Music/jobs

I quit college on Oct 8, 1971, and have survived on music ever since (with one year spent working at a music store). I really didn't have any grandoise plans on how to do it, things just happened, and I'm still paying the rent. No doubt, I sure did a lot of awful bar gigs over the years, but I always wanted to play, and really had no marketable skills besides music anyway. One thing that has really helped is being able to play many styles of music. That wasn't planned, either...I love lots of different kinds of music, and wound up studying them hard over the years. Then, I found out one could make money freelancing, playing weddings, corporate parties, etc, and being versatile was a great asset. I've played blues, jazz, classical, flamenco, Brazilian, country (some nasty gigs there, lemme tell you), big band, Symphony Pops, you name it. Also, fell into doing music for plays in the early '90s, those are often really good gigs as far as $$$ and hours (doing "Evita" right now at a dinner playhouse). And, teaching...been at it for 20 years, and have built up a pretty good clientele...but of course, that's a pretty fickle profession when you do it privately, but it really helps with the rent.
And I agree with what Erv said, some quiet time is really needed to be creative...at least for me. But, my daughter graduates high school in 2 weeks, so things will change in big ways...I'll have more time to actually sit and play what I want, as well as study more, and I have plans for many new compositions...and if the $$$ comes in, I want to get guitars with more tunings...maybe one of Rankin's interchangeable rigs, we'll see...best to all...Hstick
myspace.com/microstick microstick.net

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Neil,

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, <microstick@...> wrote:
>
> <snip> ...I've played blues, jazz, classical, flamenco,
> Brazilian, country (some nasty gigs there, lemme tell you),

Ha! ... multiply the nastiness of country bars by 10,
and it would probably describe some of the gigs i did
playing in a southern-rock band! ;-)

But at the same time, i also have to say that overall
playing in that band was the most fun job i've ever had.
It was a real blast to earn my living that way for a
few years. And 25 years later i still remember some of
the most awesome musical moments with those guys too.
Every now and then we had a night where there was
real magic.

There used to be a Wikipedia article about that band,
(the Midnight Riders), but it was deleted awhile ago.
Thanks to some Wikipedia clones, there are still some
copies out there:

this one looks most like the original Wikipedia article,
but without the photo:
http://wikipedia.qwika.com/en/Midnight_Riders

and this one has the photo:
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Midnight_Riders

And just to make sure that i keep this post on topic,
i guess i need to make a comment about microtonality
... let's just say that some of the guys in this band
had their own unique ideas about what "in tune" meant.
;-P

... however, i do have to say that Steve, one of our
two guitarists (and the Pretty Boy in the group),
really did play a mean bottleneck style, with all
kinds of "in the cracks" notes.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software