Things change and will always change. There was a time when I went to work with a tenor sax in one hand, an alto in another and a flute tucked under my arm. We played 6 nights a week in night clubs generally from 9PM to 2AM and the clubs were jammed. The minimum size for a band with a sax player was 4, and more often than not I was in bigger bands than that, up to 7 pieces.

Now I'm in a duo with my wife. We were in a 5 piece band together, until the money and personnel problems caused us to rethink. I started making my own backing tracks with an Atari computer and a sequencer, before Band-in-a-Box was available. Musicians told me I was putting other musicians out of work with that box, and I told them I was putting a musician to work with that box -- me! Some of those same musicians are now purchasing my BiaB style disks and Fake Disks. Yes, the times they are a-changing.

And in the duo, we schlep all the equipment ourselves. And since I play sax, guitar, wind synth, flute and Leilani plays guitar and Tactile MIDI Controller, we have a lot of gear to schlep.

And as the economy started to downturn, the gigs got scarcer and the competition for those gigs fiercer. The country can't fight two wars using the national credit card to finance them and have good economy. Nobody has ever been able to do that. When the economy goes down, musicians, restaurants and other optional items suffer.

We're still making a living out of it, and although the money isn't as great as it might have been if I stayed in electronics engineering, the life itself is a lot more enjoyable.

So I'm still making the mortgage payments, I drive new cars but then keep on driving them long after they have been paid off, and there are some other compromises that need to be made. On the other hand, I've seen corporate types laid off with no employment opportunities at all. So while looking at that, I'm not feeling so unlucky at all.

All in all I'm happy being a career musician and if I could go back and change it, I'd still be a musician.

Being a musician is not what I do, it's what I AM.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

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

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks