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Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 2 2007, 01:54 PM

I was driving along thinking about GMC and my not-so-illustrious musical career to date, and I got to wondering, how many of us are hard core musicians, how many are weekend giggers, and how many never leave their bedroom? Thought it could be fun to have a poll, so here it is

Take the poll and then make somments if you are interested ...

In my case, I've been in a couple of bands, done a few paid gigs, many unpaid gigs at school (slave drivers!) and now concentrate on recording. I'd love to find a way to make a living out of music, but I was ruined by a regular salary in the computer insudtry early on, and now my wife won't give up her shoe habit ... now I can afford whatever I want, but have no time to play it.

Posted by: Pavel Jun 2 2007, 02:02 PM

I played in a band and gigged 2 times - no payment! That's it! Right now i am a badroom guitarist haha

Posted by: Igorrr Jun 2 2007, 04:41 PM

I my high-tide I had two months where I gigged every week and got payed. But believe me it's the same as in the original Blues Brothers movie --> Sometimes free drinks is a much better bargain than getting payed!! Usually it was always once per month ...

Pavel go out there and show your stuff!!! Your response really surprised me... I'm like 20% a guitarist you are!!!

Posted by: GuitarDude Jun 2 2007, 05:31 PM

I had my first gig ever just two days ago and Ive only been in the band for a week xD so I was picking the chords out on stage and since we played at our school we didnt get paid.

Posted by: Pavel Jun 2 2007, 06:42 PM

I want a symphonic metal band...... i started to compose stufflike that but it takes such a huge amount of time to make it sound good.... and also there are not many people willing to play that music AND there are not enough good players here in Cro.

I hope it will change one day and i will get out of my room

Posted by: Robin Jun 2 2007, 07:27 PM

I've been playing alot of gigs, but the first time we're getting paid is in July. We're playing on one of the biggest festivals in norway, but we're not playing at the main stage. They have this metal night, we're playing on the same stage/night as Gorgoroth and many others We get around 500 euros for that gig and the traveling/hotels is covered aswell.
We have played alot on local concerts and once in Falun - sweden, on By:larm in Trondheim - Norway, and also a couple of other small shit towns
Me, my dad and my uncle might make a 3 man bluesband for my grandmothers 75th birthday aswell

Posted by: Ryan Jun 2 2007, 07:51 PM

ok first of all, ive never gigged...i would love to 2 , but how would you go about getting 1???, and also im in no band, id prefer just going solo by myself , would that be harder to get a gig like that?, or what?

Posted by: GroovinMastiff Jun 2 2007, 11:11 PM

Pavel, first of all I'd like to say that your playing blows me away!

I'm just throwing this out there as a thought, but you are probably good enough to get a scholarship of some sort to attend a music school such as Berklee in Boston, USA. At those types of schools, you will most likely find musicians who share the same love for virtuosic metal that you do (I think Dream Theater formed at Berklee if I remember correctly). And I'm sure there are some bands at music schools that would love to have a guitarist with your chops on board.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in my two cents, I wish you all the best.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 2 2007, 11:30 PM

You would have to take an organized approach to it. Noone is going to buy your services sight unseen, so you need to interest them somehow, probably with a recording of whay you would play for them. Then its a numbers game - go to local bars and similar places that feature musicians, talk to the manager, drop your tape off.

The other way is to self fund it. Hire a local hall, sell tickets to everyone you know and you should break even (I did that once or twice). Problem with that is that your Mom and Sister are good for the first couple, after that it will be just your girlfriend, and at that point it gets expensive

Posted by: rokchik Jun 2 2007, 11:38 PM

I rock the bedroom....and I play guitar there aswell! Ha Ha...sorry trying to be funny.

I've never gigged. I've done some drunken karokee with some mean air guitar but I'm sure that's not counted. A few friends have heard me play and say I'm OK but I get pretty nervous playing in front of people...especially if they play guitar. So for now I'll keep rocking in a free world....the free world of my house.

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 2 2007, 11:43 PM

Vai went to Berklee too. And John 5. Probably a bunch of others.

Random trivia that might be helpful: Berklee and the Boston Conservatory are right next to each other as sister schools. Berklee's the modern music school, Boston Conservatory's a classical music school. Maybe a good location to form a symphonic metal band with guitarists, and opera singers all together in such a small area.

