Mind over Music (pt. 3)

For the final installment of this little miniseries, I want to address something that young musicians (including myself…when I was young) deal with.  I want to talk about stylistic diversity and what it means to making money as an instrumentalist.

In the blog, Where’s My Bentley?, I talked about musicians I looked up to as a teen ager and how they can’t make it as a musician outside of their respective groups. This is something that rings true across the board. There are hundreds of great bands where the musicians can only function in one particular element. No matter what you think, that money won’t last forever and, chances are, the style that they made all the cash with won’t either. The point is, you have to be prepared. It’s like when your parents used to say “you need a backup plan” and, with the quickness of a Black Mamba, you would snap back with “I have MUSIC, I don’t need one!” Yea, it’s just like that! Only I’m talking about a musical backup plan and, yes, you do need one. The biggest part of being a professional musician is diversity.

I’ll give you a “for instance.”

Your death metal band is running short on gigs so, you are short on cash which is really pissing off your landlord. You see an ad for a local theatre company and remember having heard that they pay well. So, you call them up. Let’s just say the production is Rent and, though a little cheesy for your taste, you handle the rock tunes well (Presuming you can read enough to pass the audition). Cool, you’re in the door. It’s not as focused on you as it is when you are playing with Death Serpent but it’s a great supplement to your financial situation. Ok, the next production is a comedy about a hick in the backwoods of Tennessee who has a love/hate relationship with a “special” goat. You go to the audition but can’t play anything close to bluegrass…hmmm, if you’re lucky the music director will give you a chance. Problem with that is money is tight and rehearsals are expensive.

Now I’m not saying you should study every type of popular music. What I am saying is being stuck to one genre can cost you a lot of money. If the opportunity comes up, take advantage of it. If there’s a gig in a style you aren’t familiar with, learn the rhythmic patterns and the popular interval/chord progressions, what inversions are prominent, etc. Don’t be afraid of it. If your friends try to make fun of you for practicing Britney Spears’ Toxic, ask them where they are gigging that night. Chances are, it’s in their own bedrooms , plus, you are still making money playing music. Isn’t that the dream, anyway?

By the way, it’s not selling out. It’s doing something less enjoyable to facilitate doing what you really, really love. If it is selling out, though, I guess you can always bus tables. Even though, by bussing tables, you’re doing something less enjoyable to facilitate doing what you really, really love…hmmm…See a pattern here?