Playing bass keyboard or bass + harmony keyboard is actually a lot of fun. Out of 20 songs, I play keyboard on two of them, where I do both the bass part and some harmony/chords. It doesn't take over the bass guitar playing and can actually teach you a new approach to bass or give you new ideas. JPJ did it and it worked out great, didn't it?
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What does the future look like for weekend warriors?
- Thread starter Jarrett
- Start date
On the other hand, there are quite a few musicians, making their living from "day jobs," who primarily play on weekends but are as gifted on their instruments and as passionate about their music as other "full-time" musicians.
And some of these "part-timers" are actually gigging more than the "full-time" players.
"Pro" is very difficult to define.
As someone who makes a living doing something other than music, but is very serious about music, and makes decent money playing two-three times a week, I prefer to think of myself as a "part-time professional."
It's way more than a hobby to me, if less than a full-time occupation.
You're right, and I can see doing that as a creative outlet on stage, to occasionally augment the bass playing. I have some basic keyboard skills, so that would appeal to me. But I wouldn't be interested in doing it just to reproduce the sounds of a current hit. Then again, that wouldn't really apply to the bands I currently play with. Also -- wouldn't be enough room on the tiny stages we usually play. So, uh, never mind.
Not wishing to start/continue an argument here, but since you threw this out there...
That is really an insulting statement. Especially given that anyone pursuing the "arts" has a very difficult time making a living from it.
I'm a full time, professional artist. I make my living from being an artist. At one time (long before having a family and other non-selfish responsibilities came along) I was a musician full time, professionally.
Now, fast forward 30 years, 4 kids and a mortgage, I now am just as serious (if not more so) about music and being a musician. However I now do it part time. Does that make me a "weekend warrior"? Yes, I suppose it does. Is it a hobby where I just get together with my musician friends on the weekend for some drinks and to jam? Hell no.
Music ain't no hobby for me. While it is part time, it is still very much an obsession and I am nothing but professional in my approach to my instrument, the people I play, write, record and perform music with...and for. And I damn well expect to be paid for it, even if isn't my "full time" job. I pay taxes on my musical earnings and use expenses as deductions so the government doesn't think my musical endeavors are a hobby either.
Don't assume anyone not playing music full time and only doing it as a "weekend warrior" is anything less than professional. Yes, I'm sure there are hacks who do it for fun and it's just a hobby. Good for them. Life's to short to not enjoy it. If I were fortunate enough to make a good living for myself and my family solely from music, I would jump all over it.
Jarrett - everything you said is right, and if I may oblige an old codger moment, I'll say that nobody who wasn't doing this as far back as the 80s or early 90s experienced what the live music scene used to be and can't compare.
Someone in this thread actually said that they think there are plenty of opportunities to play now - as much as 2-3 times a month. The reality is that people in relatively good bands used to be able to book themselves 4-5 times a week at or above today's per gig pay rates.
There is a small piece of good news. As interest in live music is declining, our ability to easily and cheaply distribute music to audiences far beyond our local towns has grown dramatically. With some skill, it is possible to record a decent single using GarageBand and publish it for $35 with CD Baby, who will place it on iTunes where somebody in Iceland can download it just as easily as your next door neighbor.
So - answering your question - weekend warriors might not get to play live much anymore. But, if we have the patience and are willing to learn a few new things (mainly about recording), we can expose many, many more people to our music.
I still like playing live more, though.
Someone in this thread actually said that they think there are plenty of opportunities to play now - as much as 2-3 times a month. The reality is that people in relatively good bands used to be able to book themselves 4-5 times a week at or above today's per gig pay rates.
There is a small piece of good news. As interest in live music is declining, our ability to easily and cheaply distribute music to audiences far beyond our local towns has grown dramatically. With some skill, it is possible to record a decent single using GarageBand and publish it for $35 with CD Baby, who will place it on iTunes where somebody in Iceland can download it just as easily as your next door neighbor.
So - answering your question - weekend warriors might not get to play live much anymore. But, if we have the patience and are willing to learn a few new things (mainly about recording), we can expose many, many more people to our music.
I still like playing live more, though.
People would be surprised at the percentage of well known musicians who make most of their money doing something else. I know a couple guys who have been reviewed in Downbeat Magazine and work day jobs at Dell.
I think the perception of "weekend warriors" has very much to do with the topic at hand. Let me explain...
It has come up quite a bit in this thread, so I'll elaborate on it. There are a large group of "weekend" musicians that do play just for fun, drinks, a night out, what have you, and getting paid anything is just a bonus.
Some of them may very well treat it like a hobby, to the point that their level of professionalism may be reflected in their lack of work ethic...towards learning their instrument, learning material, promotion, performance, etc. to where they can easily lowball more serious musicians in the club scene because they simply do not care as much as others.
This has the ripple effect of watering down the entertainment pool. They can get hired cheaply by club owners, playing cheesy, classic, overdone standards to play for the lowest common denominator. Now compare that to the more professional approach of a musician who does take what they do very seriously and spends a lot of time continually striving to better themselves as musicians, picking out better (and maybe even more popular, current material) doing more work on stage setups/props, lighting, gear, promotion and the performance.
This has an effect on the market.
