[Dixielandjazz] How do you put a value on a job?

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Dear bill:

If you are a PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN OF ANY KIND, YOUR DAY GIG IS BOOKING 
YOUR NIGHT GIGS and promoting your services to others continuously to 
assure you have a full calendar of professionally paid gigs to support 
yourself and your sidemen at liveable wages.    Most occupations demand 
that Professionals and skilled workers and even unskilled workers of 
all types work 40 hours a week for a living.   Many try to get as much 
overtime as possible to make extra money.  Some low paid workers even 
work two jobs to improve their standard of living.

Musicians used to be respected as Professionals and somebody in the 
Union decided we could all be lazy and only have to play four hours a 
day and get three or four breaks in between sets so we actually only 
had to deliver three hours worth of music for the money.    Many 
musicians even took undue advantage of this situation by taking longer 
and longer breaks, showing up late, high , drunk, and or getting or 
extending their circumstances further on the job, sometimes quitting 
early.   This activity was tolerated in the bars because many of them 
were actually spending all the money they made for performing at the 
bar and leaving with no money anyway.   Some of the old timers even 
owed the bar owner a tab for overspending their wages.

This caused man musician to get a bad reputation that we now all suffer 
 from the fall out on, as in the common belief that we are all drunks 
and drug  or Sex addicts, ( not that there is a damned thing wrong with 
being a Sex Addict ). :))  Dirty old men need Love too.  :))

Maybe that job is worth whatever a person is willing to do it for for 
them personally, but that has no bearing upon what the actual job is 
actually worth to a Professional with professional standards trying to 
maintain a professional image and deliver a Professional show to their 
clients.

Being a low paid imposter of a professional act is not doing the job 
for what it is worth.   If you had believed that all during your 
professional working career at what ever you did you would not be 
touting that statement so loudly, because you would not have that 
RETIREMENT CHECK TO LIVE ON TODAY if you and others in your career 
would have tolerated that kind of activity in your profession.

On the other hand the artist dong the job may not know the true worth 
of the job and will accept less because they do not value their time 
and skills at a professional level and just want to do it for fun and a 
hobby regardless of the impact it will and has had on the true 
professional musicians trying compete for survival of their career at 
wages and situations on a constant downward economic spiral due to so 
many more hobbyist entering the workplace.

Hence the argument about an amateur band with six to ten ORIGINAL songs 
passing themselves off as Professional musicians and watching too much 
MTV and believing that that is all there is to it to become a big Rock 
Star and RICH AND FAMOUS in the music business.  Gone are the days of 
musical theory study, practicing and honing skills and learning how to 
play real songs and in different keys tempos and styles.   That is why 
all the ROCK CLUBS TODAY have to have four or five bands a night to get 
thru a four hour shift, NONE of them have enough material to be a real 
band and play a real professional gig even at half time.

It is pathetic, to say the least.

Yes there are situations when it is appropriate to make professional 
concessions for certain gigs, like senior centers, vets hospitals, even 
prisons, or any place where patients are confined and cannot get out to 
participate or enjoy professional music in a live situation, however 
there is a Professional way to deal with it too, and often with a bit 
of asking the band leader can find funding to pay his band the normal 
rate anyway.   All they have to do is go ask somebody to donate the 
money for them to go donate their services to those folks and allow 
that sponsor to take a legal tax deduction for doing so.   This cause 
greater appreciation and RESPECT FOR THE BAND AND THE MUSICIANS   from 
all parties concerned and everyone gets respectable and deserved credit 
for their efforts.

Respectfully to guy I like but disagree with often.

Tom Wiggins   (still doing it for a living and Professionally)  even in 
self earned from music semi retirement.

Translation:  I can afford to play where I want when I want for what I 
want and still pay my musicians good money, if not I simply don't take 
the gig, I give em what they pay for and then some usually.   I ain't 
cheap but I can be had.  :))

To compete a band leader must adjust to the marketplace and find the 
better gigs and get their first and sell QUALITY VS QUANTITY OR cheaper 
prices and then deliver that quality consistently and book those 
residual good gigs that come from each high quality show you deliver.   
The gig is not over until you finish booking the next gigs, often after 
the side men have split for home.



-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Gunter <jazzboard at hotmail.com>
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 04:18:39 +0000
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] How do you put a value on a job?

   Hi all, 
 
 Interesting thread (working for free, cut rate gigs, etc.) . . . 
 
  I don't suppose it takes a masters in economics to know what a job is 
worth. Basic rule of thumb (you may want to make a note here for future 
reference): 
 
 "A job is worth whatever anyone is willing to do it for." 
 
  One can belly-ache all day about what the scabs and cut-rate artists 
are doing to the music scene but ultimately that's just "tough 
noogies." 
 
  If you're in the music game it's best you have a day gig (doesn't 
everyone?)! 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 Bill "Thank Gawd I'm Retired" Gunter 
 jazzboard at hotmail.com 
 
  
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