Ouch... that's gotta hurt.
Hey, at least we beat the autoharp group!
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Poll: How many shows have you played?
- Thread starter Joe Nerve
- Start date
Hey, at least we beat the autoharp group!
I picked 500-750.
I figure there are at least 8 years of my life where I've been playing in church every week (sometimes twice, though I'd count 2 services in one day as one gig). Add about 50-70 gigs per group with 3 different long-term bands. Before most of that there were 9 years of orchestras and a bit of band from Elementary-to-High school. Sprinkled throughout are shorter runs of gigs with various other groups.
I guess at this point I'm probably not far off from the 750-1000 club.
Live playing has become a central part of all my music experiences. If there's not a live performance -or at least a group jam- in the works then I find it hard to muster up the interest in any particular musical pursuit.
-First ensemble performance was probably orchestra in the summer after third grade. 1990?
-First paid gig, was probably one of the gigs with my first real band, an indie/pop/rock group called Something Ordinary. Sometime around 2003, I likely made about 20 bucks.
I figure there are at least 8 years of my life where I've been playing in church every week (sometimes twice, though I'd count 2 services in one day as one gig). Add about 50-70 gigs per group with 3 different long-term bands. Before most of that there were 9 years of orchestras and a bit of band from Elementary-to-High school. Sprinkled throughout are shorter runs of gigs with various other groups.
I guess at this point I'm probably not far off from the 750-1000 club.
Live playing has become a central part of all my music experiences. If there's not a live performance -or at least a group jam- in the works then I find it hard to muster up the interest in any particular musical pursuit.
-First ensemble performance was probably orchestra in the summer after third grade. 1990?
-First paid gig, was probably one of the gigs with my first real band, an indie/pop/rock group called Something Ordinary. Sometime around 2003, I likely made about 20 bucks.
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If so- we're talkin mega-gig territory!!! 
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
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- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Since 1977 about 6000 I guess
That's at 3 gigs/week. Could be closer to 8000. That's at 4/week. Probably more accurate.
That's at 3 gigs/week. Could be closer to 8000. That's at 4/week. Probably more accurate.
Somewhere between 1500-2000. I'm glad you didn't ask how many of those were good paying.
Just looking at the folks with over a 1000 gigs and going "wow!"
I hope the set list changes often. I can't do the same gig more than about 3 times without getting bored shiftless and moving on. The musicals I did, I wanted to slit my wrist after the first week.
Jazz is nice. You never play the same song the same way twice.
I hope the set list changes often. I can't do the same gig more than about 3 times without getting bored shiftless and moving on. The musicals I did, I wanted to slit my wrist after the first week.
Jazz is nice. You never play the same song the same way twice.
All the way up to roughly the year 2000 playing three to five nights a week was quite common in these parts. Set up on Wednesday or Thursday night play through Saturday, pack up Sunday morning and perhaps do an afternoon gig at one of the beachfront pubs; the band would move to a different location for the next week. Dozens of clubs with live music within a 50 mile radius in a densely populated area. 200 gigs a year was very common. Granted, things are quite different now with a much lower appetite for live music, so it is easy to see how having played 2,000 gigs during one's life might seem preposterous had you not been there.
I really liked playing the musicals here back in the late 80's with various semi-pro troupes. The lead actresses/actors would change depending on their day-gig and real world schedules. Sure, three shows a day on the weekends got a little old old, but the folks I was playing with were all professional enough and there was always plenty of "crew humor" to make it fun. And the pay and amenities at the theaters I played were always well above par. As for the jazz stuff, for the bulk of my theater gigs I was playing with some great musicians that I'd either played with in jazz environments, or the connections made led to jazz gigs. The written theater charts sometimes weren't strictly adhered to, and there was sometimes a fair amount of liberal interpretation and improvisation involved.
First show as a guitarist, qualified because I owned one when i was 15, I think.
Westover Air Force Base, the Officer's Club.
Guestimate at about 425-450 shows, and another 30 or so as a bass player.
I lurk here to learn to play better. Our bass player tells me I don't play bass like a guitarist. She meant it as a compliment.
Yeah, that's the bass effect. I also play guitar, and I find it way easier to get bass gigs.
I did exactly that for over a decade. Sure, there might have been the occasional weekend off for holidays (pretty much only Christmas itself) or personal vacations, etc but that was more than offset by weeks where it was 4, 5, 6, etc gigs and days with multiple gigs - so that average of two gigs a week was easily exceeded - and that was largely just one band, was playing in others at the same time. Would be much more difficult now - that was a large band with horn section and we often carried a real B3 and Leslie.
Consider TB demographics.
I bet at least 1/3 of TB has been playing bass over 20 years. Play twice a week for 20 years .= 2000 performances.
I played 4x a week up to 2008. Couldn't do that in todays music market.
- Oct 7, 2000
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I can say this... Having started in the 70s, I actually thought I played a lot more than I did. Before starting this thread, I sat down and wrote out the year numbers estimating how many shows I played each year. There were years where I did do lots of touring, as well as playing in several bands. I averaged 4 gigs a week for a few years. And then there were years (like 2010 -15) where I maybe played 20 gigs all year. Some where I played none. Used to say I played well over 2000, but when I put it on paper, it didn't add up.
My point - I somewhat agree with your post, but I can cut some people slack cuz its tough being accurate.
I do agree that it's easy to imagine we've done more than we have (and that I still look like the 25 year old photo on my driver's license...)
OK, let's look at the numbers.
Current choir that I've been in for 10 years, around 6-8 concerts a year, and playing bass at church during that same time average about 26 times a year. Using a conservative number of 30 x 10 years, that puts me at 300.
No choir for some years before that, but bass at church probably averaged closer to 15 times a year for the prior 15 years. 15 x 15 = 225.
300 + 225 = 525.
Starting around 1970: Jr High, High School and college choirs, limited touring with a Christian vocal group, other choirs... not high numbers, but probably at least 75.
525 + 75 = 600.
Safely puts me in the 500-750 category.
Current choir that I've been in for 10 years, around 6-8 concerts a year, and playing bass at church during that same time average about 26 times a year. Using a conservative number of 30 x 10 years, that puts me at 300.
No choir for some years before that, but bass at church probably averaged closer to 15 times a year for the prior 15 years. 15 x 15 = 225.
300 + 225 = 525.
Starting around 1970: Jr High, High School and college choirs, limited touring with a Christian vocal group, other choirs... not high numbers, but probably at least 75.
525 + 75 = 600.
Safely puts me in the 500-750 category.
I think around a thousand across a few instruments? It's a fun game to try and add them up. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to start young and play a lot. I'm 35 now and have been playing in front of people in some form or other since I was 10 or 11.
