I tell people, "We don't charge you to play music, We charge you to schlep the gear."

We bring a lot of gear to the gig, 12 space rack full of PA and synth modules, two 15" speaker cabs, two guitars (one for me, one for Leilani), one Thunder Tactile MIDI Controller, three computers (only need two but one is on stand-by just in case), two wind synthesizers (one is a spare), one saxophone, one flute, one percussion controller, plus microphones, cables, and stands.

We get to the gig an hour and a half before the guests arrive, it takes us an hour to setup, but we leave that extra half hour to troubleshoot a cable that may have reached its "use by" date. It takes about 45 minutes to tear down.

Now I could leave some gear home, but they are all fun to play. Sometimes I wish I would have brought the bass or keyboard or some real drums, and that's when I tell myself,"Just stop!"

Most of our gigs are 3 hours of playing, and we rarely take a break. This is what we live for, this is what we schlep the gear for, this is what pays the mortgage, this is the most fun we can have with our clothes on, why take a break?

Our current longest weekly gig starts our 12th year next month. We have places we have played a few times per year for over 25 years now.

Our song list has changed through those years as the audience has changed. It's important to pay attention to what they want.

I like learning new songs so that's OK with me.

I definitely put more than 40 hours a week in to the career, but it's my time, nobody is telling me what to do, I do it because it needs to be done and I like it.

I would have made more money if I stayed in electronics and became a career wage slave to some impersonal corporation. But instead, I'm free. I'm my own boss, I live by my good decisions, hopefully learn from my bad ones, and although I'm at retirement age, I have no plans to do so. I'm having too much fun. If Willie Nelson and Tony Bennett can still gig, so can I, and as long as I can push air through the sax or pluck the guitar and someone wants to hire me, I'll still gig. A musician is what I am, not what I do.

It's not a very financially rewarding career, but it is an extremely rewarding career in other ways.

I think it's more difficult to have a career in music, but as any self-employed business person, you have to find a niche to fill where there is some demand, and fill that niche better than your competitors. It may not be live gigging, some do it on-line, some write songs for others, and so on.

Assess the demand, find your niche, and fill it.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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