If playing band bookings is your career rather than a paid part-time hobby, you'll know there's more than one kind of "Selling out".
The "positive" one is when you fill your band booking with a big crowd. The not so great one, refers to the kind of music you play live to earn your living....
A gig-getter newsletter subscriber contacted me last week
about how to join a band - again.
I say again, because he’d been playing live with a band for a number of years until it split up. He'd been posting and answering ads on the usual sites (Party sounds, Craiglist, Gumtree etc) and was getting plenty of responses.
I say again, because he’d been playing live with a band for a number of years until it split up. He'd been posting and answering ads on the usual sites (Party sounds, Craiglist, Gumtree etc) and was getting plenty of responses.
The problem was that none of the offers to audition were exactly the type of music he wanted to play. It reminded me of an article I read in Bass Player
Magazine.
The article was written the Weezer bassist Scott Shriner and it was called: "Just don't say no". In it, he spoke about the art of saying "yes" to offers more often. Specifically, about taking on musical projects which on the surface might not seem perfect for you at that time.
The article was written the Weezer bassist Scott Shriner and it was called: "Just don't say no". In it, he spoke about the art of saying "yes" to offers more often. Specifically, about taking on musical projects which on the surface might not seem perfect for you at that time.
He talked about being "open
to try new genres" or directions, about how this can ultimately improve a
player’s creativity and technique.
He said that when he went through a period of being an unemployed musician, he had to start saying "Yes" to the kind of things musically which would normally make him "queasy". Cover band bookings, recording with friends, even switching the instrument he played to find gigs....
Now to some people, this would be too much "selling out" to bear. To Scott, it got him busy playing band bookings, got him back networking and put his name around again. Ultimately the attitude got him the Weezer gig.
He said that when he went through a period of being an unemployed musician, he had to start saying "Yes" to the kind of things musically which would normally make him "queasy". Cover band bookings, recording with friends, even switching the instrument he played to find gigs....
Now to some people, this would be too much "selling out" to bear. To Scott, it got him busy playing band bookings, got him back networking and put his name around again. Ultimately the attitude got him the Weezer gig.
Back to my drummer friend, he tells me the one thing he misses about playing band bookings (almost as much as the social side and the high of drumming live)- is the
lack of ready cash by the time the weekend comes around.
Well, perhaps taking a different view on what you'll accept from a musical project, at least for the short term, could be worth considering...
Well, perhaps taking a different view on what you'll accept from a musical project, at least for the short term, could be worth considering...
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