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Article on how to succeed in a solo career...


daddymack

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Frankly, this is lacking in depth and I really dislike when they use an example like he did of some on who, for lack of a better explanation, got a one in a million shot. Mosy of us know about the slogging through and all that, but saying one should not have a back-up plan? Ridiculous...I see [and know a few] too many homeless musicians to believe that is a good philosophy.

 

http://blog.discmakers.com/2015/11/how-to-survive-as-a-solo-cover-musician/?utm_campaign=EA1547&utm_source=DMAudio&utm_medium=Email&spMailingID=50036193&spUserID=NTE2MjYzNjQyMzIS1&spJobID=802329964&spReportId=ODAyMzI5OTY0S0

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Thanks for posting. Not a bad article - it's free anyway!

 

I can see his point about the "fallback plan", but there is subtlety lost. I believe that musicians need a plan A and plan B which run concurrently. Then they need a plan C when the gigs dry up and plan D, a retirement fund. As far as plan C, the fallback or back-up plan, it doesn't have to be something you hate or even outside your area of expertise.

 

The most successful musicians I know did something along the lines of the above. When they started in music, they also shortly thereafter got involved with real estate, working hard to purchase a property or two with their hard earned cash. So that would be their plan A and B. They might have also earned a degree in music (or taken special training} so that they could teach, during or after their careers slowed down - plan C. All the while, they were thinking about their retirement and filing union gigs, saving, and/or using real estate to provide either a nest egg or income stream - plan D.

 

Even if you make it, IMO you need to have plans A to D, or more... I was just at a 65th birthday party this summer, where many of the musicians had at one time or the other "made it". Big arenas, record deals, groupies, cash flow and all that, but unless you're the Stones, Eagles (or Loverboy in Canada), it's a relatively short lived career. Ten maybe fifteen years. Then you scrape by for the next fifty, unless you have planned for that eventuality.

 

Okay, now I've got to jump into my time machine and heed my own advice!

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For awhile I had a jazz jam going on at my house and several of the players were in, at least, their 70s. The conversation would turn to so-and-so, and so-and-so would, almost invariably, be living almost on the street, or his teeth fell out because he couldn't afford a dentist, or he was receiving mental treatment etc. etc. Not encouraging.

 

My own observation in this town is that the folks that did well into retirement age were/are school music teachers (two degrees to do that) and also taught, performed and (usually) played organ at one of the churches. Or they had day jobs. For everybody else, it's a day-to-day struggle and it doesn't always end well. I'm very very lucky that my wife's a teacher and we can live on mostly her salary with a little input from me.

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Yeah, as I mentioned, I know a few who were 'famous' and now are street people...some who were in famous bands and now eke a out a living working in small studios, teaching, etc [i was there in the mid 90s myself].

I have a BA degree, I have my consulting business, and I know a lot of 'A' flight musicians [road and studio pros/ Stax/Motown/Watts/A&M/ Capitol...you name it, even the old old Doc Sevrinson Tonight Show Band]...but I'm hosting jams 2 nights a week, and trying to solidify some holiday gigs...but for now, the consulting is paying the bills...I gave up teaching music [primarily guitar], because students for the most part just don't want to put in the requisite practice time. I have friends who are 'real' [LA] studio musicians, and even they complain that they get undercut by the guys with the 'virtual orchestras'...I'm talking film, TV, radio bumpers, jingle work...it is all about the bottom line these days...and sadly, inferior material gets sold based strictly on cost to produce.

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i understand the need for singular focus. i tend to have so many irons in the fire that giving full attention to any task became impossible. its something im making a conscious effort to change.

 

my creative interests are not soley music, i also am a sculptor (preferring granite over other mediums,) writer, herbalist, storyteller, and in the past, music therapist and consultant for occupational therapy helping to design and fabricate adaptive equipment for physically involved folks... yes, the old addage/ wisdom of not putting ones eggs all in the same basket is prudent advice, but so is giving ones full and undivided attention to whatever task in which you find yourself involved.

 

this brings me to then question the "safety hatch", " plan B", etc, as i can easily recall instances of stalled momentum in my endeavors by vacillating on which direction to persue instead of digging in and driving forward...

 

however, wearing several different hats is most likely responsible for me being where i am right now. ( 57 human earth years old and still thriving)

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interesting, but theres usually enough sexual energy after a session without the need for allusion... and im actually ondering if people arent a bit " pliable" after being in theta brain states for a while so for ethical reasons alone i tend to steer clear of innuendo...

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I remember vividly sending a cassette to Pat Hicks when I applied at GIT in mid 1982. He said that I was a fine player but in order to succeed in the music business, it's important to have more than one set of skills you can use to find and keep work. I attended GIT from 1983-4 and learned a lot, but that little nugget from Pat was as important as anything I ever learned in terms of the music business. I teach, play gigs, do voiceovers and write my L2P column and have done all four things for at least two decades. I am not surprised that most of you all who are successful learned and apply that same principle. I have begun doing some YouTube guitar videos which I hope to do more of. My GIT classmate Tim Lerch does excellent YouTube guitar instruction videos, which together with his teaching and gigging business, have allowed him to remain a successful musical entrepreneur.

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