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Whats your current playing situation

What's your current playing situation

  • This is my vision and it's all good

    Votes: 56 32.2%

  • Someone else's vision and a good enough situation

    Votes: 83 47.7%

  • I'm here because I owe someone a favor

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • I'm here because there's nothing else around and it's mostly tolerable

    Votes: 35 20.1%

  • I hate it here and I wanna go home

    Votes: 3 1.7%

  • Asparagus (I don't like carrots)

    Votes: 21 12.1%
  • Total voters
    174
  • Poll closed .
#21
Band 1 is all originals. Really good songwriter/OK guitar/ lead vocal.
Band in reform mode having lost female singer, and let the original drummer go. New drummer who is pretty basic as far as skills, but good groove/tempo/feel and good singer - nice voice - mostly backups. A new female singer who is experienced and has a nice voice - can get a little operatic, but sings well, fun, good attitude, and plays pretty good fiddle. Also sometimes can use a really good keyboard player, but only occaisionally as he lives 275 miles away and this is not a major money making project, but he and wife love visiting the area as they are besties with the guitar player. Local, small very isolated area (97465), 2-3 hour gigs once or twice a month. Has taken a while to get all the pieces together, but a lot of songs and coming together quickly. First gig mid May.

Band 2 is all covers '50s-semi current 4pc rock/pop/blues. This band is for playing the senior center once a month and all of the local community benefit and charity gigs. A favor for the female singer/woodwinds who is a sweetheart and just wants to play and people love playing with her and this community just loves her so gigs are always fun! Was a leftover project from a really popular band pre-covid that the leader/lead guitarist dropped right as covid was over and gigs were opening back up. Has taken a couple of years trying to find another guitar player that could fill the bill. So about ready to play out. Good peeps, pretty good players, good vibes! First gig early May.
 
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#22
I'm playing in two different groups every week, and have been for over a year now.

One is right up my alley and in my comfort zone.

The other isn't, and is a challenge because I get one live 30 min rehearsal on music I don't know, and a hour and half later I'm playing it live.

I'm playing music I like in both situations and I'm challenged to be better. I have no complaints.
 
#23
I work on and play my own vision which is a collaboration with a buddy of mine and I also have a band with a couple of guys I started playing music with in middle school, the one guy moved 6 houses down from me! Which has been super fun to have one of my best friends right down the street, been dusting off some old songs we used to play and jamming and fleshing out new ones. None of it is very serious, good hang with no deadline just having fun and making some cool music along the way! Eventually we’ll work through recording some of the older songs that never got their due diligence of a proper recording and we’ll eventually play some shows down the line.
I only play originals so I’m grateful to have one avenue to really get creative and collaborate and foster each others ideas to life and I’m glad for the other band to have a place to refine some older music now that I’m older and somewhat more experienced with writing bass lines. I also appreciate the laid back vibe, everybody else is grown adults and none of us work traditional 9-5s so we all appreciate the times when it all lines up and we understand when it doesn’t.
It’s also great to have realistic expectations to just have fun and we’ll do the other stuff when we get there, I feel like even the most well intentioned bands I’ve been in have put so much unneeded pressure on the band to make music and get out and play shows or record it ended
 
#25
I'm focused on (primarily) originals projects (at least 50% original material) for the past 15+ years, so I have to be in several projects at once to keep my calendar as busy as I'd like.
4 originals projects
- Celtic rock-ish (60% originals)
- World Music/Jazz/Fusion (90% originals)
- Americana/Songwriter (50% originals)
- Young Songwriter Duo (50% originals, but her youthful taste in covers has opened my ears to a lot of new/current material)

I only sing lead occasionally, and while I contribute creatively, I do not compose/write songs. So my work is pretty much someone else's vision which is cool with me as long as I'm cool with the vision.

Then there is a regular sub gig in a cover band - good guys, easy hang, good money

Then there is as much other sub work as I can get, along with session work (in person, or remote).

its working pretty well for me, and seems to work for the folks I play with.

not sure how it fits the poll options though :laugh:
 
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#26
I play in an originals jam band and on a jazz session. Also sometimes gig with a jazz band that only gets together for gigs. I like the music and it keeps me on my toes. I have become a better player because of it. The music scene in my town is pretty big so there's always opportunities.
 
#28
2 main bands and a project.
One band I'm hanging in there- too many gigs I'd rather pass on but we make a decent noise when we want.
Band 2 is my thing. Great players, loads of potential and chemistry. Under-prepped as its not the main gig for 3 out of 5...but it has legs because we can get better gigs or don't need to do them.

