Things I Didn't Expect as a Guitarist

When I started learning the guitar 10 years ago, I knew it would be different from classical trombone. Some of the differences surprised me.

Fingernails
I never dreamed I would give so much attention to my fingernails. I don't keep my nails extra long like some classical and fingerstyle guitar players do, but I file them every morning to maintain a certain length. If I chip a nail, it's a tragedy. On the plus side, I stopped biting my nails the day I picked up a guitar.

Numb Fingertips
When I first began playing the guitar, I could only play for a short length of time before the pain in my left hand fingertips grew too much to bear. I gradually developed callouses, and now my left hand fingertips are permanently numb. Interestingly, my fingertips will start to burn toward the end of a gig that lasts 3 or more hours. So my left hand fingertips either feel pain or nothing.

G.A.S.
Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or in some cases, Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. When I was a trombone player, my gear consisted of a trombone and mutes. As a trombone player, I would see someone on stage with an acoustic guitar and marvel at how simple it looked. Not until I started gigging did I realize that the guitar was just one piece of the puzzle. I also needed an amp and cables. Batteries. Effects pedals if I was playing a musical or in a rock band. For many venues and every wedding gig ever, you need to bring a PA system. And there are the guitars. I've owned several guitars over the past 10 years. Now I'm down to four that I play on a regular basis. The only things left on my wish list are an AER Compact 60 amp, and a wireless microphone. Once I get those two pieces of equipment, I'll finished buying new equipment. Really. I can stop any time I want.

Gig Hunting
As a trombonist, I never had to look for gigs. I was in an Air Force band. Someone else booked the gigs. My job was to go wherever someone pointed and play a show. As a freelancer, things are very different. I count myself very lucky to have found a steady Friday gig with Godfrey and Guy, but I'm still on the hunt for wedding gigs, dinner parties, and another steady gig on a different night. Who knew that looking for work would be more work than the actual work itself?

Diversification
As an Air Force trombone player, I didn't need to diversify. I was hired to play in the concert band, and I was a decent section player in the jazz band. That was about as diverse as I got. Today, I'm a guitar player, church music director, music engraver, and teacher.

Teaching
I never planned on being a guitar teacher. At the time I began learning guitar, I was music engraving full time. The plan was to engrave and practice during the day, and to gig on weekends. I didn't expect the guitar to take over as much as it did, to the point where I do very little music engraving. Somewhere along the way, I began teaching private lessons and discovered that I really enjoy it. I'm branching out as a teacher, too. I've begun teaching beginning piano lessons and exploring the possibility of teaching general music to youngsters. Teaching used to be "Plan B," but it has become one of my favorite things.

Being a Soloist
When I was a classical trombone player, it was intimidating to play a solo. Most of my playing was in bands and orchestras, where I was part of a section. As a guitarist, and particularly as a jazz musician, I am usually the only one playing a guitar. Unless I'm playing in a big band like the Sentimental Journey Orchestra, I'm going to be called upon to play a lot of solos. Playing a solo gets my adrenaline pumping a little bit, but it's not nearly as scary as it used to be.

Improvising
While it was rare for me to play a solo as a classical trombonist, it was rarer still that I had to improvise. If playing a solo intimidated me, then improvising was downright terrifying. When I first began playing guitar, I intended to be a folk player. The plan was to come up with some nice arrangements and interesting accompaniments, but never to improvise. Little did I know that I would meet up with a teacher who would get me hooked on jazz. I'm not the greatest improviser in the world, but I'm making progress and having fun with it.

Fun!
Classical trombone was fun in its own way. I enjoyed the music, and I was part of a small, quirky community of low brass players. As much as I enjoyed trombone, I enjoy the guitar even more. Part of it is the diversity of styles. Depending on the situation, I might be playing jazz, blues, rock, acoustic, or even faking my way as a classical player. As a jazz player, I enjoy being able to just show up and sit in with a group on a gig and hold my own. I've always been a music theory geek, and I find that jazz guitar to be an endlessly fascinating puzzle.

I knew that playing guitar would be fun, but I had no idea! My body is beginning to betray me as my knees and back are slowly giving out, but guitar is going to keep my spirit young for a long time.

