Discouraged

[Monsoon]

I don't know if this is a vent or a plea for advice or what. So take it as you will. About a year ago (time flies) my band of 5 years played its last gig. The band officially called it quits and it's hard to believe its been a year since I've played out. I've had a few false starts at new projects, but still looking. What gets me, though, is that every time I think about what the next step would be - booking - I'm seeing how the landscape has changed.

 

I'm in Massachusetts. And the area I'm in has seen almost all of the venues that had bands (I don't play in Boston proper - I'm in the burbs) either close, cancel bands entirely, or move to solo or duo acoustic acts. Some of my musician friends have jumped on the acoustic bandwagon and they keep saying that's what I should do. I started putting together an acoustic act with someone - we have half a set ready... But the reality is that it's not the same. I love rocking out on the guitar. People dancing and singing along. Jumping up and down. Creating energy. Acoustic is just not that. Playing an acoustic guitar isn't the same as an electric guitar. Having people clap for you as they sip their drinks and eat dinner or evening snacks, and maybe sing along here or there, isn't the same as a floor full of people having a great time.

 

Playing electric guitar in a band is having a Saturday night pool party. Playing an acoustic guitar as the instrument part of a duo is having a Tuesday night dinner party. They're both parties, but not the same thing.

 

So I find myself very discouraged. I miss playing a lot, but I'm not sure the playing environment I used to experience even really exists anymore.

 

Someone (a work colleague who has never seen me play) recently made small talk and asked me if I'm playing out, and I mentioned that I'm taking a break at the moment. He said, "yeah, well sometimes it's time to hang it up." My soul died a little bit with that comment. You guys know what I mean.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[RoadRanger]

I'm just south of Wormtown myself and yah - the scene ain't what it used to be. OTOH i just played four gigs in four days but not "hard rock":

Thursday on WICN with my Blues/R&B band.

Friday my surf rock band hosts a monthly "closed mic".

Saturday my Blues/R&B band again at the infamous Blue Plate in Holden.

Sunday on Cajon sitting in with a jazz standards duo (I normally play bass).

 

My next gig is as a duo on bass uke at a winery. Car show / benefit with the Blues/R&B after that.

 

Dunno your age or exact location but Central MA seems an easier scene to gig that greater Beantown? I'm well aged out of the 21-35 scene closing in on 2x LOL.

[wesg]

Search this forum for "Ostrich Hat". Jeff was in a similar boat a couple of years ago, and formed this really great "acoustic" trio that scratches all of those itches in a pretty cool way. Maybe something like that would work for you?

[Shaster]

Many of the bands in my area (Vancouver BC) can be scaled up or down to suit the gig. In addition, many of the musicians in those bands are in several other bands as well; that's how folks around here seem to keep busy.

 

I'm in a Soul band that goes from three people to seven. Here's a snapshot of how it works... This Friday at noon, I'm working with the keyboard player from that group, in a completely different band. That night I'm doing a solo. On Saturday the band will be a five piece playing geezer hours and I'm doing a solo after that. On Sunday it's the seven piece for a boat cruise.

 

I can't speak to getting gigs in your area, but being flexible with the size of the band might allow you to do the solo, duo thing and scale up when the occasion arises. It seems like the more you gig, the more jobs you get, so maybe getting back on the horse is where you should start. Kind of like the one thing leads to another theory.

[GtrGeorge!]

First off, tell anyone who says "Maybe its time to hang it up"..to bugger off (To put it politely). Do what you want. As a guy who has done this for a while, I can tell you....sometimes you're in fashion...and sometimes you're not. All that jive is in the eye of the beholder. If you play music to play music...just play it and find your way forward. If you play music to get esteem from others...consider what's up with that..and find a way forward to get that positive connection. Either way, try to have Fun.

[GtrGeorge!]

Moonson.....your thoughts on my post?

[Outkaster]

I didn't think MA was that bad. What part of the state are you in?

[Pat'sStrat]

First, let me say everyone is different. and no one size fits all. So I'll just share my experience with you.

 

I started playing out for money when I was a junior in high school in 1971. Live music was a big deal then, and there were gigs everywhere- high school dances, youth centers, bars, taverns, night clubs. I played through high school, when I went to college, and at 24 I joined a full time road band, where I traveled and played 6 nights a week in 6 states and 3 Canadian provinces. In 1983 I quit to get married and return to school. A month after the wedding, I was invited to move to LA to join a band showcasing for record companies. I told them it would take me about a month to liquidate some assets, finish up my school semester and get organized to move. They said it would be perfect timing.

