I am rapidly approaching the 50th anniversary of my first gig where I was paid for playing the saxophone. Over the years, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and hopefully I’ve learned a little bit from at least some of them. Here are a few tips, based on my experience, which will help keep you working.

FIRST, LEARN THE RIGHT REPERTOIRE!
I am forever amazed by the young players I often meet who know every obscure jazz and bebop tune in the world, along with all the changes, but give you a blank stare when “Mustang Sally” is called by the leader on a gig in order to fulfill a request. The simple fact of the matter is that if you plan on making a living playing the saxophone, then you need to learn the tunes that are actually performed by cover bands, since in all probability, that’s where you will be working. Spend a little time in bars with cover bands and write down the songs that are actually played. Do the same at the next few weddings you attend. There is no need to accumulate this data from jazz clubs with fewer than 20 patrons in attendance.

DRESS FOR SUCCESS
Those of you who have visited my office know that I have a great fondness for blue jeans and T shirts. Those of you have played gigs for me in one of my own groups or where I was the contractor know that I will absolutely fire you on the spot if you show up in blue jeans and a T shirt. You’re not only getting paid to play, you’re getting paid to look the part. Your attire at a gig MUST be such that there is absolutely no possibility that you might be mistaken for a member of the audience. Those folks out there in the audience have certain expectations and fantasies, and they must not be disappointed. Make a point of observing the attire of successful acts. You cannot be over-dressed for a gig!

LEARN ABOUT CONTRACTS
They call it “the music BUSINESS” for a reason…..trust me, you can head off all sorts of misunderstandings if you will just take a few minutes with the entertainment buyer and “write it down”. A well drawn contract should also include many things beyond the hours of performance and the fee agreed upon. You should address things like when the venue is available for load in and load out; electrical requirements, parking for musicians, case storage during the gig, and many, many other items. In a future blog, I’ll provide you with the contract form we use for The Low Budget Horns so you can see some of the items we cover. Having a contract, of course, means nothing if you don’t understand it, so take a course or two in business law at your local college, or at least spend an hour or two with your attorney having these things properly explained to you. If you play a gig and have a problem, but did not execute a contract in advance, don’t blame anyone but yourself.

IT’S A JOB: ACT LIKE IT!
Going to play a gig is absolutely no different from going to work at Sears: it’s a job, you’re lucky to have it, act professional. If you worked at Sears, you couldn’t drink alcohol or use recreational pharmaceuticals on the job, you can’t eat food provided fir other people, you can’t bring your girlfriend and her friends, you have to start to work on time and finish on time, and only take breaks that are mutually agreed upon. I don’t understand why any of this seems to be such a difficult concept for musicians to absorb.

KEEP YOUR PROPAGANDA MACHINE GOING AT ALL TIMES
There is no excuse whatsoever, none, for not having an up to date promotional package about you on the internet. It must include a PROFESSIONALLY SHOT picture (I don’t care if your girlfriend has a camera, she works at Sears and doesn’t do this for a living) links to videos on YouTube, a brief bio, and your current professional calendar. You should also be sending out email notices (it costs nothing but a little bit of your time) of upcoming public gigs and significant professional events. I’m not real sure a printed promo kit is necessary any more, but remember you must have business cards of exceptional quality (there’s very little difference in price between the finest and the worst business cards, and don’t even think of printing your own on your computer) and maybe a disc with some video clips.

These are just a few tips….I’ll share more in a future blog……

Over the last couple of days there has been a rather vigorous and often quite heated discussion on one of the saxophone related groups I’m a member of on the subject of changes in the music industry and how it affects employment opportunities for musicians…..and of course, since it was a saxophone related group, how it affects employment opportunities for saxophone players.

Now before I go any further, here’s a disclosure: I have not played a gig for money or in public for over eight years. The reason for my retirement is that I have suffered two strokes which have left me with some physical disabilities which severely limit my ability to play. This is not to say that I am not involved with many different aspects of the music business all day, every day…..I’m just stating for the record that I do not play professionally or publicly, and have not done so for some time. Prior to my strokes, I typically played six nights a week, every week, and often played as many as three gigs a day.