2014 Goals

In my last blog article, I outlined my goals for the next 10 years. In support of those long range goals, here are my goals for 2014. I have some other, smaller goals, but these are the main ones.

Weigh 195 pounds. I feel like my weight is finally (finally!) under control. I've been maintaining about the same weight since September. This year, I plan to make a final push and get it down to a healthy 195 pounds. My strength is improving, my resting heart rate is nice and low (in the 50s), and I feel good in general. While I am feeling quite healthy, I would like to actually look like I work out. I've been going to the gym regularly to add strength training to my cardio work. I'll continue to do that, and I'll tighten up my diet a bit.

Establish the NWUUC band and children's choir as regularly anticipated parts of Sunday services. This is in support of my goal of eventually building the job from a 15 hour per week position to a 20 hour per week position. The adult choir is a well established, cherished part of the music program. My hours increased this past year from 10 to 15 hours. I'm spending most of the additional hours on building the children's program and the church band. Those two new programs are keeping me busy, but once they are well established, I'll be ready to add more to NWUUC's music by either adding another program or by expanding the band and the children's choir.

Maintain a roster of at least 20 guitar or ukulele students. My long range goal is to have 30 students, but if I added so many students all at once, I wouldn't be able to handle the schedule and still juggle my other responsibilities. I have 13 students now, so I need to add 7 more to meet my goal. I generally add only one student each month, but I have a pretty good retention rate. I'll just keep building my roster slowly.

Add another event planner to my list of regular clients. I finally managed to get my foot in the door with a good event planner. I'm hoping that having one major event planner as a client will make me more attractive to others.

Become more comfortable with unaccompanied guitar improvisation. One of my long range goals is to improvise comfortably in the style of Joe Pass. I've been improving in this area, but I have a long way to go. I've been approaching this skill haphazardly, improvising unaccompanied on random songs. This year, I'm going to focus on a handful of songs and get really comfortable with them. Through my lessons with Dave Frackenpohl, I've learned that I can make good progress on improvisation in general if I focus intensely on one or two songs at a time.

The Next 10 Years

I started playing guitar 10 years ago. To make a long story short, I was a professional trombonist until an overuse injury ended my brass playing career. After a hiatus from any kind of performing, my wife (now my ex) gave me a guitar for Christmas, and I was immediately hooked. Even as I was struggling with my first chords, I was planning a new career as a guitarist. I originally intended to play folk and Celtic music, but I drifted toward jazz, which is my main focus.

When I decided I was going to become a professional guitarist, I drew up a list of goals for the first 10 years. My overall goal was to become an "entry level" professional. To me, this meant attaining a skill level that was high enough that I could do a good job at gigs. It also meant that, while I wouldn't necessarily be the first call player in Atlanta, I would develop enough connections to keep me gigging on a fairly regular basis.

I'm rarely satisfied with my playing, but I would like to pause for a moment and be grateful that I met my 10 year goal. I'm not a world beater on guitar, but I'm pretty good. I sight-read extremely well. I gig steadily.

Okay, the moment is over, and it's time to look at the next 10 years. This is my overall goal: To become a well established freelance musician making a comfortable living as a performer, teacher, and church musician.

That's a pretty broad goal. Maybe it's more of a mission statement, but it can be broken down into several goals. To be a well established performer implies an increasingly higher level of musicianship, so the most important goals to me are in the area of musical development.

These are my goals for 2024:

• Play an average of 2-3 good paying gigs per week.
• Maintain a roster of 30 students.
• Increase the NWUUC Music Director job to 20 hours per week.
• Memorize 100+ jazz standards.
• Comfortably improvise guitar solos in the style of Joe Pass.
• Become a good scat singer.
• Become a competent piano player.
• Become a competent ukulele player.
• Be financially stable enough to take 1-2 yearly vacations.
• Live in a rented house, big enough for a studio space, in a quiet, safe neighborhood.
• Comfortably maintain a healthy weight of 190-200 pounds.

