One year ago today: January 24, 2017, reasons to stay home.
Five years ago today: January 24, 2013, at least it isn’t Vista.
Nine years ago today: January 24, 2009, reads like a calendar entry.
Random years ago today: January 24, 2011, mostly hobby stuff.
Today’s journal may contradict itself because the day isn't over. It dropped to freezing again, meaning I was busy with other matters including the band. Today is rehearsal six, allowing for the first meet-up to be mostly logistics and not music. Lady Nik is not a complainer but she has mentioned twice the amount of time needed to get a song arranged. That’s real progress, gang. She specified one tune took four hours, which is about right for the somewhat more complicated material she has begun to prefer. Rehearsal six is nothing special but it seems to possess a psychological significance, as in you are past number five. Quit now and you’ve lost your investment. Return later to see how the session goes, we are slated for 2:00PM over in Combee Settlement. And read today’s addendum for some money stats.
So, around practice six, in my experience, you hit a barrier. You play the music worse than you did the first time. It is discouraging as you wonder if this is the reward you get for trying so hard. And it is depressing, so much so it stopped me countless times until I elbowed my way through to the next stage, where you may wind up hating the music. Why, how, you ask, did I ever choose this stupid song, but trust me, people around you will start telling you it sounds great. What are they hearing? You go back and it’s funny the way you hear parts of the song you used to leave out. Am I really playing the lead riffs on the bass? Ta-dah, what’s happening is you are now putting the song back together. And by now you’ve played it around fifteen to twenty times. The magic number is thirty, so today we will be watching for the signposts.
Ha, that all reminds of the five-piece band, who at the points where I was disheartened and playing rotten, made snarky comments. But then, they had that guitar crud-brain mind-set that “bass is easy”. Yeah, is that why they wound up muting the crowds when my turn came, or why people kept approaching the stage and asking them tell the bass player to turn up. I’m outright sympathetic when I hear somebody get to this “point of no return”, so let’s see what she’s been up to the last week. Two or three more good practice installments and we will be ready to do something.
Navajo bridge.
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Another above-ordinary rehearsal. The lady is doing her homework and we breezed through 22 songs in three hours. Contrast this with other “guitar” bands that often require months to get a set together. I’ve said before this is not an A-room show band, and I don’t mean that our music is not up to par. Au contraire, my standards can be quite high when it comes to proper presentation. What I actually mean is that steps have been taken to specialize in “bar music”. I consider “amateur” as just another legitimate band sound. We go out of our way to make sure we do not come across as some slick up-city band putting on a mini-concert for the yokels. Because that is a mistake. I don’t care for bars, but the realistic musician of today accepts that has become the most common setting, at least this side of the Mississippi.
I’ve put together a short video called “Nobody’s Listening” of clandestine clips showing guitar bands playing their unsuitable song lists to utterly bored rooms. There is nothing wrong with the music except that it is mismatched for the crowd. If you expect success, you can’t be pulling stunts like that, but with guitarists, you might as well go talk to the wall. However, I decided to shelve the video because it turns out to be quite difficult to get the right message across. I’m stressing the music is fine in itself, but could not convey the fact it was inappropriate for the venue. Instead, it comes across like I’m criticizing the musicians whereas my intention was to show examples of bad presentation.
This photo is a still from the video. It was not at all difficult to get footage. Just go to the corner pub. Most Florida guitar bands are cruddy at matching their music to the situation. They seem to think they can create the right ambiance, and it does, on rare occasions, work that way. (My way works right every time.) If you want to do a job right, you have to specialize. That’s why I was happy with today’s rehearsal. The music is coming around to be better than I anticipated. I just don’t usually meet guitarists who can do it right and she is really getting serious with this.