Now back to the discussion of employment opportunities in the current music environment……I still have many friends and clients who today are working as much as I ever did, and for top dollar. Not just a couple of guys, but a significant number of them. I think this begs the question of “why are these players successful in a market where others fail?”……assuming for the purposes of this discussion that everyone on both sides of the argument has adequate musical skills, then what’s the difference?

Every saxophone player is essentially an independent contractor and business owner. Players fail in this industry because they do not treat their musical career as a business. For the purposes of our discussion here, let’s consider another type of business with which we are all familiar: a restaurant.

If you want to have a prayer of success in the highly competitive restaurant business, I think we would all probably agree that you have to offer a product that consumers actually want to buy, and that the product meets their expectations and tastes good to them. I think that if we apply these criteria, we can all easily understand why all spinach restaurants have never really caught on with the buying public: spinach may be extremely nutritious and good for you, but the simple fact of the matter is that most people just don’t like the taste, and given a variety of menu choices, very few diners will voluntarily order spinach.
This “taste test” applies equally to music. If the buying public does not like the taste of your product, or the sound of your music, then they will not buy it. You will then be forced to seek other employment.

It was alleged in the discussion that there was a vast conspiracy of lawyers, record company executives, media owners, and other un-named yet equally nefarious individuals who controlled which music was offered to the public and force fed certain formats, and prevented the distribution of music that was not approved by their conspiratorial cartel. Please don’t insult my intelligence by repeating this totally bogus argument…..in this Age of the Internet, you can easily distribute samples of what you have to offer…..if people like it, they will seek it out and buy it….if they don’t like it, they will ignore it. You don’t need a record label anymore. If your music does not have, in the opinion of the record labels, any commercial potential or demand, you can easily set up a web site offering your products for sale and attempt to prove them wrong.

I don’t want to come off as being totally negative on the subject of music being a viable occupation. It was very good to me when I was a player, and it is very good to me today. We also have many friends and business associates who are doing quite well in the current market. In every case that I know of, the musicians who are successful understand that they call it the Music Business for a reason, an d treat it as such. Here are some free tips on things I found that worked well for me……they’re not costing you anything, so don’t whine and complain…….

FIRST, PLAY WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR……
I think this is the biggest mistake players make. When I played in Vince Vance’s band, Vince used to say that if you looked out into the audience and the crowd wasn’t singing along, you just played the wrong tune.

Musicians tend to forget why people come to clubs and concerts. They come to be entertained and to forget their troubles. If they wanted a musical education, they would enroll in a music appreciation class at the local junior college. Seriously, guys, playing Wayne Shorter tunes is a very bad idea in the vast majority of venues.

PLAY WHAT YOU ARE ASKED TO PLAY
I used to tell my employers that “if you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time”…..if you consider yourself far too cool to play a particular format, then you should learn to say “do you want fries with that?” Don’t ignore what your audience knows and likes…..they’re paying you, so they call the tunes…..if you want to create art, do so in the privacy of your living room

LOOK THE PART
The audience has visual expectations that you should not ignore. The crowd should be able to take one quick look at you and determine that you are not just another member of the audience. I think in the course of the discussion I was reading one of the jazz superstars was bad mouthing stage lighting, smoke machines, and pyro……bring ‘em on, says I……and raise the ticket prices accordingly…..it’s an important part of the overall entertainment experience…..I note with interest that the successful acts all make liberal use of it, but the posers and wannabe’s rarely do…..yes, I always used it on bar gigs……and yes, I always insisted that pachouli oil be added to the smoke machine so the stage smelled like hippie girls……hippie girls are well known friends to all saxophonists, but that’s another story for another time….

IT’S A BUSINESS……
Start on time, take reasonable breaks, do all the things you would expect a good employee to do…..

