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Red Flags For Bass Players Looking for Work

#81
Ric5 said:
Ya but those of us who have a full time career and a part time music hobby we don't want to gig a lot.
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This thread is not about guys that don't want to gig a lot It was about guys out of work(music) that want to gig a lot.

But since you bring it up, is it that you can't gig a lot or you don't want to.

I mentioned that we are all different. I can understand guys that can't gig a lot. I will never understand guys that play bass, like to play bass are physically and mentally able to gig but don't like to gig.

BTW, I have a full time professional career and will alter my schedule and do just about anything to ad another show to my schedule. But understand, a lot of it has to do with the band I'm in. I love the music, vibe and the hang.Were going to be The Next Big thing On Mars.
 
#82
jive1 said:
Yup, I get it. You don't. ;)
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No, you get what you do and it works for you.

You don't have a clue as to what I do, why I do it,what I get, don't get or anything else jive. You understand your life and your music.

You sort of live between your own 2 ears and nothing else matters or makes sense to you.

And I guess thats fine there are a lot of guys like you.
 
#83
MrLenny1 said:
I agree with bluewine. Sounds like most ads on CL. 90 percent are guys
who have never gigged and probably never will. it's hard to get out of the garage,
but if you are a player you will not find work on CL. You will find it by hanging in
bars & getting to know working musicians and getting your name around.
It has been the same way for 25 years for me.
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I like this guy.
 
#84
One thing I know... if you're older (ok, mature) and playing in an established musical genre - you are most likely not going to become rich or famous.

Why not?

Rich and Famous are reserved for the young and pretty (exploitable), or for the guys who are really pushing the envelope of new types of music. Who are usually young. Not necessarily pretty.

There are tons of old guys who play established music. Less than 1% of them are good enough to warrant real attention. Most of them wrote their music back when it was somewhat cutting edge.

For the other 99% of us, playing cover tunes (or originals which are really just ripoffs of cover tunes), we should be happy enough to play to a bar full of drunk college girls on the weekends. Or maybe weddings, or festivals, or the graduation parties of our friends' kids.

That's why we can just be happy to play a few times a month, have fun, and then go back to our wives, our families, and our real jobs.
 
#86
JustMessin said:
One thing I know... if you're older (ok, mature) and playing in an established musical genre - you are most likely not going to become rich or famous.

Why not?

Rich and Famous are reserved for the young and pretty (exploitable), or for the guys who are really pushing the envelope of new types of music. Who are usually young. Not necessarily pretty.

There are tons of old guys who play established music. Less than 1% of them are good enough to warrant real attention. Most of them wrote their music back when it was somewhat cutting edge.

For the other 99% of us, playing cover tunes (or originals which are really just ripoffs of cover tunes), we should be happy enough to play to a bar full of drunk college girls on the weekends. Or maybe weddings, or festivals, or the graduation parties of our friends' kids.

That's why we can just be happy to play a few times a month, have fun, and then go back to our wives, our families, and our real jobs.
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You make a good point. I know I was sitting in the dressing room last weekend almost in tears, because I was tired and realized I was 58 and not 18 any more.

I don't have a family or wife to go back home to. I usualy go back home alone or with some cocktail waitress for hate sex.
 
#87
bluewine said:
No you get what you do and it works for you.

You don't have a clue as to what I do, why I do it,what I get, don't get or anything else jive. You understand your life and your music.

You sort of live between your own 2 ears and nothing else matters or makes sense to you.

And I guess thats fine there are a lot of guys like you.
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Dude, I'm just yanking your chain because you say that crap all the time. Chill, it's a joke, hence the smiley.

Seriously, you don't get it. :D <-----see the smiley there?
 
#88
jive1 said:
Dude, I'm just yanking your chain because you say that crap all the time. Chill, it's a joke, hence the smiley.

Seriously, you don't get it. :D <-----see the smiley there?
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I undestand the smiley face jive.

You seem organized and have a very methodical aproach to music and what you do with it.

I never know what I am going to do next and am always coming out of left field in one way or another.

I understand my chain being yanked, but we do come from different planets.:D
 
#89
"Working band needs Bass, Keys, Guitarist, Drummer"

"Work waiting" - W T F does this mean, anyway?

"No time wasters" - So when I show up for the audition and you announce you're no longer doing half the songs I was told to learn, or you're a disorganised rabble who take an hour to set up, noodle around another 15 minutes "getting your sound" in a room you've been rehearsing in for 8 months, break for a smoke, noodle some more, then spend 10 minutes discussing what song you want to play first, you're not wasting *MY* time?

