Notes_Norton

Agreed.

Sadly, being in a band is a little like being in a marriage in that there is no way to get out of it without hurting somebody's feelings big-time.

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

When you are absolutely sure you need to leave, get them all together, and lay it out straight. Tell them you can't do it anymore, wish them luck, and say good-bye.

Notes ♫

OK, worst groupie story. I was on the road in the 1960s in the Midwest.

Mama, in her late 30s, wanted the entire band, she would even shine our shoes and iron our clothes before the show, and shared erotic favors with us all.

We had a week off between gigs, as one ended on Sunday, the next gig started on Monday in a town too far away, but the money was good.

She invited us to stay at her farm for a week. Husband was there, didn't seem to care, and she asked me to sleep with her 14-year-old daughter. That's when I was outta there, along with the rest of the band.

I admit the daughter was cute, probably wasn't a virgin, and I was only 19 or 20 at the time, but there are some lines I've always refused to cross (1) currently married women and (2) underage girls.

OK, this thread can go to sleep again if you want.

Notes ♫

I was a side man (sax for hire) with a band in the late 1970s.

No worries, until I showed up at the gig, and new people were there. The band that hired me got fired, and never told me. I had to chase them down to get my money. But for the months before that, it was a carefree gig. Show up, do my job, and get paid.

The lead was trying to be a Spanish cross between Jimmy Buffett and Elvis Presley. He was talented, but I think lacked taste. He ventured into dangerous territory with girls who came with dates from stage, and that peed off the regulars. I never found what got him fired.

I never heard from him again.

Notes ♫

I expect my bandmates to be honest, whether they are complementing or criticizing me. But with a criticism, please make it specific, so I can fix it or defend it.

Don't say your vocals suck, say instead you are consistently flat on the bridge of _________

I could say I want to be flat to add tension to that note, or say, thank you, I didn't realize that, I'll work on it.

We all should be working towards an end product, and all opinions matter.

Also, an occasional mistake on stage is going to happen. Ignore it, laugh about it, but don't bitch about it.

Notes ♫

Record a night, show them where they are off, and see if they can fix their own problems.

On 8/11/2023 at 11:51 AM, Gladius Official said:

Thank you very much for that detailed response, Notes_Norton 

You're welcome. Good luck. I hope you get on, it's a good place to perform.

Notes ♫

I did Cruise Ships back in the late 1980s. Things may have changed since then, but this is how it went for me.

Flamenco Fusion ... I'd try the ships in Miami or Los Angeles first, as many of them go to Latin American ports. We were a duo doing a variety of genres.

I got my promo together, back then it was two Glossy 8x10” pictures, cassette tape, any other promo I had, and letters of recommendation from past gigs. I suspect all that should be on the Internet now. If it were me, I'd have my own website for that, and not a Facebook page.

Back then there were two options, either the main stage, or one of the side lounges. I approached them for one of the side lounges and got the gig (3 weeks with options lasted 3 years until I decided to get off). The music supervisor told me which agency he works with, and gave him a call telling him to expect a contact from me.

I think that call separated me from the other people trying to get on with that agency.

There could have been a better or worse approach, but that's what worked for me.

If you get on the ship, work the ship, this is how I made it work for us.

Here's what worked for us. The first thing we did was check out all the other lounges and tried to give something different. What was missing was 50s-70s rock.

Then we asked if we could be in the Introduction Show on the main stage, which happens the first night of the cruise. The Cruise Director said, “A duo never asked that before, but I'd love to have you."

The first week there, I noticed there was nothing scheduled at all on the ship after the introduction, so I told the guests we are having 50s-70s rock n roll party in our lounge after the show.

That got the guests into our side lounge. The guests usually go to the big rooms first, so they don't find the small ones until the end of the cruise. The ones that liked what we did, came back often during the one week, and we ended up breaking all-time revenue records on the ship for that lounge. The suits in Miami judged how good the band was by how much money was made. They figured if they were spending their money in that lounge, they must have liked the act.

We got rewarded with a passenger sized cabin with a porthole.

We didn't take breaks when the room was jamming, and in turn, on slow nights we made up for it. For example, on “passenger talent show” night, most of the passengers were in the main hall, so we drank coffee until the show was over.

