Beedster

If I had a pound for every time..... I left a band after the first gig having been dressed down by the lead guitarist who was furious that I had not stuck to the recorded bass-line on Take It Easy by the Eagles. Life's too short

I like it when it's well done (that's not me btw), my dog on the other hand....

A major problem in pro sport, and why I stopped being a pro. Well, that and the crapness

I'm pretty sure you could get very close to the recorded version of those using live keys, good enough for a live audience anyway?

I doubt you're alone @BigRedX

Fixed

I went to see a show my daughter was in and a similar thing happened. It was disappointing because the vocalist in question - a pro - had up to that point given a very good impression that she was in fact singing live, and then following an especially good vocal section, and midway through some dialogue, the same vocal suddenly started up again, only for 2-3 seconds. I'm guessing most people in the audience didn't realise what had just happened, but it was a bit of a surprise for those of us who did

Yes. But this thread has been really helpful in calibrating how my views fit - or not - with those of the wider community. I don't agree with everything posted but it's always good to hear them and take some time to think them through. Thanks folks 🙏

Just to clarify Mart, I'd always prefer to be paid, but for me the money is lower down the list than the enjoyment of playing music I choose to play with good people and to an appreciative audience. That's a good point Lawrie

I was thinking about my analogy with sport and the fact that in many cases, a sport simply wouldn't exist without people doing a lot of important jobs without payment, often on the basis of 'putting back in...' or giving back to...' the sport, and that can be anything from people who stand on a Marathon course to guide the runners to officials at Track & Field or swimming events, and often even coaches. OK, these are mostly at grass roots and amateur level, but that levels accounts for the vast majority of sports participation in the UK and worldwide. The pro sport category is very small by comparison. Perhaps sport and music aren't in any way equivalent in this respect?

Absolutely this ^

Who asked you and why?

I’m looking to bi-amp ahead of some gigs in June, there’s so much info there, I’m going to come back to it on a clear head tomorrow, but in the meantime many thanks for posting @FugaziBomb 👍

Absolutely 👍

Totally down to who’s playing it and how they want it to sound, one of my FLs is ultra low, one you can drive a bus under the 12th fret 👍

Or because they love playing music?

Now I struggle with that (which I hear an awful lot from fellow musos), because to me it reads "to help others take money out of a limited pot of money I take money out of that same limited pot of money..."? I get it and applaud the sentiment, I'm just not convinced

Lovely stuff folks, thank you, and please keep it coming, I'm genuinely interested in what a bunch of people whose views and experience I respect think about this 🙏

Which sounds equivalent to the argument I heard recently against open-mic and jam nights, that we shouldn't take part because they allow venues to make extra money without having to share those profits with the musicians and therefore they threaten the livelihood of musicians

And coy I will remain @BigRedX Until very recently most sports were amateur simply because the Olympics only allowed amateur participation, so many if not most athletes had to make a living outside sport (and in some sport still do), but spectators still paid to watch, and promoters made a lot of money

...which is an interesting point

Yes to both I said so in the post 👍

Just thinking out loud here following a conversation with a bandmate..... I love gigging, and I never expect to get paid for a gig. When I do get paid it's a bonus, and I've always seen it this way. I've taken no fee for a gig and allowed the rest of the band to split the remainder. It's just the way I've always done things. OK, gigging costs me money, but I do it because I choose to. If the music venue make money out of our performance, all the better. Alongside music I've done a lot of sport, I was professional for a while but have been amateur for most of my career. The race fee for my sport can be several hundred pounds per event, competing requires equipment that in total cost way more than my gigging rig and instruments, and most of the events also have a large crowd and are monetised aggressively , i.e., the organisers make a lot of money from the crowd. So they're my two hobbies, playing music and playing sport. They're equivalent in many respects. I'm just wondering why that for 99% of the people i know in both, the expectation in the former is that you should be paid, the expectation in the latter is that you should pay? Genuinely interested in your thoughts as I've always found the "If there's no fee I'm not doing the gig" approach of some of my fellow musicians a bit weird given that music is clearly - in their case - nothing more than a hobby, and to be honest, a hobby that some of them are pretty crap at anyway (some of them are really not very good musicians, are in pretty average bands, and often complain about the lack of gigs.....)? I'm excluding pro bands/function bands of course 👍

Fine in some genres, not in others