A couple of years ago, I joined a band briefly when I just needed gigs for the money, and the guitarists and drummer showed up to rehearsals each with a 12 pack of beer under their arms, never practiced their instrument at home, and rehearsals were just a big partying waste of time. The gigs sucked in the most embarrasing way you can imagine. Yet they got gigs, primarily because they practically did it for free.
OK, so how does a professionally run band (even if it is just made up of "weekend warriors") compete with that?
The perception that weekend warriors has some kind of negative connotation does nothing to promote the music scene and further our cause of making it more viable in a given market. But...that perception exists, so perhaps we need to ensure that even if we do it part time, we act professionally at all times to seperate us from the chaff, so to speak.
Me too. I've only ever written and recorded songs with the purpose of being able to play them live. I know there are lots of folks that still listen to some of the music I co-wrote and recorded out there and it surprises me every time they tell me they are still listening to it 20+ years later.
But I think the only reason those same people are still listening to our music two decades later is because they attended the live shows back when it was all fresh. So for me, it is all about that live interaction with people.
Yes, me as well. Although I do some recording, for me it's all about live performance. I want to share music and interact with people. Playing in a studio only just doesn't do it for me. I need to feel that energy that exists between the performer and audience. There's just no better feeling musically.
That's why getting gigs is so important to me. Of course, so is the money, but money isn't really the only driving force behind my desire to gig.
I don't want to play semantics here, but I've been thinking about just that earlier. I really like the live interaction with people. Unlike most people here I don't care if I'm interacting with people by playing notes on a bass or rapping or sweeping a filter. That probably has a lot to do with my willingness to get into more modern styles and techniques.
I had an awful time over the last couple of years trying to form/maintain or join bands and consistently gig. I had a lot of conversations with other musicians and we all came to the same conclusion...most of those I associate with are musical dinosaurs.
Has the inevitable asteroid or Ice Age come upon some of us? That is entirely possible. I'll admit that due to my advanced age, where I grew up and lived, who I associate with, etc. has shaped my musical preferences and I find myself becoming my parents demanding that my kids "turn that crap off". LOL. I admit it. I don't care for a great deal of modern music.
Still, there is a large section of the population that still likes the music I wish to play and so I forge ahead.
This is a really good point. Does the future of us playing hinge upon our ability to let go of our old favorite tools? Putting down our favorite bass to pick up an electronic noise maker?
I am flexible in that I have gigged as a guitar player in the past in both lead and rhythm capacities, but my heart lies in being the bass player. I love that role. And its the one I always come back to.
So if the future means becoming a keyboard player or a Mac player, I might be content to be a low end dinosaur...
Good old fashioned, from the heart, rock and roll is still viable...
Dave Grohl's 2012 Grammys acceptance speech:
"This is a great honour, because this record was a special record for our band. Rather than go to the best studio in the world down the street in Hollywood and rather than use all of the fanciest computers that money can buy, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine...
"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do.
"It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."
I think that the outlook for good bands probably hasn't changed much. It's probably harder for the hacks to get work. I've never been in a good band with members whose primary goal is to please the audience that had problems getting work.
Point missed.
If good old fashioned rock and roll, recorded analog, can still win a Grammy then musicians playing good old fashioned rock and roll covering those "who already have a global audience", means the future is not as bleak as one might assume. Certainly it does not mean we all have to throw our basses away and learn to play a computer.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Behavior similar to this happens in all fields. There are people who are dedicated and people who aren't. The people who aren't give the whole field a black eye in a lot of ways. It's not just music, although for music and musicians it's more obvious in a lot of ways.
scottbass
Bass lines like a big, funky giant
Things are way different now.
In the late 70's I played in a succession of bands that worked the club circuit and also some hotel gigs. We played about 75% covers and 25% originals. We averaged 4 gigs per week. We averaged $125 per person per gig. Multiply it out for 50 weeks and that was gross earnings of $25K per year. In the late 70's that was very good money...a first-year high school teacher in the late 70's made $9K for 9 months work. A first-year engineer made $16K for 12 months work.
There were probably 30 rock bands in the Twin Cities metro area that worked that much (or more) at any given time and made that much money (or more)...maybe there were more than that because I wasn't familiar with the country music niche.
There are nowhere near that many opportunities now. I know no working bands in the Twin Cities who play 4 nights a week or more for full pay. Assuming money values should be multiplied by a factor of about 4x to compare today to then, I know of only a handful of musicians in the Twin Cities who make $100K per year or more from gigging.
I am in total agreement with Sundogue about those of us who became weekend-only performing musicians over the past 20 to 30 years due to the decreasing opportunities to earn adequate money from performing only.
I only play in "good" bands, not collections of hacks. We are actually better musicians and performers now than we have ever been, because we never stopped practicing, learning and growing as musical performers.
lfmn16, I assume since you've "never been in a good band with members whose primary goal is to please the audience that had problems getting work", you are playing 4+ nights per week, every week, and making $100K+ per year?
Actually, point not missed. That song was not exceptional, in my humble opinion. If anyone other than some of the most famous musicians in the world had released that song, i doubt it would have gotten many clicks on Spotify or Pandora. Same old same old. Same problem faced by weekend warriors who play old tired songs over and over without fundamental variation. They are invisible, and barely worth the $50 or $100 a person they manage to squeeze out of a cynical bar owner. Sorry for the bleak assessment, but ignoring reality won't change it any more than slapping lipstick on a pig will make that animal something other than a blubbery oinker.
