The Music, the Hang, and the Money
Hello friends, we are back with another episode of a whole bunch of stuff that no one likes to talk about as a creative. Have you ever been stuck on a gig and wondered, why am I here? What am I doing? I don't wanna be here. Why didn't I see this coming? It seemed like a good idea at the time. But here I am, and it's not a good idea.
Let's talk about the three things that make a gig worth doing. So without further ado…
Topic number one, the music.
It's why we're all here, right? Think about it, if you're gonna take a gig, hopefully you like the music, right, you're not just taking it because it's there, if you're taking a gig just because it's there, you're robbing somebody the opportunity of having that gig that maybe would appreciate it more. There's nothing worse than playing a gig and not liking the music, you're not gonna prepare for it as well as you would if you did, and therefore you're gonna make your band leader really unhappy when you show up with a lackluster performance, so don't take a gig where the music doesn't inspire you, that's probably a pretty good rule of thumb across the board, right?
Number two, the hang.
What do I mean by that? Well, it's pretty simple, if you don't like the people you're gonna be around, you're not gonna have a good time, it's gonna influence everything else... Right, this is sometimes controllable and sometimes it's not... Obviously, for the band leader, you can choose whoever you want to to show up, and hopefully you're thinking about the personalities involved, so when they all come together, it's a good match if you're a side man, sometimes asking who's on the gig can leave a bad impression with the leader, because you're maybe only taking the gig because of other people that are on it, but if you can articulate it in a way that it's constructive, then maybe they'll see it as a way of you thinking about whether you're best suited for the gig, sometimes you know there are musicians you gel really well with, and sometimes, you know there's musicians on the scene that you don't yell with, and it's totally okay that you don't musically jell with everyone, it's just the fact of life, personalities are different with music as well as people, so in taking this gig that you might be miserable on, are you looking around and realizing that everybody around you is not somebody you really wanna hang out with, so it's really important that you just think about who's on the gig oftentimes on these gigs, you're gonna be around someone for hours at a time, right? If it's a photo shoot or a music gig, where you're at a wedding or a corporate event, or you're doing an original artist gig, there's going to be hours where you're hanging out, it's really more of that than it is even playing music... Think about it, you play music from say, one hour to three hours at a time on an average gig, and you're usually there like six or eight hours, so making sure that you're around some people that you really get along with, or just being an easy hang personally it's gonna really serve you well in the longterm. And a quick side note here, a great way to get in good with your boss for the day when you're playing music is to just be available to help out, there's always something to do, and after you get your stuff set up, offering a helping hand to everyone that's around will really go a long way in building relationships with people.
Finally, number three, the money.
Now, this one's pretty self explanatory, but it's worth talking about. How much does the pay... Is it a lot of money? Is it not a lot of money? Not every gig you take has to pay a lot of money, I understand about setting your own personal rates so that you always make the money that you deserve, but some gigs are gonna be more fulfilling artistically and are gonna pay less, and some gigs are not gonna fulfill you very much artistically. And they're gonna pay way more. The trick is, is finding the balance based on all of these three principles and coming up with a formula that equals a yes or a no... So here's the magic formula, and by the way, this isn't rocket science in my book, if you find out if all three of these are in the plus column, then you have found the gig that matches you and you should take it.
Where it gets interesting is when one of these three options are in the negative column.
So let's go over it, let's say you have a gig that has good pay and is a great hand, but the music is... What do you do? Are those two pluses enough to overcome the negative? That truly is a personal decision and is entirely up to you, what about the other scenarios, what if the music is off the charts and the hang is with all your best friends, but the money is like next to nothing is that something you're gonna be okay with, what if the music is awesome and the money is great, but the hang is going to be horrible, you just know that there's more than one person in the band that just totally gets on your nerves, are you gonna take that gig, asking yourself these tough questions in advance and coming up with a formula that wins for you, helps you be able to process this information whenever it comes to you, and somebody is so nice enough to offer a gig... You'll know exactly what to say. The great thing is, is that this is all subjective. You can have your own formula and I can have my own formula, and each one of us is gonna come up with our own decision, for me, personally, I feel like I have to have at least two of these three words to be a positive in order for me to take the gig. If two of three of those things are there, I'm there and I'm gonna have a great time.