DON’T ASSOCIATE WITH OTHER MUSICIANS WHO ARE NOT WORKING…..
Seriously, don’t hang with people who play at blues jams, open mic nights, or in rehearsal bands. Don’t you DARE support any of the above! My rule is simply this: if whiskey is being sold, then I get paid. Don’t play for charity events unless EVERYBODY associated with the event is working for free. If the caterer gets paid, so do I……

DON’T EXPECT WORK TO JUST COME TO YOU…..YOU HAVE TO FIND IT…..
When I moved to New Orleans 20 years ago, I knew exactly two people in the local music business: my wife Sharon, who was a sound engineer, and Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers…..I spent weeks figuring out which venues were viable (meaning they actually paid what I was worth), targeting them, and then making myself known there. Don’t waste your time and business cards on sub-par venues…..you have to get out and solicit the work…..there are lots of guys who sit by the phone all night waiting for it to ring, or believing they are entitled to a gig because they can play Giant Steps with one hand tied behind their back ……seriously, kids, particularly if you’re new in town, expend a little shoe leather…….

DON’T BE AFRAID TO CREATE YOUR OWN EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES….
OK, just to give you some examples of things I did successfully to create gigs for myself…..here’s a couple:

#1
I went to the local funeral home office, and offered to contract bands for funerals instead of the funeral home having to seek them out and employ them when needed. Trust me, I can get any and all of the “first call” players in New Orleans to come out and play four tunes at 11:00AM for a hundred bucks…..I charged the funeral home $1500, which they passed along as part of the cost of the funeral (that’s the going rate here, before some self righteous SOB accuses me of price gouging), they were glad to have a steady source of work, and I put the rest in my pocket….we did a LOT of this……

#2
This is my favorite……I set this up with several different event planners…..if you have conventions in your area, you can modify this plan to suit local requirements and tastes:

Let’s say the American Association of Solid Waste Engineers is in town for their annual conference. Here in New Orleans, conventions often have a dinner cruise on one of our paddle wheel boats, going down the river, turning around, and coming back, all with a Dixieland band and an open bar. They get back to the dock around 10:00PM, and as they disembark on the gangway, there at the foot of the gangway is their old friend Plaunche Baptiste (one of my several registered stage names), his band The Creole Backsliders, and an extremely large breasted young woman in very scanty attire with a parasol……as the conventioneers come down to the dock, the band strikes up a lively tune and the large breasted young girl begins to shake her ass…..before you know it, we have almost all of the conventioneers in tow, and march them down the street to one of my favorite watering holes…..now if you are the owner of the aforementioned watering hole, are you glad to see your old friend Plaunche with a couple of hundred drunk conventioneers with gold Amex cards in tow? Of course you are, and you show Plaunche your gratitude by allowing Benjamin Franklin to shake hands with President Grant several times……after a while, Plaunche strikes up the band again, the girl begins to shake her ass, and the conventioneers are marched down the street to another watering hole, the owner of which is equally happy to see his old friend Plaunche……after an hour or so, you have to make a determination as to whether or not the conventioneers are beginning to speak in unknown tongues…..if not, march them to another bar….if they are, march them to their hotel, where old Plaunche puts out his top hat and the band plays a final couple of tunes……the hat usually gets filled with tens and twenties…….I charge the convention $700 and split the final evenings tips with the five piece band and pay them $100 each…..all the rest is mine

Once you get yourself established, you can do this sort of thing with disgusting regularity……unless, of course, you consider it musically beneath you…….