Posted by: MickeM Jun 2 2007, 11:51 PM

It's been on and off for the past 10 years, now it's been like 1 year ago so it's an off period :-P We were supposed to play at a party in Mars but our drummer had some sort of period/phase or whatever of his own so it never happened, and there was suppose to be a party on May too but I have no idea what happened to that.
Anyway, it's been way too long.

And we play for food and drinks


EDIT: Don't know what criteria that is in the poll... I'll just pick one of the "free gig" ones.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 2 2007, 11:55 PM

Damn, you're right - playng for beer is an honourable passtime, and I left it out, sorry - won;t let me edit it wither, oh well

Posted by: GroovinMastiff Jun 3 2007, 12:01 AM

That would be sweet! I can already hear the metal/opera music in my head.

Posted by: JVM Jun 3 2007, 01:25 AM

I'm in a band - I have many friends who play all kinds of instruments and I have one guy who is a drummer and good friend of mine who I play with mostly, we're not really a band that could go out and gig and as such we haven't, but we're working towards that.

Also, Berklee is an AWESOME school! Pavel, get your ass over here! I aspire to go there when I graduate highschool next year. Another great player who came from there is John Mayer, not much of a shredder or anything but the man is a very solid blues guitarist.

Posted by: Kaneda Jun 3 2007, 01:52 AM

"Gig a lot but never got paid" is probably the closest - even though we do get paid at times (another candidate would be "Paid gig once a month"), we play a lot of gigs just for fun and beer Not really interested in setting it up as a (second) career either. Plus, as you know, Andrew, my fate is pretty much the same as yours in that regard.

Of course, in any event it doesn't count, because I'm not the one playing guitar

Most people get that. To bring it into perspective, try being a singer in front of people - everybody sings. Nah, it does take a bit of bad attitude and "elitism" - like just telling yourself you're better than all those guitarists/singers/drummers/bassists/whatever down on the floor, because you're on the stage, and they're not That way playing on a stage is easier than showing your guitarist friends what you can do

Posted by: JVM Jun 3 2007, 02:07 AM

Yeah I have plenty of guitarist friends (including my dad, who is a phenomenal player more of the slow feely kind than shredding, though he's never taught me anything... go figure) who play guitar, and mostly when I'm playing with them I just kind of play a song we both know or something like - hey guys check it out *play ten years gone here*. That way they're immediately more interested in hearing how you play the song, rather than critiquing your chops.

In front of non guitarists, its often more impressive to do a practice routine, run through a scale as quickly as you can or do some simple tapping (that one never fails to impress).

Posted by: spdalton Jun 3 2007, 03:25 AM

My band and I have played a few times in public. House walming party, school, band competition.
We've got the heats for our area for New Zealands biggest band competition coming up next week which will be good. Competing against 50 other bands. 600 in the whole country have entered.
It's a great competition, first prize is $10,000NZ, 3 singles recorded, $1000 music video grant, 10 hours of radio air time and more!

Posted by: Ryan Jun 3 2007, 03:55 AM

yea im gonna try that thx, but i need to wait till im 18 first

Posted by: Pavel Jun 3 2007, 09:56 AM

Thanks for support man!

I have already been contacting them and i found out the approximate price....it's around 45.000$ per year.
Getting full scholarship is very difficult but i guess in a couple of years - by the time i finish my own university - i'll have a decent record to show them.

After that i contacted GIT in London which is also an awesome institute - the price there is 10.000$ per year.

I don't know....maybe in the future!
Thanks again for support!

Posted by: Tank Jun 3 2007, 12:57 PM

I played professionally for a few years, stopped in 2004 to spend more time with my family. Most years, from November all the way through to the middle of January, you'd have 2 days off, Christmas Day would be one of them. Apart from that you'd travel and gig 7 days a week, sometimes two gigs a day (depending on the venue). Summer, from May through to the end of August was not much different really.

The reality of it is that for 99% of all the gigging musicians out there, sometimes you get to play some really nice venues, sometimes you play some real toilets, most of the gigs are in between the two. It's just travel, gig, travel, gig, travel, gig....etc every day of every week. If you want to be a professional, you have to accept that this is your life, and even if you do it for 60 years, the likelihood is that you are still not going to be financially independent at the end of it all. Then again, you might get lucky and make it

As a performer though, you'll improve leaps and bounds, but as a guitarist, you'll probably stagnate. Unless you've got enough funding for a tour management, you'll have little time for practicing while you travel.