Having all these goals without devising a way to meet them is no good. I've broken each of these goals down into separate steps, but I won't include them here, otherwise, this would be a really, really long article. I'll break down a few choice goals into steps in future articles.

Getting this far was a blast. It was 10 years well spent. Time to get busy and make the next 10 years even better.

Tipping Point

Something very strange has been happening lately. I'm doing what I love, and money is coming in. (Usually I'm doing what I love, OR I'm making money.) Tonight, I realized that I haven't been stressed about paying rent for over a year. For a working musician, that's quite a feat! I'm not sure when it happened, but I feel like I have reached a tipping point in my pursuit of a freelance music career. I'm able to spend more time bettering myself as a musician and less time worrying about making my rent.

It has taken a while to reach this point, and I'm pausing for a moment to appreciate the journey. When I first began playing guitar, I set a goal of becoming a professional guitarist in 10 years. Surprise! Ten years later, here I am.

I'm far from being the best guitar player in town, but I seem to have carved out a place for myself. I have a part time music director job at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation, teach guitar lessons at home and at Tessitura, and am landing a fair number of gigs. If I had to rely on just one of these endeavors, I wouldn't subsist, but when you put them all together, it means that rent and bills are being payed, and I even have some cash left over at the end of the month. A miracle!

Things seem to be trending upwards in general. My church job recently expanded from 10 to 15 hours. (I'm hoping that this will grow to 20 hours over time.) I teach a little over a dozen guitar students and enjoy a good rate of retention. (I eventually want to grow the roster to 30 students.) I recently got in good with an event planning company that has already hired me for 3 gigs. (I don't want to be playing every single night, but I would like to eventually play 2-3 of these good gigs per week.)

Without doing something every day to improve my musicianship, all other success is hollow, so first and foremost, I strive to become a better musician. I have a long way to go as a pro guitar player, but, looking back at where I started, I'm pleasantly surprised at where I am today, and I'm excited about what tomorrow will bring.

A Good Day

This was a mighty fine day in the life of this working musician.

I started off with a workout, as usual. I cranked out 34 push-ups. Only a few months ago I could only manage two. After a short practice session, I checked my email and found a gig waiting for me, courtesy of an event planner. This is the third gig that this event planner has booked for me, which is a very good sign. She followed that up with an email asking for the different musical configurations I have to offer (solo, duo, trio, vocals, no vocals, instrumentation), saying that she'd like to make me one of her "go to" musicians. That's music to my ears. I've been trying to get my foot in the door with an event player (any event planner) for quite a while, and this is a welcome development.

As I stepped outside to run an errand and grab lunch, it truly felt like autumn, my favorite season. It was sunny but crisp. The wind was blowing, and the leaves were falling like rain. It was beautiful.

In the afternoon, I drove to Northwest UUC, where I am the music director. I planned the evening's choir rehearsal and answered/wrote a few emails before a staff meeting, which started off with celebrating Terry, our minister's, birthday. The meeting was a good one. We spent most of the time discussing issues surrounding our church's upcoming experiment with expanding from one to two services. That's a hot topic, to put it mildly, and will be the topic of another blog article soon to come.

Rainbow Loom Bracelet

After our meeting, I taught a couple guitar lessons. One lesson was with an adult student who is making very good progress. The other lesson was with an 8 year old girl who is a joy to teach. She's so enthusiastic and funny. This week, she had a present for me. She had made a rainbow loom bracelet for me, which I proudly wore for the rest of the day. That small gift really made my day.

We had a good choir rehearsal in the evening. We're all set for Sunday's service, and we made good progress on some November music. I reserved 15 minutes at the end of rehearsal to talk with the choir about the upcoming two-service experiment and how it will affect the music program. Again, this is the topic of a future blog article, but for now, it's enough to say that it was a good discussion. I received a lot of good feedback that will help me decide how to handle scheduling music for two services, and in our general discussion, they brought up a couple issues that I hadn't considered. I'm glad we had the discussion, and I'll be consulting with them again as we get further into planning the church's overall schedule.

As usual, this was a busy day, and because I wear many hats, the day offered a lot of variety. Yup, a good day. I could stand to have more days like this.

