Switching to the Senior Citizen market when the nightclubs started cutting back from 6 nights a week to 4 or less was a good move for me.

This audience grew up with live music and considers it superior to recordings, they are loyal, they are appreciative, and they are consistent.

If there is a downside is that they don't drink as much as their younger selves did. That makes getting gigs in commercial venues more difficult, which is one reason why we downsized to a duo. Less cash flow means less band budget.

But the majority of our work is parties at condominiums and retirement developments. These are the kinds of gigs I'm holding deposits for. And I don't take deposits from the people from the good customers who have been booking us for years.

We have well over 500 people on our e-mail list. Most are probably gone 'up north' in the summer and spend the winters here. That means we work many one-nighters per week in the winter, and we're lucky to get 1 or 2 per week in the summer. But everybody in the hospitality industry in Florida is used to the work very hard in the season and not so hard off season.

Me? The only part of it I consider work is schlepping the gear from gig to gig. "They" tell me that weight training is good for my health, so I don't have to go to the gym for that. I do "speakercise". laugh

Learning songs and sequencing the backing tracks is time-consuming, sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding when it comes out right.

Playing on stage is one of my favorite things to do. I get into that place where there is no space, no time, no me, just the music that feels like it's flowing through me instead of from me and the energy returning from the audience to go through me some more. Pure bliss.

From that pure bliss I take glimpses of the audience to see how they are reacting. Do they need another fast song? Should I slow it down? Something Caribbean? Or Country? Or classic Rock? Or Salsa? Or whatever. Is it time to talk between songs and perhaps do some shtick to amuse them? Or should I just play non-stop music?

But all that takes only moments, and for some reason I can do that without leaving 'the zone' when I'm playing. The reason is probably decades of experience.

I don't think I could get that experience with Zoom even if the majority of my 500+ regular audience members knew how to zoom.

I'm lucky. I found what I love to do, and it pays the rent. My wife is my duo partner, lover and very best friend too. When I met her she was in another band, and both our bands broke up within a couple of weeks of each other. That was pure luck too.

Life is the perfect way to spend the time of day.

Insights and incites by Notes

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

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