I'd not go back to it, unless it was on my own terms. There are easier, and less stressful ways to make money in the music business Having said that, if you do go down the route of gigging professionally, you'll learn an invaluable lesson in how hard you need to work, how the industry ticks. You'll have the opportunity to develop a professional attitude, and your skill as a stage performer will improve exponentially.

Of all the things that you'll develop, a professional attitude (turn up on time, work out issues fairly, don't act like a premadonna, play a good solid gig, don't get drunk or worse before a performance) will be the skill that ensures that you get enough work to make a living out of it. Audiences want to see good players, but venues want to hire professionals with a good attitude.

Anyway, that's my two pence worth!!

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 7 2007, 04:10 PM

Fascinating info Tank - looks like you're our only true professional

Everyone else is biased towards bedroom/non-gigging bands. Wonder how this will look in a couple of years time?

Posted by: brandon Jun 7 2007, 05:51 PM

I used to be in a rock n roll band called Thunderlip. We toured, were signed to an indie label and made a music video. We got paid, but in that way that musicians get paid.....but in that way that unless you're a double platinum album selling band you get paid....so basically not very much. Enough to keep the band going and keep us on the road, but not enough to buy a house or some "bling" haha. The best part of it was getting travel so much, record an album and hang out professionally. They still play and tour and are doing a tour soon with Lucero that's sponsored by Levi's jeans and Fender guitars(I think). They also have a new album coming out in a few months that so far is sounding really good and is going to include a cover of Deep Purple's "Highway Star". You can check them out at : www.myspace.com/thunderlip , www.isound.com/thunderlip , www.thunderlip.net . You can also watch the video here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mUL07dNE_4c I'm the guy with the helmet and the blue shirt. It is a real battelship by the way (the USS North Carolina) and the the war footage is from with the ship was still in use during WWII. I've been in few bands that have played a lot of live shows, but not the same level as this band and never signed to a label. I will say this though, and I know I've said this before, but even with all of that I still feel like I've learned more from this website in the last few months then I ever did playing in bands or from lessons. This website has definitely gotten me really excited about playing again and it's pushed me to practice more than I think I ever have before. So thank you Kris for the site and the great lessons, Andrew for all of the great theory lessons, Gabriel and Pavel for all of the great lessons(some of my favorite ones on the site) and everyone else who has contributed to this site.....I think I spend about 75% of my internet time looking through this webpage now and I still feel like I learn something new everyday.

Posted by: brandon Jun 7 2007, 06:11 PM

oh, and to comment on Tanks reply....all very very true. You can't expect to be a professional musican and actually make money...the two don't really go hand in hand. If anyone does decide to try and go for it you should definitely set a time limit to it and decide what things are most important to you (friends, family, band). I've watched people ruine relationships and marriages because they chose touring over their other halves. Basically you can't have a real relationship with someone if you're spending a minimum of 6 or 7 months on the road. To be honest, most of the musicians I know that are still trying to "make it" are in their late 20's and early 30's still broke and usually with some sort of drunk or alcohol problem....they're all kind of a little pathetic in a way. It's definitely a frightening future to look at.....but then on the other hand I have friends that are in bands that tour the world and make enough money to where they don't need a part time job when they get home. I think the best thing is to do it for fun until you feel like it's time you need to stop and if you're good enough hopefully you can get a job on the side as a studio musician. My friend's dad was a studio guitarist for Mr Big and Firehouse and he still gets royalty checks to this day. Oh, and if you ever get any kind of offer from a label make sure you have real entertainment lawyer look over the contract before you sign it....labels no matter how big or small love to screw bands...so you always want someone looking at it before you sign anything....and by anything I'm mean ANYTHING. Some labels like to have band sign small contracts before saying that you won't sign to another label and they'll write up another contract later on.....they'll all kinds of stuff verbally, but as soon as you get the contract none of that is written in.....and you're bound to sign to them and they can wait as long as they want, which leaves you with two choices, sign to them or break up and start a new band. So be careful, read as much as you can online about what labels do and try to get an entertainment lawyer and a good booking agent....not someone's uncle, but a real booking company. They'll make sure you get guarantees at the places you play and good shows with other good bands.