Also, be nice to the crew and all the other employees – and of course to the passengers. If you have the rest of the ship's employees on your side, life is much easier on the ship.

We were new, and not as good and polished as we are now. The other acts on the ship were as good or better than us, so working the ship, trying to maximize the attendance in our lounge, worked to our benefit.

We worked 3 years on Carnival, and in the early 2,000s, when a hurricane closed the places we were gigging at, we did a couple of months on Celebrity. I loved Carnival, they treated us nice, and won't go back to Celebrity. They treated all their staff poorly.

Good luck, and let us know how it works out.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Good for you, too, Shaster.

Our season is over, we did as many as 20 per month.

Good news for us: The beachside resort we've been working at for a while decided to keep us 3 days per week all summer. The owner said we made him so much money in the season, it's only fair to keep us on during the slow times, and that will make sure that we will stay there next tourist season.

Another huge RV resort is keeping us on 2 days per month.

So it looks like a fat summer for us.

Notes ♫

Thanks, I will!

We have 20 gigs this month. 18 of them outdoors.

Life is good today.

Notes ♫

We Are The Sophisticats, and have been since 1985

Here is our first promo picture.... (I'm older than that now, but Mrs. Notes looks as good)

We wanted to play jazz and blues, but then again we wanted to eat and pay the mortgage, so we collected all requests, learned the ones requested most often, and became a pop cover band. Some we do like the record, and some we put our own spin on. The bonus is from 1986 to the present, except for the COVID drought, we have never been out of work. We're back doing 15-20 gigs per month since January 2022.

There is more than one right way to play music.

I've played in orchestras, in a band that opened for headliners in concerts, in bar bands, and just about anywhere a musician can play. I even played for Motown for a while (when they were still in Detroit) and as a hired sax for quite a few recordings.

I went duo in 1985. I was in a 5 piece band. The bass player quit and we were out of work 2 months. A couple of months later the drummer quit and we were out of work another month. 3 months in one year was too much, since I do this for a living.

Since I play saxophone, wind synth, bass, drums, guitar, flute, keyboard synth, and vocals, I decided to form a duo with the other lead singer who also plays guitar and synth (I'm a decent conger, she is excellent and sings much better than I do).

I make my own backing tracks from scratch, and until COVID, we were never out of work. In fact, we had to block out weeks for vacation, or they would get filled with gigs. Now that COVID is waning, we are doing 15-18 gigs a month, right through the slow season, and we charge more than the trios around.

We play in a place where they have at least 2 bands per day, ranging from singles to 7-piece bands. We are the only group that gets 3 days per week. The vast majority get only 1. Why? Business is good when we are playing.

Many of the musicians in the other bands stay to listen to us and say nice things about it.

Personally, if you or anyone else doesn't care to listen to us, it's OK with me. We all have our tastes, our likes, and our dislikes. I have mine as well.

The fact that we pack the house when few others can is what matters to me. Why? Because that means I have repeat gigs.

By playing what the people want to hear, by making my own backing tracks that sound better than the karaoke tracks most duos use, by playing sax, guitar, and windsynth on stage, by enjoying playing with the audience (instead of to them), and by striving to do a better job at it than our competition, we work more and earn more than the others in the area.

And with a duo, each person brings home more money. Nobody around here pays twice as much for a quartet than for a duo.

There is more than one right way to make music, and of all the ways I tried, for the time being, this is my right way. If a better situation comes around, I'll seriously consider adapting to it.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

18 hours ago, modulusman said:

Well we play what our audience wants to hear also. We have one summer gig that we have played for over 20 years probably about 300 times total. We have 2 Christmas parties booked both are repeat customers. If they want Christmas songs we will play some off our phone during a break. 

We play about a half dozen Christmas songs. Traditional.

When St. Patrick's Day comes around, we do 8 St. Paddy songs. Because of this, we might book 5 St Pat Parties. I give the retirement condominiums a deal if they book it on a date earlier than the 17th. We call it our 'St Paddy Melt".

We do 5 Hawaiian songs, and that gets us booked at luaus.

For Halloween, we do "Monster Mash" but it's losing its sparkle, so I'm thinking about "Ghostbusters".

