The current state of music in the big city

Here in Tallahassee there is so much diversity in music making interest that the challenge is too find people who have a like interest.

The other challenge is that the potential market is to small to support the wide diversity of interest in the form of good paying gigs.

Thankfully, that hasn't slowed an interest in playing music and so people of all ages and of all backgrounds seem to actively play music together very frequently. Even more so when they find people of like mind to share the experience with. Most of us just gave up on thinking about gigs as "paying" and so the market is simply flooded with great music as people celebrate the best part of music making by simply making music in a wide variety of circumstances.

I feel lucky.



best regards,
mike


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I feel like two big reason lie with this generation's attention span, AND the way social media works. Maybe it's that YouTube IS that place, just this generation's version of the place to hang and learn.

Although I can't say for sure. I'm in this gen.

I'd hate to be out there trying to gig these days. Back when I WAS gigging, there were multiple clubs per town ( at all levels of professionalism) for bands to play.

Everything from the hole in the wall places where any band could book a weekend gig, to the places catering to the more established bands to the clubs featuring the professional traveling acts. These places would hire the better known local established bands as opening acts. 

Here in NC, to my understanding, most of that is gone.  Victim to DUI laws and the changing state of the economy. 

Aside from the college towns, and big cities...... locally, there is nothing. 


What we do have consists of: the occasional small band playing for tips in the corner of a pizza joint or the local extremely country band playing the local VFW hall on a Saturday night.   We also have "the bluegrass barn" where a small handful of BG pickers show up on Tuesday nights to pick and grin. 

I played a house gig here locally for 2.5 years to a mostly packed crowd of several hundred folks every Friday & Saturday night. There was, at the same time, another club across town booking country bands every weekend.  The house gig place is closed, and the country joint is still open but doesn't book live music every weekend. 

I was able to live and pay my bills playing music, but that would be nearly impossible in today's environment in NC. 

So I write and record. 

Hi,

I've been looking at history of the arts ... with the focal point being ... how something got started, or how someone made it.

The fact of the matter is, that the ones we remember the most, in the history of all the arts, are the ones that did something different.

That said ... here comes the fart!
 
STOP thinking that you can make it, like someone else did! Stand up for your self, and YOUR OWN work, and forget someone else's song, and ideas ... be yourself.
 
If you start this out, young enough, you will likely stick around and make it well enough to get somewhere ... because you had the opportunity to get good enough, before life took you away, be it a child, a girl or whatnot.
 
Today, you have the Internet, and you have a chance to sell some CD's that you  could not sell before ... 30 or 40 years ago, you had to show folks your album and try to see if they were interested, and many made it that way ... today, you can sample things and you will sell a couple of things, maybe not make a million within 30 days, but you might surprise yourself.
 
Thinking that you can "make it" by posting this in all the boards and bscrappers out there for everyone to listen to it, and do nothing about it, is an illusion ... you are better off showing your ability outside on the street where people will throw you nickels, instead ... and you won't have to put up with insults and sneers and snickers and people stating under their breath ... that you are stealing their spotlight!
 
For kids, and youngsters, help them gain the confidence to play ... and not give a damn, if someone likes it or not ... just play, and continue playing ... and before you know it, you have a full house ... appreciating you, instead of folks that don't care! You can not gain this desire and confidence, when you are scared of STEPPING OUT of the house, and home ... but you can NOT do this by playing someone else's music ... you have to play your own, so it can get better, stronger, and you are the only person that can interpret it and make it right ... and that is the only ticket that you will ever need ... the rest ... easy as pie!
 
And for all those bars that didn't need you, one of these days, show off your cadillac and I probably would buy a beer so I could throw it on the owner's face in front of everyone else! And tell them ... here is respect for you ... you told me to ____ ___ one time ... now it's my turn! And watch the audience leave with you!
 
IF you really care, and stick by your son, or daughter ... help give them get "there" to the top of the mountain ... and playing in bars ... is only gonna get you on the Red Lion Circuit at the most ... you, yourself, are WAYYYYYYYYYY better than that ... I would expect and love to see more!
 
Sorry to sound ... rough ... but it is meant to help create a BETTER situation ... than a dead end! And classical music playing these days, is as much a deadend as the popular stuff ... which means you might as well do your own farts!

You might think something so unique would seem unforgettable.

craigb


Speaking of fart...  The guy in the video HERE does his own stuff and even made it onto the Jimmy Kimmel show for it.