UNDERSTAND WHERE THE MONEY IS
One of the most amusing things flung against the wall in the recent discussion was the contention that there were only about 15 or less people actively touring with rock and country bands…..I’m sorry, boys and girls, but my tiny saxophone manufacturing company has more people than that under Endorsing Artist agreements, and the vast majority of them are doing very well financially, some of them exceptionally well. We know lots and lots of people who do this sort of playing for a living…..in fact, they are our primary market for our products. I guess if your gig experience is limited to wedding bands and Sunday Jazz Brunch gigs and CD’s you record in your living room and sell only on your website, you might not have a very good perspective as to what it means to be really successful in this business.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO PROMOTE YOURSELF AND YOUR PRODUCTS
One of the participants in the discussion complained that I had used one of the groups to promote my products. To this, I plead guilty as charged. If you don’t speak up on your behalf, don’t expect anyone else to do so……

CONTRIBUTE KNOWLEDGE FREELY TO THE MUSICAL COMMUNITY
We try to provide a continuous steam of information to the saxophone community about our research, along with plenty of historical information and other items we think would be of interest. If you know something or have some information, then you should share it. Although as a matter of disclosure I am a paid employee of The Saxophone Journal, we do consider our column in every issue about saxophone design to be a part of this outreach. We also are occasionally hired by other publications to contribute articles.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE WITH THE TIMES……
One of the charges leveled at me was that it had been so long since I had played that my perspectives were not relevant. Well, if you don’t stay in touch with what’s going on out there, it’s very easy for that to happen. We try to make a point of adding young successful artists (Rob Ingraham, Vincent Broussard as examples) to our stable of endorsers in addition to the older established artists (such as Tom Scott, Ron Holloway, and Charles Neville) so we get the benefit of experience and fresh perspectives. You should use the same approach with your career. I think the only thing that is certain about the music industry is that it is constantly changing and evolving. With the exception of some nostalgia acts, you need to constantly evaluate the current state of the business, and adjust your approach accordingly.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS……
They call it the Music Business for a reason……if you choose to participate, then you need to treat it LIKE a business and act like a business owner, because that is exactly what you are!

I was talking with some friends recently, and it came up in the conversation that during the 70’s, you could hear a pretty good local band at a neighborhood bar for a five dollar cover charge. The club owner, of course, collected the cover charge and used it to offset the fee charged by the band, or the band simply played “for the door”, so what they took in at the door was what they made. I’ve heard many a group for a portrait of The Great Emancipator, and you could very easily entertain yourself and a significant other for a ten spot. I’ve also been the recipient of quite a few of those fivers in exchange for my exhibiting my abilities with the saxophone. Five bucks always felt about right to hear a local band, but unfortunately, we got a little too comfortable with it.

If we fast forward to 2012, and revisit the same local watering holes, we will find the same five dollar cover charge prevailing for hearing a local band. This can be good, or bad, depending on which side of the transaction you’re on. Good if you want to hear local bands at at bargain price (even at a lowest price of all time if you consider adjusting your dollars for inflation since the 70’s), but not so good if you’re a musician and haven’t gotten a raise in over forty years.

It’s very important to recognize that in the 70’s, buyers had very few entertainment options relative to what’s available today, and that the quality of available options has increased substantially, particularly in recent years. It’s also important to recognize that HBO, Sony, Viacom, NBC, and countless other media giants spend billions of dollars each and every year to attempt us to stay at home and not go out to the local bar. So what does this mean, from a musician’s point of view? Where did we drop the ball?

There’s no question that things have changed, and changed a lot. Other than substantially increase the amount of pissing and moaning we do, what are musicians doing about the situation.

Before you say that consumers won’t pay higher prices, let me point something out. When I attended the last Rolling Stones tour of the USA, everyone seated around me had paid around $300 for each and every seat, and the enormous venue was totally sold out, and had been totally sold out since a very few minutes after tickets went on sale. Very obviously, a lot of people will pay top dollar if you are selling something they want to buy. I offer the Stones tour as an example. There are plenty of them.

Which brings us back to the bands. Musicians need to ask themselves what they are doing different today to compete. I would respectfully submit that typically, they’re doing nothing different. They still act and dress like the members of the audience, they play the tunes they want to hear instead of what the paying customers want to hear, and most importantly, they have forgotten the very most important thing: they’re not in the music business, they’re in the entertainment business. All of those folks at the tables in front of the stage are there to forget their troubles and be entertained.