Whatever they want to hear, if we can cover it, we learn it. Our songlist https://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html

I play to an adult audience, I've been playing this audience since I was 40, and not only do we get booked more than our competition, we charge more money than they do.

It's a business, and a pleasure.

I like all kinds of music. The only genres we don't play are Rap and Heavy Metal.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

14 hours ago, modulusman said:

Or be like my band and don't play any. 

I used to be like that. But I found that if I play what they want to hear, I get booked more often. We average 15 to 20 gigs per month.

I play songs they know by heart. I do some like the record, some similar to the record and some an entirely different arrangement/rhythm/style.

I see what works or doesn't work for my audience, and learn from that experience. Since 1985, we have never been out of work, and actually have to block out weeks in advance to take a vacation.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Stick to the classics. Anything your intended audience knows by heart. Try to keep from doing religious songs if you are going to have a mixed audience, stick to Santa Claus, not Jesus.

There's more than one right way to do this.

If you end up with an audience, you are doing something right.

If you want to be a successful entertainer, (that includes musicians) it helps quite a bit to be entertaining.

For example: I can play some very nice solos on the sax (if the muse is there) and sometimes they will get a smattering of applause.

But if I hold a single note out for 12 bars or so, I'll get thunderous applause.

So when and if the time is right (definitely rarely) I'll do just that.

If you look at old films of tap dancers, most people won't notice the intricate rhythms they may be making with their feet, but if they flail their arms around, people go nuts.

When Mrs. Notes and I gig, we try to make it mostly about the music, but we are always aware of being entertainers as well.

When attending a live performance, people listen with their eyes.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

23 hours ago, daddymack said:

Yeah, to non-guitarists, if you can play two chords, they are mystified and amazed...

All you need to do is make the right face and display the right body language and some will think you are a genius.

I think many humans are motivated largely by instant gratification. The beach is beautiful, I want to live there. These drugs make me feel good, even though they are habit-forming. It feels great to drive way too fast for these conditions. It feels great to play really, really loud. Smoking cigarettes can cause cancer, but I like it. And so many more.

Sometimes we don't learn to consider the future until we have a rude awakening. Sometimes we never learn.

Building on a barrier island in Florida is asking for your life to be in shambles sooner or later. Oh, but the beach is nice, the sound of the surf is relaxing, the ocean breezes are refreshing, and it just feels good to live here.

But rebuilding IMO is even stupider.

Since Ft Myers has been washed over 4 times since Hurricane Donna in 1960 with 145mph winds and a storm surge of 14 feet, it seems really stupid to rebuild. But there are property rights and the people have a lot invested in their investment.

I've been thinking a lot about this.

When building on a barrier island, in a river valley that frequently floods, or other specific places that habitually gets damaged, the government should only bail them out one time. Then in the future, it should be required on every land or house sale and every rental lease that the person does this at his/her own risk, and the government will try to save your life in a disaster, but that's it. You are on your own.

I may change my mind about this when I think some more about this, but I guess it doesn't matter anyway, because I don't have the power to change this sort of thing.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

I'm fine. Thanks for asking.

I have the good sense to live in a well-built house, and on high ground. I lost more palm fronds and tree branches than I care to count, and spent a day piling them up for the trash people to take away. That's it. I have storm awnings and panels, plus a generator and fuel.

The good thing about hurricanes is that you know they are coming in advance, so if you know how to prepare and where to live, the odds are you will make it through the storm.

Ft Myers beach has been destroyed 4 times since 1960. I don't want to sound callous, but if you live near an airport, expect noise -- if you live in a flood zone, expect floods.

I feel for the people going through their tragedy. The lawmakers should have never allowed building on the barrier island. When Hurricane Donna damaged 75% of the homes there in 1960, and the taxpayers bailed them out, that should have been it. All property rebuilt, all houses bought, and all properties rented should have this clause boldly stated, "You are in a hurricane danger zone. You have been bailed out for the last time. Live here at your own risk."

That would have prevented the current suffering. The people moving there aren't told that the water rushing over the island averages every 15 years. Most of them didn't know.

Nobody should be allowed to build on a barrier island. It's a "barrier island" - duh!

I know it's beautiful, and a wonderful place to live, until a hurricane comes. If it weren't for those storms, I'd live there myself. But it's a disaster waiting to happen.