Appreciating Normalcy

After a great experience at my UUMN conference, I'm finally settling into a normal routine back in Atlanta. I loved the conference, and now I'm learning to appreciate normalcy. I don't exactly lead a normal life. There's no 9 to 5 in my schedule. Each day offers something different, but overall, my typical week has a certain ebb and flow of music engraving, practicing, students, church work, and gigs.

Before the conference, I was beginning to feel a little burned out and bored. Now that I've dropped from the conference back into my everyday life, I very happy to get back to business as usual…only it's not exactly business as usual. My job at NWUUC is expanding, I have new professional contacts and new friends, and I'm excited about the future again.

Surplus

Ever since I decided to restart a music career, I've been poor. This is no exaggeration. I had to move out of the house that my ex and I had been renting and move into a small basement apartment. The rent was low, and utilities were included. Even so, I was sometimes late on my rent. Fortunately, I had a terrific landlady who was understanding. (She is a musician, and both her son and daughter are musicians, so she was sympathetic.) I've been able to pay my bills, but sometimes my checking account was literally in the single digits when the smoke cleared.

Lately, it seems that I've turned a corner. For the past three months, I've had money left over after paying my monthly bills and rent for my new apartment. Maybe I don't have enough left over to buy a house or that yacht that I've had my eye on, but I'm not so worried about the next round of bills. As a matter of fact, I've voluntarily added a new bill to the pile: health insurance! I can finally afford health insurance!

There hasn't been any one project that has taken off. Instead, everything has been improving little by little. The gigs have been coming steadily since last November. My student roster has been slowly growing. My church job is only quarter time, but having a steady check has helped immensely, and there seems to be some support for increasing my hours at the start of the next church year.

I'm not setting the world on fire, but I have a few burners going. As long as I'm earning enough to be comfortable doing what I love, that's good enough for me.

What Was I Thinking?

This week falls squarely into the "what was I thinking when I made my schedule" category. In addition to the usual rehearsals, students, church planning, and music engraving, I've got:

• Thursday: Valentine's Dinner at The French Market with the Standard Quartet.
• Friday: Dinner music at The French Market with Godfrey and Guy.
• Saturday: Valentine's Weekend Swing Dance with Tea for Two at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
• Sunday: Leading the music for a church service at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
• Sunday: Teaching a song I wrote to the children at NWUUC.
• Sunday: Leading the Zen Tea Jam.
• Monday: Subbing in a Sentimental Journey Orchestra rehearsal.

Busy is good, right? Right? That's okay. Musicians like to complain. If I didn't have any gigs this weekend, I'd be complaining about that!

Teaching Again

When I left home and went to college, I was absolutely certain I was going to be a teacher. My music education teachers all gave me glowing recommendations, including one from a notoriously tough teacher that read "Tom has the potential to be a leader in the field." (That was from Thomas Wisniewski, if any of you readers happen to have majored in music education at the University of Illinois. He had a reputation for being a difficult teacher, but I loved his orchestral conducting class.) I had a terrific student teaching experience in Oswego, Illinois, and I was all set to make my mark. My budding school band director career came to a screeching halt when I found myself in a difficult first year teaching situation in a small town following a band director who had retired after teaching there for 40 years. Ugh! What a horrid experience!

I left area of public school teaching and refocused on performance.

It's ironic that, after all these years of avoiding the classroom, I'm focusing my efforts on teaching again. I'm recruiting private guitar students, and in another couple months, I'll be offering guitar classes at Tessitura. For starters, I'll offer a class for adult beginners and another for young beginners. Once those classes are finished, I'll be able to continue offering beginners' classes, as well as a Guitar II class for those who completed the beginner's course.

I'm not sure when it happened, but lately I've realized that teaching is one of my favorite things. Maybe I just needed some life experience. Maybe I needed to find a way to teach on my own terms rather than be part of a school system. Whatever the reason, I'm happy that I found my teaching mojo again.