This practice, number six, is also important for goal congruency. It’s about the stage where pressure arises to go different directions with the material, so management has to ride herd. Stick with the plan. So even though Lady Nik called to request a cancellation because she’s got a cold, I took the chance and showed up for the session. Wise move, and I was pleasantly surprised that she has not brought up the topic of doing anything differently. She has correctly figured out she is potentially on to something big here, that this is no ordinary duh-yup jug band. My intention is to be just good enough to scoop the top-paying locations away from these clone guitar players. Folks, that is show biz and they are fair game. If I can get their gigs with a country duo, then they had it comin’.
It brought a smile as I remembered my background on this. When I was 13, I started the first local “rock band” and we had no local competition. But there were excellent bands in the surrounding towns. Forget them, because what happened is once I had blazed the trail, two other similar bands started up right in my little town. This diluted the money badly, since there was not enough to go around. I learned that up close, copycatting and competition are identical. And I learned to out-compete the copycats. Well, it hit me. Isn’t that what I’m doing here all over again?
[Author’s note: we were just kids back then, but the big dream was to become good enough to “wipe out” another band. To get all the people to show up at our gig and let the other band flop. I deliberately worked toward that goal, doing things like waiting until they put up their dance posters and then starting my gigs a half-hour earlier. It was all business. I did not ask these wannabes to come along and ape what I was doing. What stuck in my craw was many of them had, at some point, been trained by me.
So it is not like I’m a novice at dealing with cling-ons. I would not hesitate to play hardball if I found somebody was replicating my formula. I alone and independently determined there is a massive pent-up demand for country music in this area and I don’t recall getting any help. It would bring an evil glint to my eye we would ever be good enough to wipe out another nearby club featuring some clone guitar band. When there is anything else going on in Polk County, like the Regatta or the Rendezvous, it empties all the pubs, clubs, libraries, theaters, and pool rooms. So, the potential for a wipe out is there.]
Trivia. Curiousity, the Mars rover, has a top speed of five miles per year.
ADDENDUM
Okay, money. Now there is no way I’m ever put in writing any hard figures that pertain to me, but I will talk about trends and averages, and sometimes totals. Don’t draw inferences, you’ll make wild errors that are little better than guesswork. Most career musicians can tell you the good times are over. I don’t personally know any musicians in Florida who make a good living from music. Every last one has a second source of income that enables them to tide over. It can be welfare (it usually is), rich parents, a day job, a girlfriend who pays half, and one guy I know owns a restaurant.
My situation has traditionally been a day job that pays incredibly well compared to others. This time I don’t have that. Last day I mapped out the time-line, remember the three super months, the three bad months, and so on? Today I had time to calculate the minimum desired gross income I would require to break even with the music. Careful here, I did not say I wouldn’t gig for less, and sadly I often do. But I have options to do other things, and my natural tendency is to regard music as one of the lousiest ways to make money unless—unless you create a unique set of circumstances. The last time around for me, it was bingo that made the difference. Don’t laugh, that was serious good times.
So let me bring up the spreadsheet and see what I would have to make in a week to make the game worth the candle. This is not a break-even calculation. All my equipment is paid for and in good condition, so any money is good money. One would hope to consistently make a lot more, but what is the minimum that justifies keeping on? This does not include equipment repairs, depreciation, gas, storage, batteries, or the tons of small costs involved with gigging. We are seeking the least amount I would need to keep up the momentum.
Based on playing two gigs per week, that’s a Friday and one other day, usually a Saturday. On the Friday, the goal is, hmmm, hold on here, these numbers look contrived. Nope, they are right. On a Friday I would seek to gross $61.61 and on the other day $48.00 even. That sounds lousy considering the hours of skilled labor involved, but these are minimums. For a duo, rounding up, that means $125 on Friday, or $100 on Saturday are the lowest possible price. I happen to know the clubs pay more than that for a solo. As for the breakeven point, if I capitalized my expenses over the previous 19 years, I will never live long enough to turn a profit.
There are plenty of other motives for the band, so you keep that thought handy. I can think of a dozen good reasons to play till I drop. Not the least of which is to prevent 54-year-old women from telling me I’m not paying them enough attention.
Last Laugh
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