I sent a check to the Red Cross and I'll donate blood. Not because I have to, but because I want to.

Notes ♫

Here, in Florida/USA the summers are incredibly slow. In a normal year, if I get 4 gigs a month from June to October, it's a lot.

Since last February I've been doing 15-18 gigs a month. When June came, it didn't slow down. Here it is September and I have 16.

September is usually dead time. There have been 2 gig Septembers in the past.

I don't know what happened, but I feel very lucky. After almost 2 years of no gigs due to COVID, this feels really, really good.

All but a couple of the gigs have been outdoors, which is good for health reasons.

And Happy Labour/Labor Day to you too!

Notes ♫

I don't mind paying booking agents for their work.

I don't mind songs that many musicians don't want to play.

Since don't play current top40 gigs anymore, I'm relieved that I no longer have to learn a new song only to have it considered old and no longer desired a month or two down the road. I paid my dues doing that, enjoyed it at the time, and there is nothing wrong with it, but at this stage in my life things are different. I learn a song after it has been proven to be a classic, and 90% of them won't go out of style for at least 10 years.

The thing I disliked about weddings, was learning an obscure song for the first dance. It was usually a song that 99% of a general audience never heard, and was only good for one play, on that wedding gig.

When I was doing weddings, I gave them a choice for the first dance (1) any of the songs in our list (2) I'd learn any song they like for an additional fee as long as we could cover it and I had enough notice (3) I'll DJ the first song if they supply the recording on CD or Flash Drive. Of course, CDs are no longer in the picture, but I'm not doing weddings anymore either. I found an easier way to gig steadily with much less pressure.

BTW, when doing wedding gigs, I almost always wore a tux.

Notes ♫

BRIDEZILLA -beware - run - don't look back......

There is an entire industry telling women that their wedding day is going to be the best day of their life, as long as two things are met (1) it's pefect (2) it's more spectacular than all of their friends' weddings.

We did a wedding once for a banquet manager. Everything was fine until she walked in and started barking at the help, these flowers belong over there, the napkins are folded all wrong, ad infinitum.

On the other hand, we did another where the father of the bride included on the contract, "overtime 'till we drop." He danced with every femal from the tots to the grannies, we went 6 hours, he paid us overtime plus some extra money, and had a blast.

Good points: Money is good

Bad points: Pressure - learning an obscure first dance song you'll never need again

Most are between the two examples I cited.

As noted, 100% self-contained, prepare to be an MC as well as a band, play at an appropriate volume, there may be micromanagers and a schedule, be flexible it never runs like the schedule, know when it's time to be sonic wallpaper and when it's time to be a dance band, and learn a lot of current hit songs.

We did a Polish wedding and learned 6 polkas. We played "The Clarinet Polka", the old folks danced, and the kids said, "No more polkas, let's rock and roll."

We played another where the groom was a black Jamaican immigrant, the bride was the white daughter of the Methodist minister that hired us. We learned a lot of Reggae at the suggestion of the minister. We got there, realized the Jamaican's wanted Soca music, not Reggae. Leilani asked, I did a single for a while, and she came back with Soca music we collected while on the cruise ship. We DJ'd the soca, knew it well enough to sing along and being a good faker, I could play things on the sax that don't get in the way. One guy said, "You sound just like the records, you can get a lot of work in the Jamaican community). The dance floor was either black or white, depending on what we played, with the exception of two songs where everybody danced, "Old Time Rock n Roll" by Bob Seger and "Hot, Hot, Hot" by Arrow (not the wimpy Poindexter version). We had a great time.

As I got into my 40s, I quit doing weddings, unless they are second or third weddings. I found easier ways to stay booked that didn't require me to learn so many disposable songs.

Weddings are a good gig if you have the right personality.

Notes ♫

Afternoon gig went OK. Rain to the north, rain to the south, and we were spared. The one last night sported +60mph wind gusts, according to the newspaper.

I'm getting to like post-COVID outdoor day-gigs, but I get nervous about the water and my ability to keep my gear safe.

We carry a big tarp and plastic bags for security, and try to keep our eyes open so if one comes up in a hurry, it won't surprise us.

By mid-July, the storms should be less violent (if it's a normal year - but with climate change - will it ever be normal again?)

Notes ♫