For "one man bands", single singer/guitar players; actually, for anyone who performs publicly, the world has drastically changed in the last 8 months or so.

Many of my friends think they will never work again.

I think that, if you have been a musician for awhile, you will see that the market for music...the venues, the equipment; literally most of the elements involved are in a constant flux and have been since that caveman (or woman) plucked the first note on a stretched yak hair or banged the first rocks together.

I have been around long enough to remember how pleased I was when I played the first Echoplex (tape run), worked with the first 8 track, saw the price of a 16 channel studio mixer drop from $145,000.00 to $1,000. The first line out on a smaller, lighter amplifier was a godsend! Shure Vocalmaster 4 channel heads and those two long columns where all that was practical. In college, I used 4 Marshal cabinets and heads (no way to feed into a large PA). Monitors blew me away.

Fraternity and sorority and prom jobs disappeared. In the 80's, every working lounge lizard (like me) was afraid disco would ruin the business.

On the plus side, arrangers became available. Simulators replaced (somewhat) Leslie's. Sound systems became more powerful and compact. Thankfully (for my tone-deaf buddies) auto tuners became more affordable and easy to use. The disappearance of album sales was offset by opportunities for doing music and marketing it on the internet. Costs for recording equipment were drastically reduced.

I'm in the process of doing my portion of many recording remotely. A 175 mile round trip to a Louisville studio was replaced with a $2600.00 upgrade to my production suite. It's paid for via reduction of travel/wear and tear on vehicles. Changes take some getting used to. I dearly miss the use of a traditional three piece piano (or guitar), bass and drums section. That unspoken communication is phenomenal! But after 62 years in the business, I'm still getting a lot more work than I can handle.

You can, TOO! Just stick with it.

MUSIC MATTERS!

Best of luck to all!

Russ

Thanks for the encouragement, Russ.

It's been tough times down here in Florida, particularly as it's so seasonal and the lockdown chewed up much of that. The latest news has the winter snowbird business largely not happening on any organized basis. The hits keep on comin'!

But there's always next year..!

Words of Wisdom !!!!

This pandemic has truly devastated all working musicians. I hope the industry will recover quickly.

Russ, thanks for your insight and encouragement. I too love just a bass, drums and piano and the last time I played as a trio was on the ms Oosterdam with the wife doing vocals. That was 2 years ago. HAL no longer has trios playing in their Ocean Bar. Since then it was back to perform with an arranger keyboard. But, the music scene where I live (SW AZ) has changed and since Covid it has been dead. We've decided to retire and I will explore my arranger keyboard to its limits. Never too old to learn. I wish for a prosperous future for all the musicians on this forum who decide to keep on performing after this Covid-19 period is over.

Stay safe and keep hoping!

But when I see what the Florida governor is doing now I think you have another huge COVID-19 surge ahead of you next year or even this year.

How he can think of fully reopening when so much of the Florida population is in the vulnerable age group is beyond comprehension.

DeSantis can open up the State all he wants. What he can’t do is get Snowbirds to come here if they don’t feel safe...

The big adjustment for me, is that for the most part I'm performing for tips now. All senior venues cancelled, all private parties canceled and very few clubs have live music anyways.

But we have found a great spot to "busk" and it's working well enough. In some ways it's better than playing a "normal" gig. Sometimes we make more than a typical bar would pay but other times less.. Glad I still have my day job!

Also my wife and I have been performed on some internet programs. We usually just play about four songs and we rehearse them to the point that we don't need lyric sheets or charts . This has been a good incentive to keep working on our craft. If things ever go back to "normal" we hope to come out stronger than before!