Pros, Semi-Pros, Hobbyists / Weekend warriors etc.

[BrunoBass]

Hobbyist / Weekend Warrior. 25-30 gigs a year (I wouldn’t want to do much more than that), earning a few £££s per gig, although I consider that pocket money rather than income.

[Woodinblack]

Hobyist, couldn't call 2-3k / year gigging (less this year) any kind of profession!

 

[lojo]

10 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

Hobbyist / Weekend Warrior. 25-30 gigs a year (I wouldn’t want to do much more than that), earning a few £££s per gig, although I consider that pocket money rather than income.

This is the same for me over recent years with slightly less gigs (1-2 per month was ideal for my lifestyle balance)  or at least it was until I got sick 

My fee varied denpending on type of function gig , and I was always about the fun before the money , though it's nice to have it pay for gear over the course of the years 

[mike257]

23 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

I’d be interested to know how many of the people who chose Pro actually make their entire living out of playing bass, as opposed to being involved in music or the music/entertainment business.

I know people who do nothing but play bass, but I probably know as many people who have a diverse skill set and do bits and pieces of different things to keep themselves busy/earning. I definitely fall in to the latter. I do plenty of work as a bassist (and occasionally a guitarist), and fix a few function bands from time to time, but I also tour manage bands, sound engineer and backline tech for various artists, operate a splitter van, run a small production/hire company providing sound, lighting etc for events, and do some freelance work for other production companies too. 

I often wonder if I'd have been better off specialising more, but I enjoy all of what I do, and if one thing has a quiet patch I've got other things to fall back on. I actually feel like it frees me up more too, because a couple of weeks touring work takes the financial pressure off for the rest of the month so I can spend some of my weekends at home with the kids, and sending stuff out through the production company means I've got the option of sending another tech on the gig instead of being obligated to constantly be out all hours. Nice to have choices.

Make no mistake, I'm still doing the majority of it myself, but if I was focused solely on bass I'd likely be gigging every single Friday and Saturday with a few midweeks thrown in, and probably be divorced by now! Cultivating some sort of income that doesn't strictly depend on me physically being on every gig means I can do what I love but try and keep some work/life balance, and have one eye on how I wind down as I get older.

[Krysbass]

So on the above definitions of semi-pro vs. Hobbyist/weekend warrior; last year I reckon I just edged into being semi-pro. 

But unless the gig outlook for 2018 improves massively; this year i'll almost certainly be a hobbyist / weekend warrior.

[vantagepointrocks]

Currently, as far as live gigs are concerned, I fall between hobbyist and weekend warrior, as the band has only played 8 gigs in the last three years. So not really enough to be calling myself a weekend warrior, particularly when a few of those gigs didn’t even take place at the weekend! The band still takes up a lot of time due to writing, recording and editing videos. The later being the most time consuming, as I take a lot of live and studio footage, and do Lego stop motion clips to promote our songs.

 

Obviously the dream is to progress straight from part-time weekend warrior to Pro player, but in reality progressing to one gig every two months would be a success!

[Al Krow]

So, after 130 votes cast an exact dead heat between no. of 'Pros' making a full time living from their bass playing and no. of 'Bedroom bassists' not in a band. A little different to what I might have guessed at the start of the thread  

[bazzbass]

On ‎3‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 05:30, Al Krow said:

Anyone who is called 'bazzbass' is going to get a appreciation from me!  

Be interested in what the connection with the video taker is (and costs / skill levels etc.) Kinda feel that having good videos absolutely can't hurt!

Are you guys covers or originals?

 

ahah the photographer is a family friend of our guitarist, a freelance motor racing photographer who is just starting out with gig pics and so it's all for free :). We are buying him a very nice bottle of red, like over $100.

here are a few pics of our gig last Sat night,  all originals

 

 

 

PS re vids can't hurt. our third ever gig was a battle of the bands that I did not want to do for a lot of good reasons, but we did it, and I video'd it with a zoom h2n and the venue gave us the stems from the desk that they recorded and we mixed them together. From those vids being on our facebook page we have been able to get some nice gigs. We just point venues to our FB page and it is all there

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by bazzbass