 

Except it wasn't, and little did I know that they hired someone else as i was literally driving the moving truck and towing our car down there from the Northwest. I arrived in LA with no home, no gig, no job and a few hundred dollars. We stayed a year- I moved furniture and went to a few auditions but truthfully, I hated the way the way I had to drive 50 miles through horrendous traffic to get anywhere and worse, I hated how the music business in LA worked. No one wanted to commit to a band. Everyone was in multiple "projects"waiting to see which one went anywhere. Disgusted by the whole thing, and discovering my wife was preggers with our first child, we decided to head for San Diego where I had some family.

 

I put my gear in a closet and there it sat for 6 years, only seeing the light of day on occasion to play in church. I got a job in a window manufacturing and installation company and became the shop foreman and lead field supervisor. My wife was a teacher and we had another two kids, got more involved in our church, and life went on.

 

In 1990, we decided we'd had enough of California and not being able to save money fast enough to keep up with the rising cost of buying a house, we once again packed up and moved back home to the Northwest where we bought a 2300 square foot home in a nice neighborhood for a quarter of what a smaller house would have cost us in Cal. I got a job in construction and my wife started teaching again. And then, in 1991, I slipped on some ice walking the top plate on a big custom home we were building and fell 13 feet, hitting my left knee on the footing and breaking the tip off my left femur and I was out of work. Since Blues was just starting to be a hot commodity, I started a little blues band and started playing out again to get some money coming in. I have been at it ever since. Today I'm fairly well known in my community, I get respect and they keep calling me to come and play and then they hire me back. I can't ask for more than that.

 

I'm grateful for taking those six years off. I gained some new perspective, and my playing had matured a lot, even though I hadn't done much of it. My entire approach was different. I wasn't 29 year old kid anymore, I was a 35 year old man with three kids and a wholly different outlook on life. And it showed in my playing. Would that work for anyone else? Who knows? It did for me, that's all I can say about it. You have to find your own path, but from my end of things, taking a break wasn't the end of the world and it might just be what sparks something new. Best of luck to you.

[wesg]

Good story, Pat.

 

I took 9 years off from playing at one point, when my career got in the way. I got a piano again in 2006 and started playing out again in 2012. Technically, I'm a worse player than I used to be...I don't practice drills anymore, and I have nerve problems. But I'm a better musician, a better bandmate, etc, etc than I was in my 20s. Age and perspective do help. I'm not screwing around anymore.

 

OP, your work colleague is a dumbass. Musicians never hang it up, we take breaks. But sometimes we die before the breaks are over. End yours before you die. Something will come along, I guarantee it.

 

Wes

[Monsoon]

First off, tell anyone who says "Maybe its time to hang it up"..to bugger off (To put it politely). Do what you want. As a guy who has done this for a while, I can tell you....sometimes you're in fashion...and sometimes you're not. All that jive is in the eye of the beholder. If you play music to play music...just play it and find your way forward. If you play music to get esteem from others...consider what's up with that..and find a way forward to get that positive connection. Either way, try to have Fun.

 

This is a great post, and yes I agree. I wrote off that statement as a non-musician who was just making small talk and didn't know what he was talking about. I play music because of how it makes me feel. That's what I miss about it. Finding that way to have fun, that's what I'm trying to do.

[Monsoon]

I didn't think MA was that bad. What part of the state are you in?

 

 

I'm in the Boston-to-Providence corridor. Draw a line from Boston to Providence and those are the suburbs I hit. There are still places that do live bands (plugged in), but they are fewer and fewer, and I'm finding many of the ones that remain are booked by bands with agents.

[Monsoon]

First, let me say everyone is different. and no one size fits all. So I'll just share my experience with you.

 

I started playing out for money when I was a junior in high school in 1971. Live music was a big deal then, and there were gigs everywhere- high school dances, youth centers, bars, taverns, night clubs. I played through high school, when I went to college, and at 24 I joined a full time road band, where I traveled and played 6 nights a week in 6 states and 3 Canadian provinces. In 1983 I quit to get married and return to school. A month after the wedding, I was invited to move to LA to join a band showcasing for record companies. I told them it would take me about a month to liquidate some assets, finish up my school semester and get organized to move. They said it would be perfect timing.

 

Except it wasn't, and little did I know that they hired someone else as i was literally driving the moving truck and towing our car down there from the Northwest. I arrived in LA with no home, no gig, no job and a few hundred dollars. We stayed a year- I moved furniture and went to a few auditions but truthfully, I hated the way the way I had to drive 50 miles through horrendous traffic to get anywhere and worse, I hated how the music business in LA worked. No one wanted to commit to a band. Everyone was in multiple "projects"waiting to see which one went anywhere. Disgusted by the whole thing, and discovering my wife was preggers with our first child, we decided to head for San Diego where I had some family.

 

I put my gear in a closet and there it sat for 6 years, only seeing the light of day on occasion to play in church. I got a job in a window manufacturing and installation company and became the shop foreman and lead field supervisor. My wife was a teacher and we had another two kids, got more involved in our church, and life went on.