Multi-Trick Pony

How do you become a professional musician? When I was in my 20s, the only path I knew was to practice hard and hope that I eventually won an audition for a full time gig. I played the trombone extremely well, and eventually I did win an audition for a full time playing job in the Air Force, which was working out great up until the point my chops gave out due to an overuse injury. (I've already written about this experience in an earlier post.)

When I won that Air Force audition, I was a one trick pony with a really good trick. Once I began learning to play the guitar a few years ago, I decided to take a second stab at a musical career. I already knew that it would be years (if ever) before I would catch up to other guitar players with more experience. I couldn't afford to be a one trick pony anymore, because my trick was never going to be better than theirs.

It's doubtful that I will make a career out of performing alone, so I've had to assess my strengths and learn a few new tricks. I'm cobbling together a career through music engraving, gigging, teaching, and working as a church music director. Things seem to be heading in the right direction as of late. I'm performing more often, my roster of students is slowly growing, and there is a possibility that my church hours will increase in the future.

So, to address the original question of how to become a professional musician, if you have one really great trick, then congratulations and good for you. You are part of the small minority. For the rest of you, figure out what useful skills you possess. Discover what you are best at, start with that, and use and develop your other skills to diversify and create your own niche.

You may not be the best at any one thing that you do, but very few people will have your particular combination of skills.

Creating My Own Gigs

This December has been a great month for gigs, and surprisingly, January is nearly booked as well. In general, I'm finding that I'm booked for a gig on any given weekend each month. There is a downside to this…well, not exactly a downside. I play with a few different people, and I've had to learn a different set of music for nearly every show this month. Even though I'm playing mostly Christmas music, I'm playing the same songs in different keys, different tempos, and different styles. This is a great way to learn to be flexible and expand my horizons, but it's also a lot of work to keep up with. With limited preparation time, I feel like I've had barely enough time to do an adequate job for any given show.

The upside to this is that I feel that I've become a better overall guitar player over the past few weeks. The downside is that I feel scattered and unfocused.

Next year, rather than play a bunch of different gigs over the holidays, I'd like to create a show that I can either take to different venues or play in one place for a holiday run. I would like to make a transition from playing restaurant and corporate gigs to putting shows together…creating my own gigs. Most musicians are doing what I'm doing now, chasing after the same types of gigs. By creating my own shows, I could collaborate with other types of artists and expand my possibilities. I'm sure this would take more effort on my part, but I think it would be worth it.

The reason I'm thinking about a holiday show for next year is that it gives me plenty of time to kick around some ideas, and it would be probably be easier to create and promote a Christmas show for starters. After that, I could start developing other types of shows. I imagine that I would begin with only one or two shows a year. After gaining experience and developing a network of collaborators and contacts, maybe I could do more.

For now, I just want to get through December. Starting in January, I'll start kicking around ideas. We'll see what happens!

Getting Gigs

I started playing guitar in 2003…really more like 2004, since I received my first guitar for Christmas in 2003. Even when I was learning my first chords, the fire to become a performing musician once again was rekindled. By 2007, I had enough of a repertoire that I could start playing in places and looking for groups to play in. For the most part, I played in retirement homes and coffee shops for free. Since then, my total number of gigs each year has grown gradually but steadily. This year, for the first time, every single Friday and Saturday in December is booked, and I have a few weekday gigs lined up, too. All of these except one are paid gigs. The way things are going, I'm confident that in another few years, I'll continue to be booked, and that the quality of my gigs (in other words, pay) will increase.

So how do you get gigs? For me, it's a little tricky, because my style of playing is especially well suited for background music. When you're playing background music, you don't necessarily want to wow the crowd, because that's not your job. On the other hand, you do want to be remembered by the client or someone else from the event so that they will hire or recommend you in the future.

So here are my suggestions for getting gigs. This is what's been working for me. There's nothing here that I haven't read or heard somewhere else. This kind of advice is all over the place, but I'm surprised at the number of musicians who don't do many of these things.

