Play for free?....

The sad truth is this has been going on for years with young bands. Especially in places like LA. It's not a pretty world out there for young musicians who are just starting out.When I was a teenager we had lots of places to play. It's that experience that made us good musicians. Without those opportunities to play it's hard to get your skills up to a professional level.

Joe

I was a senior in high school when our band was first starting out. We had an organization say to us "play one dance for us for free and then you can name your price on the second dance". we are still waiting to be called for that second dance!

I told one activity director of a nursing home that sure I would play for free provided they didn't charge the residents to live there. This place charged residents $6,000 a month(I know what they charged...my mother had lived there). I had no desire to add to their profits as the place was already making money hand over fist.

I help book acts for a local Opera House. I've had folks tell me they will play for free. I tell them no problem. I intend to sell tickets for their show and will gladly keep all the profits if they just want "exposure".

It does get the newbies thinking.

The public is funny they think guys are great. It's cool ( a nice atmosphere) to see these guys with their sax case open on the side walk with a few dollars in it that they may have put in it themselves in the French Quarter in New Orleans on the streets. They play the melody like bad singers with wrong notes, they don't play the bridge to a tune, they couldn't play with any band I ever worked with. I'm sorry they are 30 year experienced beginners. You know like the guy in the pool hall who's been around for 30 years and still can't play pool. Same scenario. Here's the funny part. The people around are really digging it, and think the player is a real musician. The public has taste for crap because they are a bunch of "tin ears" for the most part. Just a few exceptions. It's always been that way and will always be that way. Otherwise, many people playing music today could not survive if they really had to know their stuff. You know what I'm talking about. So people worth money to gig will always be fighting this play for free problem. It's a fact of life.