Danny P

That sounds like the dream. Maybe it's time to get a bit more creative with my approach to getting into teaching. Do you teach bass exclusively btw, or another instrument as well?

Yeah I had a little phase of plugging myself on those ads but nothing ever materialised. And the pantos sound a bit out of my league tbh. Haven't done any reading in about fifteen years so would be totally lost! Thanks for the tips though. I guess it can't hurt to check out more dep pages on Facebook again.

I used to get asked to dep all the time but my function band was so busy that I was never free, and eventually people stopped asking. Definitely not a situation to complain about, but does unfortunately put depping out of the picture a bit. Plus, the bands I'd be depping for are in the same situation as me anyway i.e. no gigs in the winter. Any they do get would presumably not require any deps. I love your courteous and diplomatic way about talking about some of the chocolate starfish you've played with/for though!

Over the years I've found that pub gigs aren't really worth the time. They require the same amount of work as a function but pay a fraction of the money. Never done a panto but everyone seems to be mentioning them so might look into it as long as they don't require lots of sight-reading. Tbh though, I don't do any gigs besides functions these days. Was saving for a house for ages, which has just finally happened, so might try to get an originals band together at some point, but yeah it's sadly just functions for me! Great for the money:time ratio, bad for creative fulfilment!

I'd love to pretend I'm a great reader but the truth is I only ever got good enough at it to get the degree and then never used it again so it'd be like learning it from scratch now. When I did ships I played in the party bands which are basically just function bands with huge repertoires. Got pretty good at chord charts when prepping hundreds of songs, but never had to read a single dot in all the time I was floating! But... you're now the third of fourth person to mention pantos. So weird to me as they've never even been on the radar for me! Think I've got some Googling to do...

Another mention of panto season. That's fascinating to me as I've never done any panto or even heard of any friends doing any. I feel like I'm hearing about a parallel universe that just springs up during December! Are pantos very much like theatre pit work with huge slabs of dots to read and scarily brief prep times? Or are they more relaxed than that and provide opportunities to learn the material in advance? Definitely interested in this avenue. Enough of those could provide the nuts I need to squirrel away for Jan and Feb. So how do people get into doing pantos?

Tbh although my theory knowledge is reasonable, I only play bass so view the world of music through that limited lens. I'd probably be a bit lost teaching more harmonically complete material, although it would be a kick up the derrière to brush up on things. Thanks for the tip. I'd probably be a bit out of my depth, but I'll think about it. My perfect teaching situation would be one-on-one bass lessons. I'd be able to walk into that room feeling confident and enthusiastic and I think I'd be great at it. Just have no idea how to make it happen!

Like it. Yeah it doesn't necessarily have to be music. Just something I don't hate, that pays well enough, and doesn't require me to get shouted at or bossed around. Ideally it'd be reasonably flexible too. What you're suggesting actually seems like it'd tick those boxes. It's only for the leaner months anyway. Gonna look into it, thanks!

Some solid outside-the-box suggestions there, thanks. I'll mull them over and see if any are workable. None are quite the magic bullet I'm hoping drops in my lap but they're still decent ideas!

Weird, in all my years doing functions I've never had a Burn's Night gig. Is your friend based in Scotland? We get a few Christmas office party gigs each year which helps for December, but November, January, and February are always dead. We're a well-paid and very in-demand and regularly-booked function band for March-October, so if we don't get any gigs in the winter then it leads me to believe that functions in the winter just don't really exist in the numbers necessary to fund a normal life.

Thanks for the suggestion but I probably should have explained that I stopped doing them because the contracts are either short and badly paid or long and well-paid, but I don't want to be away for long periods as I'm pretty settled down now. So cruises are pretty much off the table for me. Just kind of hoping someone might suggest something I hadn't thought of. Long shot but may as well ask!

Did a degree in music, then played on cruise ships for a few years, then came back and have been doing the function thing for about ten years now. The problem with functions is that they're 95% weddings and people don't get married in the winter. I used to just save up during the summer to basically stash some nuts for the winter, but I got tired of struggling for those four months or so, so I started doing Deliveroo on the side, which I'm positively bored of and don't wanna do this year. How are you full-timers getting through the winter? I need ideas. I'd happily teach but demand for bass lessons seems so low that I've never figured how to get students. What's your go-to? Teaching? Ships? Hotel gigs? Overseas residencies? Weekday hotel dinner jazz? Trade crypto? Happy-ending massages? Retrain in IT? There are no wrong answers. Hit me...

Just sold my Roscoe Century 6er to Tim and could have chatted with him all day. Happy to know the bass is going to a solid dude!