 

In 1990, we decided we'd had enough of California and not being able to save money fast enough to keep up with the rising cost of buying a house, we once again packed up and moved back home to the Northwest where we bought a 2300 square foot home in a nice neighborhood for a quarter of what a smaller house would have cost us in Cal. I got a job in construction and my wife started teaching again. And then, in 1991, I slipped on some ice walking the top plate on a big custom home we were building and fell 13 feet, hitting my left knee on the footing and breaking the tip off my left femur and I was out of work. Since Blues was just starting to be a hot commodity, I started a little blues band and started playing out again to get some money coming in. I have been at it ever since. Today I'm fairly well known in my community, I get respect and they keep calling me to come and play and then they hire me back. I can't ask for more than that.

 

I'm grateful for taking those six years off. I gained some new perspective, and my playing had matured a lot, even though I hadn't done much of it. My entire approach was different. I wasn't 29 year old kid anymore, I was a 35 year old man with three kids and a wholly different outlook on life. And it showed in my playing. Would that work for anyone else? Who knows? It did for me, that's all I can say about it. You have to find your own path, but from my end of things, taking a break wasn't the end of the world and it might just be what sparks something new. Best of luck to you.

 

 

Thanks for sharing this Pat. And to some extent, I agree the time off has been good. I ran my last band and by the end of it the business end of it (booking, personnel, etc.) was wearing me out. As places we regularly played closed, gigs dried up. In some instances booking guys at the venues switched without notice, and gigs I had lined up were cancelled without notice and replaced with the new guy's bands. Trying to get in with those new guys with whom I had no connection got harder and harder as we played less and less and the gigs I could point to for a track record stretched out further and further back into the past. We also went through the Spinal Tap drummer problem which wore all of us out.

 

So, yeah, I was starting to burn out on the scene as the scene started to burn out. Time off was good. I'm trying to figure out how to dive back in and do what Pat said - have fun doing what I like to do.

[Monsoon]

Good story, Pat.

 

I took 9 years off from playing at one point, when my career got in the way. I got a piano again in 2006 and started playing out again in 2012. Technically, I'm a worse player than I used to be...I don't practice drills anymore, and I have nerve problems. But I'm a better musician, a better bandmate, etc, etc than I was in my 20s. Age and perspective do help. I'm not screwing around anymore.

 

OP, your work colleague is a dumbass. Musicians never hang it up, we take breaks. But sometimes we die before the breaks are over. End yours before you die. Something will come along, I guarantee it.

 

Wes

 

 

Wes, your last couple lines are a great quote.

 

And thanks to all of you. I'm feeling more energized and inspired to make something happen then discouraged.

[sventvkg]

Live Music on the public level is all but dead. I do private resorts, weddings and private events almost exclusively. That side of the business is flourishing if you're in Central FL or to a lesser extent Vegas. Other than that I don't know...Things change, people change, and music has sure changed. I'm sure there's a few places one can go play once in a while close to where most of you live. Also, you can find some musicians who are in the same boat to get together as a hobby once a week to Jam with can't ya? Keep it going if you desire!!

 

On a happier note I'm certain If you're lucky enough to be in a area that caters to it you'll be able to play live until you feel like retiring if you're 40 and up.

[Pat'sStrat]

Live Music on the public level is all but dead. I do private resorts, weddings and private events almost exclusively. That side of the business is flourishing if you're in Central FL or to a lesser extent Vegas. Other than that I don't know...Things change, people change, and music has sure changed. I'm sure there's a few places one can go play once in a while close to where most of you live. Also, you can find some musicians who are in the same boat to get together as a hobby once a week to Jam with can't ya? Keep it going if you desire!!

 

On a happier note I'm certain If you're lucky enough to be in a area that caters to it you'll be able to play live until you feel like retiring if you're 40 and up.

Word. I do 4 or 5 solo gigs for every band gig. My market has solo gigs out the wazoo, all of which pay 100-200 a night + tips + dinner for two or three hours and I'm done by 9, home by 10. . Bars want to pay 4 piece bands 300-400 a night for 4 hour gigs that don't start until 9. .

[onelife]

I was pretty much full on from high school until my early thirties when I had children. I got into IT and eventually became a network engineer.

 

During the early years I was pursuing the dream with hopes of recording and fame but it ended up being about survival. When I got the day job I started a part time band with some of my favourite local players. It was a bit of an all star band and we spent a year writing and rehearsing a combination of originals and select covers. It was nice not needing the money nor being forced to compromise musically just to eat. We were able to reinvest the money we earned and eventually recorded a couple of original CDs.

