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Hiring a percussionist


FitchFY

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A little free-wheel of a topic, but I'm starting to hire myself out as a percussionist. In the Massachusetts area, there are plenty of acoustic acts, and every once in awhile you see them trying to get some percussion in there to fill up the sound/ liven it up.

 

I have a 16" kick drum and a 14" djembe, as well as a pair of shakers and tambourine; just enough to add a layer of rhythm onto those acoustic gigs.

 

My question to you cats here is -- depending on the gig -- would you hire a competent percussionist for those shows where you want a bit more sound? And I'm working for... like... $50 and some beer. Just curious!

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I've thought about transforming my solo into a duo adding percussion. I did keys/drums many years ago in a college town and it was very successful, but now I'm thinking that encouraging people to dance while still maintaining conversation volume levels would be an attractive commodity. I'd be looking to book slots normally filled by bands,

 

I imagine that as a percussionist, you would be much more inclined to interpret a song as a rhythmic pattern rather than playing four-on-the-floor with fills - a pet peeve of mine.

 

Singing would definitely be an asset.

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It's probably more important to have groovable content live than grammy material. Percussionists fall into two groups. Artists who want to bring the details to life and drummers. The latter seem to have a spread ranging from simulating a real drummer to those that can only manage wall to wall 16th note patterns. I find either of those extremes detract from a good solo guitarist. Most pop guitarists welcome the drummer variety regardless.

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I play some semi-acoustic gigs where the percussionist add a small bass drum and a hihat stand with a tambourine or jingle on top, playing shakers, congas and some brushes -- in those cases completely replacing the (kit) drummer. Works great and keeps the volume at a nice level.

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I'm in a guitar duo that just expanded to a trio by adding a percussionist. We found that some songs ("To Love Somebody" by the Bee Gees, "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band, as well as others) just sounded hollow without the percussion filling in the space. Hopefully the percussion will fill things in (we haven't got everything worked up yet).

 

Our last gig paid $150 ($75 per person). Adding a percussionist will cut that down to $50 per person, but we're both o.k. with the decrease in pay. Hopefully a fuller sound will lead to more gigs, etc.

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We've have a couple percussionist on call to occasionally to augment a drummer in a full band situation. A couple of the guys in the band are pretty tasteful on a cajon when needed. But finding a new percussionist is pretty much like wading through 99 of these guys to find one that has an ear and will learn the part and not just sit back there banging on stuff.

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