a day Job, have 4 kids, two practically grown, but have taken my parents in, so late nights, and all that malarkey, not so much…
I'm 71 now and a 75 year old drummer buddy with a young kid playing guitar are working about twice a month these days and practicing once a week. I feel blessed
Please allow me to augment your fascinating question with the opposite: how many gigging bass players aren't on talkbass?
I've been blessed to work with the same band (almost the same lineup, save one guy) for more than 20 years. We're still going strong and gigging regularly.
Sorry. No poll.
My original question was simply inquiring as to who does NOT gig. As is frequently the case on TB, it took on a life of its own and turned into a “how often I gig” thread, which is fine. But it’s not what I was asking.
I'm 68. Bailed on my band, gigging 3-5 times a month, in December 2019, due to back problems. I was scheduled for surgery, but along came Covid, emergency surgery only allowed, my doctor retired (don't blame him) and my surgery finally happened April 2021. I'm recovering now, and I need to start in slow, but I'm checking Craigslist, Bandmix, etc.
I don't love gigging per se, but without the pressure of upcoming gigs, I'm not motivated to learn new stuff, which is my personal "moving forward in life". Gigging is mostly an incredible PITA, but I've had some unexpectedly sublime moments mixed in.
Oops! Sorry. Posted then saw the requirements.
I do NOT gig.............................................right now
I don't love gigging per se, but without the pressure of upcoming gigs, I'm not motivated to learn new stuff, which is my personal "moving forward in life". Gigging is mostly an incredible PITA, but I've had some unexpectedly sublime moments mixed in.
Sorry. No poll.
My original question was simply inquiring as to who does NOT gig.
Oops! Sorry. Posted then saw the requirements.
I do NOT gig.............................................right now
Last edited:
Yep, I don’t. I played out a little as a kid in a high school punk band, but I play by myself 90% of the time now and with a friend here and there for the rest. My grandma told me to keep playing, even if just to have something to do, years ago, and I enjoy tinkering with gear and playing at home.
I’ve rebuilt my “fancier” stuff from the ground up (‘78 Ric bass and ‘62 Gibson guitar) and added a few inexpensive others to round out available sounds. My amps skew toward the cheap end, but sound great.
I’ve rebuilt my “fancier” stuff from the ground up (‘78 Ric bass and ‘62 Gibson guitar) and added a few inexpensive others to round out available sounds. My amps skew toward the cheap end, but sound great.
covid killed our band's gigging. Especially being in Canada. We had some dates lined up in the summer of 2020 and they all got "postponed". Gigs are happening in the USA. Not really in Canada. Our vaccination role out was piss poor, but that's another story. We are waiting to rebook, but can only enter the USA by plane (not by car). Can't wait to go back to playing in front of people.
I've not gigged in ages because married, moved, kids, etc.
I've never stopped playing, I write and record - there's over 1K songs linked below.
I have a job that includes public "performance" that for the last year and a half has been limited in its smaller form to Zoom and in its larger form to not at all for a year and half.
In some ways I'm dying.
I didn't even jam except by file share for over a year, and even in the last 4 months jams are hard to come by, much less gigs which really don't exist here - I've seen one local band since 2019, as of last month.
I'm not sure, tho', what I miss more, gigs or, eh, one-night other things.
Scroo covid and all those who put us here now!
I've never stopped playing, I write and record - there's over 1K songs linked below.
I have a job that includes public "performance" that for the last year and a half has been limited in its smaller form to Zoom and in its larger form to not at all for a year and half.
In some ways I'm dying.
I didn't even jam except by file share for over a year, and even in the last 4 months jams are hard to come by, much less gigs which really don't exist here - I've seen one local band since 2019, as of last month.
I'm not sure, tho', what I miss more, gigs or, eh, one-night other things.
Scroo covid and all those who put us here now!
My gigging has been severely reduced due to Covid. I have basically played in front of people since the 60's. Sometimes it's guitar, sometimes bass, and sometimes mandolin. And often all three at the same gig. Four or five years ago I was playing mostly mandolin in a Bluegrass band that stayed pretty busy; for about a year we were the house band at a really nice venue. That band ended when one of the founding members' retired, and she has since passed away.
I joined my current band about three years ago. My first year with them we played 40 dates, and we had 39 dates scheduled for 2020 when Covid hit. We played 5 or 6 of those before everything shut down. We have played several times this year at two of our regular venues, but most of our venues are not ready to open fully for bands yet. Prior to Covid I was also playing two or three times a month at church, twice a month at a local Bluegrass jam, and about once a month as a solo at an open mic. The open mic venue is still closed, the Bluegrass jams have not restarted yet, and the church music has pretty much shut down.
So, while I have no plans to stop gigging, I also have a small sound company that I no longer seek work for. That involves a lot of moving of heavy gear, and my partner (my adult son) lives about 3 hours away, and the amount of money to be made just isn't worth all the work and travel necessary. I know another local guy who also has a small sound company, and I can see the possibility of throwing in with him on some pick up gigs.
In truth, while I like the recording and production side of my music involvement,, I also enjoy playing for an audience. So I plan to continue playing out as long as I can.
Thump on,
One_Dude
I joined my current band about three years ago. My first year with them we played 40 dates, and we had 39 dates scheduled for 2020 when Covid hit. We played 5 or 6 of those before everything shut down. We have played several times this year at two of our regular venues, but most of our venues are not ready to open fully for bands yet. Prior to Covid I was also playing two or three times a month at church, twice a month at a local Bluegrass jam, and about once a month as a solo at an open mic. The open mic venue is still closed, the Bluegrass jams have not restarted yet, and the church music has pretty much shut down.
So, while I have no plans to stop gigging, I also have a small sound company that I no longer seek work for. That involves a lot of moving of heavy gear, and my partner (my adult son) lives about 3 hours away, and the amount of money to be made just isn't worth all the work and travel necessary. I know another local guy who also has a small sound company, and I can see the possibility of throwing in with him on some pick up gigs.
In truth, while I like the recording and production side of my music involvement,, I also enjoy playing for an audience. So I plan to continue playing out as long as I can.
Thump on,
One_Dude
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