making a living?

from one who who wouldn't mind, to put it lightly, making a living
at something musical to anyone who's already doing so:

where did you start, what are you doing now, and what happened in between?

...performing, teaching, writing. I tried it for a few years (junior high, various bands) but the allure of a 9-5 paycheck (and the siren call of computers) put a stop to it.

The standard route (at least for "classical" musicians):

• music lessons starting from before you could walk
  
• high school bands (rock and otherwise)
  
• University (more bands)
  
• the real world, running (or lugging a truckload of equipment) from practice to rehearsal to lesson to rehearsal to gig to practice to rehearsal...
  

You are very funny

suffering

pain

depression

self doubt

more suffering

divorce

more suffering

self doubt redux

starvation again

did I mention all the soul-sucking poverty?

I wouldn't trade it for the world!

When I was young, I played rock on the road in a band for about 2 years in between a bachelor's degree and law school. Thirty years later, I realize how much I hate practicing law and intend to quit and return to music, playing solo guitar. I work on a solo repertoire every day. The only trouble I think is that there are a lot fewer clubs now that feature live music (and pay musicians) than before. Much fewer. My cousin has been doing it now for many years, not getting rich but surviving. He plays guitar and his girlfriend plays keyboards and sings. Together they can make up to $250 a night, but work is hard to find, especially nowadays. I think Europe might be a more hospitable place right now but I'm not sure.

living on music, but most of that is the scholarship I'm on at school so I am not paying for it. I am playing enough gigs to maybe support a shitty apartment and not have a car, but things are starting to pick up, I've only been in KC for a year. I started in high school, and now I am playing gigs, teaching occaisionally, and in between was alot of hard work. Probably 5 hours a day for 5 years of my life. Not as much as Trane I know, but its all I can do. Hope that helped. Peace

Ben

I'm not very coherent right now, but feel the need to post on here.
Apologies in advance.

who/what is Trane?

I met someone recently, at an open mike of sorts, who could potentially
be a Very Beneficial Person to Know, but I was a big hairball of nerves,
I'll leave the rest to the imagination. Mayebe I'll run into him again.

I'm not interested in being rich and famous. I think semi-secure and
appreciated in some circles would suffice quite nicely. I've been having
thoughts, not quite visions, lately, of lying on my deathbed lamenting
squandered talent and regretting cowardly decisions.

aint_no_life_nowhere: what are some examples of what you're working on?

Al Dente: what kind of scholarship do you have? was it awarded by your
school or some other sort of entity?

are the things I'm practicing right now, to answer your question. After years of playing on both nylon and steel strings, about two years ago I abandoned the guitar pick and steel strings completely and have gone to just fingerstyle guitar on nylon. I go through a daily ritual of practicing a list of tunes at least once, such as:

All The Things You Are
Skylark
Body And Soul
Here's That Rainy Day
Moonlight In Vermont
Blue Bossa
Wave
Willow Weep For Me
On Green Dolphin Street
How Insensitive
Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars

...and about two dozen others. I mainly play the jazz heads with chord-melody combined but I try to stretch out on a few tunes with solos interspersed with chords. I also play a few classical pieces. I mix in some pop tunes as well, such as ones arranged by classical guitarist Mario Abril in his arrangement books (La Paloma, Theme From Love Story, Alfie, etc.). If you are interested in going this route there is an extraordinary series of books by jazz guitar great Robert Conti (http://www.robertconti.com/) that gives you the entire chord-melody arrangement for many jazz standards. I've used several of his sophisticated chromatic arrangements for my repertoire. They are head and shoulders above any other jazz standard books for guitar I have seen.

Regarding "Trane", I assume the person was speaking of John Coltrane, the late great tenor and soprano sax player who is truly one of the jazz giants of all time. His tunes are required study for anyone contemplating a career in jazz. "Giant Steps", with its quick and frequent key changes has been a sort of rite of passage tune for jazz guitarists to master (or any other instrumentalists for that matter).

It looks like you're sort of on the same track as me, but different genre. I took up fingerstyle recently, but I still prefer steel strings. I'm working on mostly traditional Irish tunes, with a few of my own that I'm either still composing or adapting to fingerstyle.

CGDGAD tuning (arranged by El McMeen):

Carolan's Cottage *!*
Carolan's Farewell to Music
Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill
Inisheer Air
Mist-covered Mountains of Home

*!* I highly recommend this to anyone who's even remotely interested in Irish music or fingerstyle guitar. It's an amazing tune and can be learned relatively quickly, IMHO. I got it from The Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar Book by Stefan Grosman, Duck Baker and El McMeen. It may be possible to get the transcription for this tune alone through elmcmeen . com

dropped-D and standard tuning (arranged by Duck Baker):

Pretty Girl Milking a Cow
The Butterfly
Sergeant Early's Dream
Little Brown Jug
My Darling Asleep
Jenny Picking Cockles

and I started working on my own arrangement of The Goose and Bright Love for two or three guitars and bass.

I've never been much into jazz but I'm sure it would be of benefit to at least acquaint myself. Is there anything on the slow and melancholy side you could recommend?

Moonlight In Vermont? Who is that by? I'm familiar with Moonlight On Vermont by Captain Beefheart.

with music and lyrics by Blackburn and Suessdorf (I had to look that up on Google). Frank Sinatra, Streisand, Billie Holiday and many others have sung the tune. Like "All The Things You Are", "The Song Is You", "Days Of Wine And Roses", "Stella By Starlight", and many, many others, these are former pop tunes that jazz players have appropriated in order to solo over the chord changes. Typically, an instrument will play the "head" or melody one time through the chord changes at the beginning and end, and then the chord changes become the structures over which the combo (or solo musician) take solos. This adoption of pop standards for the purpose of soloing over the chord changes was prevalent in what they've called "straight ahead" jazz or Be-Bop (although original compositions by jazz artists also made up this genre). Guitarists like Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Jimmy Rainey, etc. were major players in the genre, which is still popular today.

Regarding your question about something on the slow and melancholy side, one tune that comes to mind is "My Funny Valentine". Miles Davis recorded an excellent version. You might also consider "Misty" or "Someone To Watch Over Me".

Your own pursuit sounds pretty interesting. I wish I had the time or ability to branch out into other areas of the guitar.

John Coltrane. One of the finest musicians who ever lived. He was an obbsesive practicer. Something like 13 hours a day, or maybe that was Charlie Parker, but Trane would go to a show, practice in the green room for 2 hours before hand, go out, play a long set, go back and practice in the green room, go out, play another long set, and then go back and practice until the facility closed and kicked him out. He might have even gone home a practiced more after that.
I am on a scholarship awarded by the school, but it is a Jazz Scholarship, awarded by the Sullivan family. Peace

musician?

An amateur is someone who works 40 hours a week so he can do music.

A professional is someone who's wife works 40 hours a week so he can do music...