The standards are higher than ever today. Lots of bands can play. Very, very few can entertain. The ones who can entertain deserve the raise. The ones who can’t or won’t entertain don’t.

I read an interesting article the other day (at www.cnn.com) about the plight of the musicians in the Minnesota Orchestra……now as a matter of full disclosure, I want to state for the record that I am all in favor or musicians making as much money as possible, as this is in the best financial interest of my businesses……

The general thrust of the article was that it is difficult to maintain the average $75,000 annual salary (plus benefits) for the members of this orchestra based on their current revenue stream, and that since management and labor have been unable to agree upon a solution, the musicians have been locked out and performances cancelled. I think this situation warrants a bit of discussion.

It seems to me that if ticket sales were adequate, there would be no problem. I note with interest that it was announced this morning that the Rolling Stones had completely sold out a show in seven minutes at $650 per seat……hmmmmmm…..what’s the difference?

The difference is that the Stones (and there are PLENTY of other examples) seem to be offering a musical event that consumers want to see. Symphony orchestras often have to drag patrons kicking and screaming to their performances. Why would this be?

I think it is important to think of a symphony orchestra as a band with a hundred year old set list and no stage show. They almost never offer up new material, and the presentation of what they do play is as dry and sterile as possible. It doesn’t have to be this way…..they could do a lot with lighting, staging, and all the other high tech production stuff we have come to expect at rock shows, along with some new material, but THEY CHOOSE NOT TO DO SO……they would rather complain than change, and will get no sympathy from me.

There’s also that pay issue……and I have some serious problems with their sense of entitlement. Sure, the soloists and featured performers should be paid top dollar…..I have no problem with that. But seriously, folks……is it REALLY worth $75,000 a year (plus significant benefits) to have 90 or so supporting musicians reading parts that can most likely be competently played by third year music school students?

I made a very good living as a saxophone player for many years. Nobody ever guaranteed me a damn thing: what I made was what I made. In order to make top dollar (which I did), you have to offer the paying public something that they actually want to buy. There’s just not much more to it than that.

We were having drinks with some friends last night and discussing some of the comments we’ve gotten on my recent blogs, and the topic of ASCAP/BMI payments came up…..a couple of people around the table didn’t think they ought to have to pay to play recorded music in their restaurant or for the music the piano player who appears only on weekends plays……well, I went ballistic……

What planet are these people living on? Do they think that the music they and their customers enjoy just appears through some quirk of quantum physics, or that it is somehow magically delivered to their place of business by Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or some other entity?

The simple fact of the matter is that royalties for use is how composers and musicians get paid. They don’t work for free and they have bills to pay just like the rest of us. ASCAP and BMI don’t keep the money they collect. They distribute it to the proper owners, based on the actual usage (as best as it can be determined, which is a very difficult task). The problem is that nobody wants to pay, and this royalty payment is almost never budgeted in advance by those who have to pay it.

I have yet to have it explained to me in terms that I can understand why composers and musicians should be expected to work for free. If I ever hear an explanation that truly holds water, I want to try it on my electrician or plumber next time they do some work on my house.

If composers and musicians are not paid for what they create, there will be no music. If they don’t get paid for creating music, they will soon have to learn to say “do you want fries with that?”

I’m often asked by my students and customers for some tips on how to get gigs, particularly the “right” gigs….I want to assure you that this skill is just as important as learning your scales. There are lots of guys out there who can play, but they don’t seem to work very often. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want to get the big money gigs:

AVOID OPEN MIC NIGHTS/BLUES JAMS ETC. LIKE THE PLAGUE
Just so you know what I mean, go to one of these events and have a good look around. None of the participants are working? Why would that be, assuming they have the requisite musical skills? The answer, friends and neighbors, is that they obviously hang out with other players who aren’t working. Nobody can refer anybody to good gigs because it is most unlikely that anyone present has the slightest idea where the good gigs are.