1. Have something to offer. You need to have a repertoire, and you need to be playing something that people want to hear. You don't need to be a virtuoso. I'm certainly not, and I'm not the kind of guitar slinger to can play all styles convincingly. I have a repertoire of solo guitar arrangements of classic jazz songs, mostly from the '30s and '40s. I have a pleasant voice and a guitar style that's easy on the ears. This combination lends itself well to background music.
2. Be clear what you offer. On my website and on my Gig Salad profile, I make it pretty clear that I'm a good background musician.
3. And did I just mention my website? Yes, I did. You must have a web presence. You can start your own page on Facebook and tweet on Twitter to your heart's content, but you really need to have your own website, where you control the content and the look. When someone emails you for more information about your music, it looks very professional when you can send them a link to your site. Also, you will eventually start getting gigs because people come across your website. Most of my upcoming gigs have come as a result of someone finding me through an online search. I also landed a spot in a quartet through my website. They were in need of a new guitar player. The drummer found my site, heard my music, and contacted me. Next thing you know, I'm playing with a group that gigs on a regular basis. This has not happened overnight. I've had my website up for a few years now, but it's only been recently that new clients have been finding me through my site. Just stick with it and maintain an online presence.
4. Stay busy. One of the best ways to get gigs is to have gigs. This is a conundrum when you're just starting, because you don't have any gigs yet! So, you need to find opportunities to play in public and be seen. I did this mostly through playing at retirement homes, coffee shops, and open mics. Even if you're just playing for tips at first, it's good to have some performance dates on your calendar that you can point to. It's also a good way to practice performing in public. And you just never know who's listening. Someone picked up my business card at a coffee shop a few years ago and waited until a couple months ago to contact me about playing a wedding. So, if you don't have any paid gigs, or you don't have many, it doesn't hurt to play somewhere for tips. I look at "for tips" gigs as advertising.
5. Have a business card. This is crucial for any musician, but I think it goes double for background musicians. Wherever I play, I bring a stack of cards. If it's okay with the client, I'll distribute a few cards to each table, in hopes that a few people will take my card home with them. At the very least, I'll keep a small stack of cards near me so that anyone who wanders my way can pick one up. I always make sure to give a card to my client at the end of the gig, even if they already have my contact information. The next time they're looking to book music for a party, seeing my card in their card collection could make the difference between being hired or being forgotten.
6. Act like a pro. Be courteous and professional in your emails or phone conversations. Dress appropriately for the gig. Show up early. Stick to non-alcholic beverages on your break. I've often had clients tell me that I'm very easy to deal with. I may not be a virtuoso, but courtesy and professionalism can take you a long way.

No doubt there are other good ideas for getting gigs, but these basics have worked for me: have something to offer, make it clear to your potential clients what it is that you offer, maintain a website, stay active publicly, have a business card, and behave like a pro.

If anyone else has their own suggestions for getting gigs, please add them to the comments section. I'm always ready to pick up another hot tip!

Perception

Every so often, you play a gig where everything seems to flow. The notes fly effortlessly from your fingers, and all your improvised solos are inspired. You look at the clock and can't believe the evening is over, because it feels like you just started.

Tonight was not one of those nights. I played solo guitar for a realty company's 40th anniversary party in downtown Atlanta. Despite playing guitar all day, my fingers felt cold and stiff. It felt like I fumbled my way through most of my solo arrangements, and I couldn't quite find the flow in my improvisation. It was an off night, and I was disappointed in my performance.

Imagine my surprise at the end of the night when my client praised me effusively, asked for business cards, told me that the partygoers were complimenting my music, and added a generous tip.

There's usually a big difference between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. I tend to judge myself harshly. In the hours I spend practicing, I work relentlessly to become a better player through perfecting new solo arrangements, learning licks, or improving my speed and accuracy. While I've come a long way in a short time, there is always something new to learn. A short search on YouTube will reveal a host of amazing guitar players to inspire me. Sometimes my diligent practice results in a magical gig where everything clicks. Sometimes I fall short, and I disappoint myself.

In public, I don't let my disappointment show. The only way most clients can tell you've made a mistake is if you make a face. Tonight, my client didn't know or care about my self doubts and musical ambitions. She just cared that the partygoers were happy, that the music sounded nice, and that I acted like a pro.