Oh; and any band that rehearses more than they gig. If you just want a weekly fun jam, fer chrissakes put it in your ad so I won't waste my time or yours.
 
#90
how is 'looking to gig twice a month' a "red flag"??


I think it's good if any band tells you EXACTLY what they want to do up front. I have more problems with the bands that lie about it or very vague about their plans.

not all of us are in this for a full time career.
 
#93
bluewine said:
jive1 said:
Out of curiosity, was there ever a time in the last decade where you had to make a living solely by playing music? Or ever at all?


Never, never had the guts or willing to take the risk.

I have a deep admiration and aplaus all the guys that have done it or at least tried to do it.
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I don't get it. Most of your other posts suggest that you are, and have been, a working pro for a long time...?

Re: the next big thing on Mars… you do see the sad irony in that statement, don’t you…?
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#94
I think you're selling yourself short. If you stopped doing all the auditioning and worrying/writing about auditioning, you'd have plenty of time and energy to do what it takes to organize a band and get it out there gigging.
Advantages of leading or co-leading your own band:
+ Play the type of music you want
+ Play the tunes you want
+ Choose the guys you want to play with
+ Play where you want - go after clubs and other venues where pay/play time/environment is what you like the best
+ Set up the gigs, around your schedule (an advantage for you since you say you have a full-time non-music career; my situation, too). That way, you don't have to decline any gigs due to full-time job issues/pressures.
+ Never again worry about auditioning for other people; others will have to audition for you (or, preferably, you'll just gravitate toward guys you've already worked with).


bluewine said:
  • I am the most unorganized person I know
  • Awful at directing people
  • No leadership skills,I can recognize it in others but I don't have it.
  • It would be too much work.While I have been playing for a long tme, my experience is limited.
  • I'm already in a band that would be my band if I had the skill to put together a band. We are going to be The Next big Thing On Mars


I don't think either of us are right or wrong, just different.I would be unhappy in his world as he would be in mine.
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#95
bluewine said:
Never, never had the guts or willing to take the risk.

I have a deep admiration and aplaus all the guys that have done it or at least tried to do it.
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So you started a thread to give advice about something you've never done and too afraid to do to folks who are actually doing it. Sorta like a kid telling an adult how it is in the real world. Laughable.

Not to be too harsh, but there are guys on this board that have played more gigs in the last month than you have in the last year. I'd sit back and listen before trying to give them advice.

For the record, I spent almost 2 years doing music full-time. But, I had a eating habit I couldn't break, so I had to get a regular job. If I could have only figured out how to go a month without eating, I would have been fine.
 
#96
bluewine said:
This thread is not about guys that don't want to gig a lot It was about guys out of work(music) that want to gig a lot.

But since you bring it up, is it that you can't gig a lot or you don't want to.

I mentioned that we are all different. I can understand guys that can't gig a lot. I will never understand guys that play bass, like to play bass are physically and mentally able to gig but don't like to gig.

BTW, I have a full time professional career and will alter my schedule and do just about anything to ad another show to my schedule. But understand, a lot of it has to do with the band I'm in. I love the music, vibe and the hang.Were going to be The Next Big thing On Mars.
Click to expand...

Yes but thats you! There is allot of us that want to play more and would if we could. 2x a month 3x a few times a year is all a guy like myself with a 6 year old daughter, full time job, wife full time job, house, yard, family time can handle. I already did the DIVORCE thang and have the scars from that. As much as I love playing music it has to be second to my family. There are allot of us on here in this boat and are happy with the way it floats.
 
#97
bluewine said:
You make a good point. I know I was sitting in the dressing room last weekend almost in tears, because I was tired and realized I was 58 and not 18 any more.

I don't have a family or wife to go back home to. I usualy go back home alone or with some cocktail waitress for hate sex.
Click to expand...

:eyebrow: Wow Blue quit livin in the past and live for today, accept that the ship has sailed on a music career. I'm 49 and it sailed by 30 years ago and I wasnt on it...so what! You have been playing longer than me and you had a chance to jump on and didnt, why cry over it now? Accept what you've got and have fun with it while you "have it". Life's too frickin short. And be carefull with the chicks...never know where that can lead ya. :smug:
 
#98
bluewine said:
So, you think the ads are ok for guys that depend on this for a living and are specifically looking for a band with several months of good paying dates?
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That isn't what you said.

seasoned bass player looking for work (the kind that pays)
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is not the same thing as

guys that depend on this for a living and are specifically looking for a band with several months of good paying dates
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You need to quit shifting your goalposts.
 

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