Commercial Gigs

[mandocaster]

I don't know whether anyone else sees this as a dilemma. #I get calls (I am sure many of us do)to play Italian music, or Continental music, or something of the sort at dinner parties, restaurants, company functions, etc. #I did a "international day" gig at a local hospital a couple of weeks ago, where I banged out Santa Lucia and such for the lunch crowd in the cafeteria. #I know I should be grateful to get paying gigs of any sort, but I often end up feeling kind of soiled after one of these functions. #I don't mean to sound snobbish. #I would probably feel better if I would get off my butt and really take this music seriously, but I never seem to get around to practicing it.

[Jeff Baldwin]

I would do it...and enjoy it for what it is...a chance to play the mando...

It should be freeing...no expectations. I admire actors who take every part...commercial...stupid comedy..."serious" role. #The actor (F. Murray Abraham)won an academy award for his role in Amadeus In his previous role he
"starred" in #a fruit in a fruit of the loom ad

If you have the moxie and the chops to do Santa Lucia....
the gig will benefit you...and the folks listening...
Break a leg....and have fun...

[jim simpson]

Early in my mandolin playing experience I was asked to fill in for a friend's Irish band at an Irish bar. I was so oriented to bluegrass that I really had to work hard to switch from chop to open chords. The melody wasn't hard to grab on most tunes and I actually knew some of the material. It was a great paying job, I got home really late, and I smelled greatly of cigarette smoke! Yeah, go for it!

[justwrite]

Hey, if Bob Dylan can do underwear ads . . .

[August Watters]

I've done a lot of this kind of gig, and like them very much. Of course it can be annoying if no one seems to listen, and you figure you might as well be playing scales -- but I think it's beneficial from several viewpoints. For one, once you have a certain amount of material in your solo repertoire, it takes time to maintain it. I began to view these gigs as a low-pressure, paid opportunity to practice -- since you're providing background music, the stakes are low in case you mess things up -- and yet some people will be listening closely enough to appreciate the value of what you're doing.

So I guess it comes down to -- are YOU into the music? # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Oh yes -- it's also a great opportunity to expose folks to mandolin music -- someone's going to hear and want to learn! I think we all have a responsibility to put real, live music in the world -- so few people have a chance to hear it and participate as something more than consumers of a commercial product. So I wouldn't overlook the value of this type of gig as a musical experience!

August W
http://www.galleryofstrings.com

[Dennis Schubert]

Isn't your role as a pro or semi-pro musician to entertain the folks, and take their money in return? Quid pro quo. At least that's how I see it.

[PlayerOf8]

I posted this about a years ago and it fits here as well.

Back in the early '80s, tucked away on a little side street in Calumet City, was a tiny place called the Velvet Heart Cafe. Don't let the name fool you. The sign flashed "A Place For Lovers." Don't let that fool you either. The Velvet Heart was a place where lovers go to dump their current lovers, and were wives go to tell their husbands that they are pregnant with another man's child. The kind of place Tom Waits might write a song about. Got the picture?

Gus Valos was the owner, and he got the bright idea of having strolling mandolins while the people ate. Did you ever try to play Somewhere My Love , while she is being told that she is being replaced by her younger sister?

This concept may have worked fine in another cafe, but not the Velvet Heart. There was always a police car parked out in front of the place. The place had a reputation for someone catching a dinner fork in the chest.

My good friend Fuzzy Thorton got me this gig. The first night, I agreed to play for dinner and tips. I made $0, and the prime rib wasn't so prime. The next night, I made $11.00. But following weekend I would have played for nothing! When is the next time I am going to hear a man tell his wife that there is a woman locked up inside of him, and he wants to start wearing her red pumps. ...And the colored girls go doot da doot da doot da doot.

Fuzzy was there the night some woman tried to perform open-heart surgery on her husband. There was just something about the back booth over by the window.

One New Year's Eve, Gus opened the place just for broken-hearted lovers. Fuzzy and I did a duet thing, but it was more like being on a Suicide Watch.
Fuzzy and I worked out all this neat little chops for songs like "Last Kiss", "Teen Angel", "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Leader of the Pack." It really helped cheer the place up.

We were home by 12:30

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

Great story, Player. Every town should have one of these establishments. In fact, a few do!

[John Flynn]

I get calls (I am sure many of us do)to play Italian music, or Continental music, or something of the sort
It's fine as long they don't ask you to play bluegrass. That would be crossing the line! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mandocaster]

I know! I know! I feel like such a snob.

Most of it is my fault. After all- O Solo Mio, Finiculi Finicula, Santa Lucia, Arrividerci Roma, Never on Sunday, various tarantellas, and so on are great melodies. I memorized the basics of the tunes years ago, but I need to spend more time making them into polished arrangements. That way, I could feel like I was showing off a little, which is important for some reason.

Even if some people look at me as if I am some hobo that's crashed the party (maybe I need "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"), somebody always says something nice (like "I didn't know ukeleles sounded like that, cool!")