Even on a bad night, I still enjoy the fact that I'm being paid to play the guitar for a few hours. It's not a bad way to earn a few bucks.

A New Wrinkle

It looks like I may be in a new jazz group in about a week. Two nights ago, I received an email entitled "Quartet Work." This is the kind of email you want to click on right away! I thought it was going to be a gig lead. Instead, it was a drummer named Randy, asking if I was interested in playing with their quartet.

The quartet is comprised of sax, guitar, bass, and drums – instrumentals only. They have a regular gig at an upscale French restaurant Friday/Saturday every other week. Their repertoire is similar to my own. Randy told me that their guitarist just left the group. He found my website and felt that I would be a good fit. He asked me to call Dan, the bassist/leader, if I was interested.

I called Dan about a nanosecond after reading that email. It seems that their previous guitarist left the group because he couldn't play as loudly as he wanted. Keep in mind that this is a background music gig at a fancy restaurant. This is not the type of gig where you turn it up to 11. (I suspect there is more to the story. Only time will tell.) Dan and I hit it off on the phone, and we decided to find a time to get together over the weekend to play through a few tunes and see how we all sounded together. The next day, he emailed me to let me know that the other guys had listened to the recordings on my website, and they felt comfortable enough to have next Friday's gig be my audition…no need for a private rehearsal.

So, next Friday (8/24/12), I'll be sitting in with the quartet, playing jazz standards from 6:30-10:00 at The French Market in Locust Grove, GA. I'll know some of the songs, and I'll be sight-reading others.

I won't officially be part of the group until after I play with them, and I'll be auditioning them as much as they'll be auditioning me, but I have a good feeling about it. Assuming this all works out, this quartet would fit nicely into my schedule. They have a Friday/Saturday gig every other week, and they don't rehearse. This still leaves opportunities to book my own solo or group gigs. Also, it'll be a relief to be a simple sideman. I wouldn't have to worry about booking, publicity, or any other non-musical stuff. All I would have to do is show up and play my guitar.

It was a pleasant surprise to be invited to audition for what appears to be a good situation. Lately, it seems that each new opportunity is slowly leading me toward bigger and better things. My ship hasn't quite come in yet, but I am catching glimpses of it on the horizon.

Never Bored

A few years ago, when I was living in Chicago and engraving music full time, my schedule was simple: Wake up and engrave until noon. Walk to my favorite sandwich shop (every day) and have lunch. Walk home and engrave until 5 or 6. Have dinner. Read a book, watch TV, or play a computer game. Go to bed. Wake up and do it all again. Wednesdays were a little different, because I volunteered at the Old Town School of Folk music in the afternoon, archiving old concerts by transferring them from DAT to CD. I even worked half days most weekends.

It was a predictable, boring existence, but that changed once I started playing the guitar.

At first, the only difference was that I practiced an hour or two a day. Then I started taking lessons and eventually worked up the nerve to start playing in public…in nursing homes and church, then restaurants, coffee shops, and paid gigs. I knew playing the guitar would add variety to my schedule, but I had no idea!

I started playing with the intention of becoming a fancy fingerpicker of American folk and Celtic music. Then I veered off into jazz and started dabbling in other styles with InTown Band. These days, I have to stay on top of a lot of different things at once. This week is a perfect example. I just finished playing Rent, I'm preparing Christmas music with Tea for Two, I'm performing jazz standards at solo show tomorrow, InTown Band plays a three hour show on Saturday, and I'm conducting a church choir on Sunday! So much for becoming a folk music specialist.

I'm putting a lot of things together – music engraving, teaching lessons, performing, and working as a part time church music director. I haven't talked to other musicians about this, but I suspect that most other freelancers are also putting together a lot of different projects to make it all work.

While I enjoy the variety, sometimes I long for more simplicity. I'm not sure I could handle all my current projects indefinitely. What I think is going to happen is that eventually two or three of my projects will outstrip the others. One of my bands may really start to take off, the part time church job may expand, or I may decide to make a stronger effort to recruit a lot of private students. At that point, I would have to make some hard decisions about which projects to keep or drop. Even then, I'll always have enough going on that I'll never be bored again.