 

I got transfered to another city for my day job and sustained a minor hand injury so I laid low for a while. My focus was on my family and work projects. When my hand healed I looked in the paper and answered an ad for a guitarist in a band that was working on original music with the intention of recording. I got a demo of the songs and thought they were great.

 

By that time I had invested in some recording gear and ended up recording and producing the project. The singer was the person writing the songs and proved to me that musical talent and bizarre behaviour are directly proportional. Sometimes working on the project was like pulling teeth but I still looked forward to the evening sessions while I was working at my day job.

 

When our children grew up my wife and I moved out west where I started playing in several projects including a jazz/blues/rock trio which is still together after thirteen years. My wife became a Yoga teacher and we converted our house into a learning centre. The bottom half is a Yoga studio and the top is a music studio where I record and teach. I'm dealing with some tendonitis (the Yoga really helps) so I'm not the hot player that I once was but I feel I can make a real contribution to my students who can play but don't know what to play - I know what to play but can't always do it any more.

[Monsoon]

Word. I do 4 or 5 solo gigs for every band gig. My market has solo gigs out the wazoo, all of which pay 100-200 a night + tips + dinner for two or three hours and I'm done by 9, home by 10. . Bars want to pay 4 piece bands 300-400 a night for 4 hour gigs that don't start until 9. .

 

 

Same thing around here. If you want to do a one-two person acoustic thing, there are plenty of places to play, and its starts and ends earlier, and pays better. If I was looking at it purely as an economic analysis, I'd be all over it. I just don't get my kicks and giggles out of that kind of thing, though.

[Monsoon]

Live Music on the public level is all but dead.

 

This is part of the problem. Yet, the first thing people say when my friends and I are looking to go out is "Where is there a band playing tonight?"

 

[Outkaster]

 

 

I'm in the Boston-to-Providence corridor. Draw a line from Boston to Providence and those are the suburbs I hit. There are still places that do live bands (plugged in), but they are fewer and fewer, and I'm finding many of the ones that remain are booked by bands with agents.

 

Wow I wouldn't think it would be that sparse I kind of have an idea of where you are talking about.

[Pat'sStrat]

Around here, the few bar gigs left are booked either through agents or "headhunters," musicians with their own bands that book the bands for the bars for extra income. It always pisses me off and I never book through any of them because they work for the club, not the band, but charge the band 10% or 15%. If the bar hires them to make life easier for them, why should the band pay them? I make the same phone call or write the same email whether it's to the bar manager of the "agent."

 

Years ago, I booked a casino gig through one of these ";agents." Two days before the gig, I called him up to confirm the booking and ask him about lodging, since it was 75 miles away for some of the band members. "Oh,; he said , "you'll have to talk to the hotel manager about that." So I asked him about meals, and go the same response regarding the restaurant manager."So," I said, "basically I'm paying you 150 dollars for making a phone call I could have made.".

 

"Oh, no,"he said, in all seriousness."You're paying me so no one has to make a phone call. I just book the bands for them and the club doesn't have to mess with it." So I asked him if he thought we were communicating through tin cans with a string stretched out between them. Needless to say, I never booked another gig through him.

[jeff42]

Search this forum for "Ostrich Hat". Jeff was in a similar boat a couple of years ago, and formed this really great "acoustic" trio that scratches all of those itches in a pretty cool way. Maybe something like that would work for you?

 

and here I am... sorry I dont post much anymore. I guess I should. A lot has changed in the last few years. Ostrich Hat is in its 5th year and we are not a semi-acoustic trio anymore and haven't been for some time. I guess We did too well... And We got too big for the small corner bar. LOL

 

We started as a 3 man band side project. Once a month. Acoustic Guitar, Bass and a small E-Drum kit all three of us sang. We played small bars, restaurants, deck parties anywhere that would have us. We played mainly fun acoustic versions of pop songs. After about a year or so bigger rooms called and we answered. As we got into bigger and bigger rooms we felt we couldn't bring "the Fun" as much being saddled by acoustic songs so we went electric and got a front man and now we're a Party/dance band. Recently we became a trio AGAIN (still electric though) but that hasn't slowed us down. We are thinking about doing a few "old school" acoustic shows like we used to but nothing booked yet. The 3 man semi-acoustic trio may be the way to go. I know a few bands like that have popped up in my area since we kind of started it and left it behind us.

 

Here's an old vid of us as a semi-acoustic trio

[onelife]

I had some dealings with a booking agent. When I put a new band together I called him and invited him out to hear the band with the idea that we might be able to do some business together. He showed no interest and never did show up.

 

One New Year's Eve he called me out of desperation because he had a last minute cancellation at a hotel bar. My band was available and did the gig. The hotel liked us and booked us once a month for the following year. Because of Musicians Union policy we had to pay the agent commission on the hotel gigs for six months even though he had never heard the band or supported us in any way.