[sbarnes]

having read all the posts above - i'm a little skeptical to offer a conflicting opinion.....
1st of all, it depends on you and the gig....but yes, you can indeed stoop too low....it doesn't sound like the gig you refer to is really that low but there are some i've done and just refuse to do again.....
on a flat bed trailer in a parking lot....
freebies for someone's party....
your list may of course vary but if you do too many of the 'low' gigs you'll become stereotyped and the money never goes up....you'll get totally taken for granted.....

sbarnes - I was thinking the same thing. #You can stoop too low but which gig is "too low" is going to be an individual choice.

My son is in a rock band and they get a lot of gigs of the #type where they get tickets to sell and get to keep a percentage of what they sell. #I feel they are being ripped off by the club but they get experience of playing on a real stage with professional sound and light system. #Is the trade-off worth it. #Right now it is but if that is still their model in two years, they'll have to rethink their career goals.

[ira]

to quote s. miller- "go on take the money and run=ooh hoo"!

its not like you are being asked to do something horrible, if it pays the bills, and is not demeaning personally or professionally, there is nothing wrong with doing a little something different here and there.

[mrbook]

It's still worth playing if you can at least come away with good stories to tell. The money we get paid goes in the next set of strings, but I still have great memories of crazy gigs 20 or 30 years ago. Most I would do again - even the ones where I was glad when they were over.

[John Rosett]

i remember seeing a photo of jethro playing at a department store to advertise some new italian perfume. he was wearing a straw gondolier's hat, a red and white jacket and white slacks. his comment? "there's no such thing as a bad gig."
john

[Moose]

Ah!- A jewel of wisdom from another "jewel... Thanks for that!! - "Put a quarter in my mouth an' I'll play whatever you wanna' hear"(source:Moose) - Regards to all. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Jim Garber]

I had a similar gig: playing for a bunch of travel agents for a tour company. I was Italy. I played as the groups came in and then was quiet for the spiel then played as they went out. Yes, I played the standards but i worked out some chord melody arrangements and basically used it as a 2-1/2 hour practice.

I suppose if I had to do it for a living it would wear thin after awhile, but I think we all cope. Besides that is why I was getting paid. I would not do it for free.

Jim

[Atlanta Mando Mike]

there is no such thing as stooping too low for a corporate gig. Corporate gigs are how i pay my rent-lots of that work in Atlanta and i do alot of it. Pays very well but isn't ussually satisfying. Last Sunday I played a gig where we were asked to play Salty Dog 5 times, The man of constan sorrow 3 times, and so on and so on. I was payed well and they already booked us again for ther next event. My band plays Dawg tunes and more obscure stuff that I love when we play clubs and show gigs. Gotta be versatile. Playing a gig can be art, and it can be work. Sometimes it can be both-thats when its great. However, a working musician has to work-if you don't want to do it there is always someone who will and he will get the calls when you start turning down gigs.

[mandocrucian]

Is it possible to stoop too low?

I'm not really clear on what exactly is involved in the stooping so low? Is it:

1) the amount/nonamount of the paycheck?
2) the type/income bracket/politics of people/business/organization hiring you?
3) the type/income bracket/politics of people you will be playing for?
4) the duration or hours when you have to work?
5) the type of music you are asked to perform?
6) a combination of several or all of the above?

Is this is a
a) business issue
b) politcal issue
or
c) a musical issue?

[mrbook]

A bad gig is still better than no gig at all.

[Dagger Gordon]

I don't think the gig you refer to sounds too bad. It's maybe not what you would prefer to do but it's no great hardship and you get paid.

I think it's important to make the best of every situation. Try to play the material as well as you can and above all, don't look like your heart's not in it.

If Grisman and Tony Rice can play 'O Solo Mio' on Tone Poems (and I don't recall them getting flak for that) it's surely not a problem. If you play these things and sound like Carlo Aonzo nobody's ever going to think the worse of you.

[Steve L]

Some years ago, I was in a band playing a multiple act fundraiser. #We were supposed to precede an "exotic" act called Tina and her Snakes. #Tina was engaged in a tearful argument with her agent as one snake had killed the other and the agent, who reasoned he was paying 2 snakes, wanted to short her pay. #Now that's what I call stooping!

[mandocaster]

Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies.

I have a renewed inspiration to tackle these events with verve.

I will keep repeating to myself "If Jethro could do do it, who am I to complain".

To Niles - I don't think my conflict really fits neatly into any of those categories. It is more of a self-esteem issue. There is nothing wrong with the people running these events, or the money, or the music per se. I don't want to overstate my reaction, I was just curious if anyone else felt dorky in these situations.

[Jim Garber]

The key to all of this, I feel, is my business philosophy which is never to directly turn down a gig, but merely to price it high enough to make it palatable to do.

If you are offered a gig which you know you will be miserable doing, then up your price to make it worth doing. If it is a repeat offender gig that you hated last time, tell them gee, my rates have gone up. Either they will run away or give you what you want $$$ly.

You can make it a preposterously high sum and expect them to turn it down of laugh all the way to abnk if they accept.

Jim

[Pete Martin]

One of the great things about being an independent contractor is you can say "no" if you want. Take the gig if you like it or need the $. Don't take it if you don't want it.

[Trip]

last weekend we played in Dahlonega for that leg of the Tour de Geogia for free.....pieced together PA, in the blazing sun for no money....and several thousand people there, but all crowded down right at the finish line.....so we had the undivided attention of 20 people tops....but we did it for the write up in the newspaper and had a pro come take some pics and some video

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