KEEP YOUR WEBSITE UP TO DATE AND YOUR INTERNET PARTICIPATION HIGH
Seriously, think about it…..when you want to know about someone or something, you visit the website…..you should have a high quality personal website with PROFESSIONALLY SHOT pictures, videos, your calendar, a very brief bio (nobody really cares), and other pertinent information. Be extra careful about what you put up: just yesterday several of us were howling with laughter as one of the web’s most obnoxious self-appointed “experts” absolutely murdered “Mustang Sally” while leading a line dance…..remember, once something is up on the net, it’s there forever, so be extremely selective on what you put up and what you allow third parties to put up about you……budget at least an hour each and every day to participate in online discussion groups (always, always, always use your real name so they know where to find you) and social media like Facebook……I can’t tell you how many gigs I’ve gotten just because somebody knew about me from the internet.

WHEN YOU GO OUT TO THE CLUBS, LOOK AND ACT LIKE A ROCK STAR
I can’t begin to tell you how important this is….when you visit a venue you hope to be working soon, don’t “break character”…..and don’t wear blue jeans and a T shirt…..stop and ask yourself “What would Keith Richards wear?”……remember, English rock stars are the best rock stars……and don’t stand in front of the stage with your horn case in front of you giving the band the “dying calf look” so they will take pity on you and let you sit in……If you do sit in (and this a topic for a lengthy discussion on another day), make it one or two tunes, no more…..it’s not your show

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER
You will not get top drawer gigs if you hang out with posers and wannabe’s…….get to know the guys who have the good gigs…..they’re people just like the rest of us……and before long they will be referring the better gigs to you……

Remember, your gigs are only as good as your address book. Practice and develop top flight musical skills, and then develop a plan to get you in front of the right people!

We have met the enemy, and he is us…….take a good look at the player sitting next to you on your next gig…..he (or she) may well be the reason gigs are scarce and pay is low.

I used to participate in a discussion group on Facebook until I realized that most (but not all, just most) of the members were just not the professional musicians they held themselves out to be. They believe, among other things that you should take gigs at below starvation wages for the sake of “the art” of jazz. Are you kidding me!?! A lot of people are out there trying to earn a living and feed themselves and their families, and these guys whore down the price. Seriously, folks, if you want to work for nothing or next to nothing, don’t go out and take work from people trying to earn a living….just play in your living room. The same goes for guys who go out and play at “open mic” nights……last time I looked, whiskey was usually being sold and the club owner was lucky enough to not have to pay for a band that night…..I suggest you make it a personal policy not to work with people who do this sort of thing, because they’re keeping the price musicians are paid down.

I got roundly criticized by this group of what I would consider to be mostly hobby players for suggesting that they inject a little show business into their act….it was pointed out to me in short order that jazz artists didn’t do that…..they didn’t tell me whether or not hobby players doing very low pay gigs did that, but I’ll assume not….I always thought that if what you were doing wasn’t working, you should try something different, but then that’s just me…….

One of the members pointed out that it is a problem to get hired since the club managers are usually young college graduates in their 20’s……uh, been to many night clubs lately? Who’s there in the audience?

I guess my main problem with this group is that they live in the past. If it happened after 1960, or was made after 1960, they’re just not too interested. Nostalgia is all well and good, of course, but there’s a lot of good music and products that have come on the scene in the last 60 years.

I guess my point is this: this type of thinking is hurting our business, and we need to shun individuals who look and think like this. There’s never been so much competition for the entertainment dollar, and working musicians need to stay on top of trends and audience desire or before long there just won’t be much work for musicians, and what there is won’t pay much.

I guess I fault these guys for being so negative and not changing with the times. They’ve got a little circle jerk going, and they pay homage to the players of the past, and they talk incessantly about “their art” and they bellyache and bellyache about how little work there is and how low the pay is. I would submit that if there was an audience for what they’re playing, people would be lining up to pay top dollar to hear it. They’re not, and when these guys go out and play a live music venue of any form or fashion for $30 or so, they’re telling employers what live music is and what it’s worth. I have a problem with that.