[Dixielandjazz] If I could play an instrument

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

I thought Music was supposed to make us better at Math  :))

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins



      An award winning article (reprinted in the International Musician) 
worth reading:

 If I Could Play an Instrument by Brein Matson, Honolulu, HI

  "If I could play an instrument … I'd love to play for a couple of 
hours for $50. Heck, I'd even do it for free, I'd just be so happy to 
be playing music. You're so lucky!"

  Sound familiar? It's the voice of the uninitiated non-musician, the 
fan, the admirer, the "Regular Josephine," the "Regular Joe." They're 
right. We are lucky that we play music, but it's bad luck that most 
people look at our profession in that way.

  We are professionals. We chose music as a career, we work hard at it, 
and we want to make a decent living at it.

  Here's another familiar sound: "It's just not in the budget. Look, you 
love to play, why don't you just do it for that amount? It's better 
than nothing…" Or these: "Take it or leave it;" "It's great exposure."

  Sound painfully familiar? It's the voice of the purchaser. The club 
owner, the restaurateur, the agent, the promoter. The sad thing is that 
the purchaser is in the music business to make money, but somehow, they 
don't want to pay the people who make the music that makes the money.

  This article is addressed to the "Regular Joes," the "Regular 
Josephines," and the purchasers. It's also to us, the professionals. We 
need to think about this, and remind ourselves of how specialized what 
we do is, and set the bar a little higher in order to survive and--dare 
I say this?--prosper. Let's go with the $50 gig. Most of us won't take 
them, and people are surprised when we don't. But let's use that figure 
and do a little math to illustrate why we're not happy to play a couple 
of hours for 50 bucks.

  "Two hour gig, $50 each, cash. What's wrong with that? That's $25 an 
hour." Hmmm-m-m-m. Let's say the gig is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.,
and let's not take into consideration practicing or warming up.

  Start with the drive to the gig. What? Everyone has to drive to work! 
True, so we won't count the drive. Keep in mind that most people drive 
the distance, and then walk in to work five minutes early, grab a cup 
of coffee, and start working. We have to pack up the car with equipment 
(half an hour) and drive to the site. Unload the car, load the 
equipment onto the stage (half hour), go park the car (15 minutes), 
come back and set up (1 hour).

  Let's say that you timed it so you had 15 minutes before the gig 
starts. That's two and a half hours. Add the gig, and you've got four 
and a half hours.

  Now pack up. If you're lucky, and nobody wants to talk to you after 
the gig, you can tear down in one hour, go get your car, load your 
equipment (another half hour), and drive home.

  Nobody counts the drive home, but when you get home, you unpack your 
car, and load your stuff into the house, another half-hour,
easy.

  That's six hours work, for $50 cash. More like $8.33 an hour, not $25 
an hour.

  Let's look at making a living with that same amount. To make $1500 a 
month, you would have to do one $50 gig a day, every day of the month. 
If you did that every day, every month of the year, no vacation, no 
holidays, you would make about $18,000 per year, and that's before 
taxes.

  Paying federal and state income tax, general excise tax, and full 
social security tax (no employer contributions), knocks it down to 
about $11,880. By the way, you're not eligible for unemployment or 
workers' comp, but that's okay, it's not really work, right?

  Let's double that to $36,000 gross, which is $23,760 after taxes. For 
that, you would need to do two of those gigs a day. Two gigs taking up 
6 hours each is 12 hours a day, every day of the year.

  It's a simplistic formula, but it makes a point. The point is, that's 
why we're not "happy to play for a couple of hours for $50," even 
though we are lucky to be able to play music.

  The next time someone says something like the opening line of this 
article to you, turn it around. Say: "If I could be a dentist, I'd love 
to do it for $8.33 an hour. I'd just be so happy to be able to practice 
dentistry. You're so lucky!" I'm sure the reply would be: "What do you 
mean, lucky? I studied for years, and I still study. I worked long, 
hard hours to perfect my craft, and still do.

  My equipment cost me an arm and a leg, and it's very specialized work. 
I'm a professional!" Just smile and say, "Me, too."




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