Project is ok recording but that masks all sorts of problems live...we only did a low key gig and I'm not doing that again. Picking my moment when I have to bail.
 
#32
ghiggin1079 said:
Sheesh I'm mad about my 30 minute commute 😆😆
Click to expand...
I drive 170 miles to rehearse. 👍 I have another home in the northern lower. I drive there, then 30 miles to rehearsal the next day. I rehearse with my son's band. (He's an excellent guitar player) I get to see my son, play music and spend time north. It's a win for me.

Oh, same scenario if we have a gig.
 
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#33
15-20 years ago I was in 4 bands at once as a sideman, with a schedule strung together like Christmas tree lights. It all paid well enough, and we had enough venues and work to make it happen. Not so after 2008, or COVID, and especially now after Helene. These days, I get to pick and choose what gigs I want, when I want them, I compose/record in my home studio and have a book of well over 30 original tunes that get played regularly with my duo and trio deals. When I hire people, I have charts and crystal clear recordings to give them.... all the things that I wished I'd had from other people in other projects in the past. I also have a completely separate solo bass project. In short, aside from the pickup and fill in gigs I take now and then, I call the shots with my projects now, and I won't gig unless the opportunity pays adequately. There aren't a lot of gigs around here (outside of private gigs) which do these days, so I stay home a lot more than I used to. I'm cool with that. I sleep better and see my family way more than I did in my 20s and 30s.
 
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#36
ryco said:
Band 1 is all originals. Really good songwriter/OK guitar/ lead vocal.
Band in reform mode having lost female singer, and let the original drummer go. New drummer who is pretty basic as far as skills, but good groove/tempo/feel and good singer - nice voice - mostly backups. A new female singer who is experienced and has a nice voice - can get a little operatic, but sings well, fun, good attitude, and plays pretty good fiddle. Also sometimes can use a really good keyboard player, but only occaisionally as he lives 275 miles away and this is not a major money making project, but he and wife love visiting the area as they are besties with the guitar player. Local, small very isolated area (97465), 2-3 hour gigs once or twice a month. Has taken a while to get all the pieces together, but a lot of songs and coming together quickly. First gig mid May.

Band 2 is all covers '50s-semi current 4pc rock/pop/blues. This band is for playing the senior center once a month and all of the local community benefit and charity gigs. A favor for the female singer/woodwinds who is a sweetheart and just wants to play and people love playing with her and this community just loves her so gigs are always fun! Was a leftover project from a really popular band pre-covid that the leader/lead guitarist dropped right as covid was over and gigs were opening back up. Has taken a couple of years trying to find another guitar player that could fill the bill. So about ready to play out. Good peeps, pretty good players, good vibes! First gig early May.
Click to expand...
I still play in a band I been I since 1970. We only do a handful of gigs a year and record about an LP’s worth of material a year. We are probably better session players at this point than on stage performers. The plus for me is gigs are 600 miles a way, but studio work is done in the comfort of my downstairs family room remotely over the internet.

Pretty much I get enough pay for gigs to cover my costs for travel. Crazy?? Think of it in terms of those going to Florida to golf in the winter, or tournament softball, or bass fishing. Our Internet sales almost covers the cost of our recording habit.
 
#37
AncientNoob said:
I had to go with the limited options in my area one. Relatively small, mostly rural area. Not much of a music scene here, at least not in the kind of music I enjoy listening to and playing. I have found some people though with, if not similar, at least adjacent tastes. It's... Ok. The biggest challenge for us has been limited venues in the area for a rock band. There would be a lot more opportunity here if we played acoustic country/folk type music. I don't hate that type of music, but I definitely don't like it enough to spend my limited free time on it. Unless I decide to move (unlikely), it is what it is. Playing some enjoyable music occasionally is better than not playing at all.
Click to expand...
SO sorry to hear about your situation.
Really.
We play in a small, mostly rural area, where country music is BIG, as well as all the hip-hop / rap crap. We are very successful as a dance band and play country tunes that have some groove, and some of he newer stuff too. We draw crowds. Venues always book us as much as we are available. Even if you don't like country music, as the bassist, you can really throw a heavy groove into the songs, walk the bass, watch how the crowd goes crazy dancing, singing along with the band . . . throw in some rock tunes here and there... it can work. It DOES work. I would try to promote your band as THE entertainment source, and back it up with a fun, entertaining performance. That's also how the tips are generated.
Of course . . . what works in MY area may not work in yours. Just my 2-cents . .
 
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#39
I moved recently and am playing rock and country covers. (Not my bag, baby) Band is excellent, frontman meh. At least it keeps me playing and meeting local cats. Money is constant but not bountiful.
 

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