I have never been able to play music fulltime for a living but it has always been a source of income for me. I think if I lived in a larger area I might be able to support myself fulltime or if I was a bit more aggressive in looking for work that is music related. Bands always seem to blow up for one reason or another. The last one I was in folded when the bass player went off to a performing arts school and never returned to the area . Can't say I blame him as a very famous and renowned bass player/producer has taken him under his wing and his new band is likely to get signed sometime in the near future. I'm glad for him as he is half my age and I'm not sure I could handle being on the road fulltime unless it was really going somewhere with lots of $$$.
 
I have sung for governors and presidential candidates with a vocal group I used to front. Done a movie soundtrack and getting ready to do another. Played the usual places and done the usual things that most bands do from backyard parties to gigs of all sorts. These days I am happy to play in church every week and looking forward to doing some more movies. Sitting in a theater and hearing my music was about the biggest thrill I have ever had musically.
 
Good thread. Enjoyed reading everyone's stories. Keep 'em comin'!

I have been playing drums since 1970 but for ten years (70's) I also worked full time as an electronics engineer. But I resigned from all that (at much opposition from my parents!) in 1980. I have been working full time in the music business since then to this very day so that means for the last 33 years!
 
I still played drums full time but also setup my very first electronic music studio in 1980. While I was playing drums I also taught myself music by copying people like Jean Michelle Jarre. For 5 years I had no idea what Music theory was all about but produced music and soundtracks by listening and copying. eg using my ears to figure out what was going on. I did a lot of listening on a serious Hi Fi setup too during this period. I played a variety of styles on drums through 1980 to 1985 which included very loud high energy rock to country music and everything else in between. (played with Frank Gambale a lot during this time as we both lived in Canberra. I have been very fortunate in that I have been lucky enough to play with some very great live players) In the early 80's I hooked up with photographers and we started producing audio visuals. The correct term then for multi projector setups. I started doing soundtracks for those.
 
From 1980 to 1983 all I had was a four track and a two track machine. I really learned the art of making a four track work!
 
Around 1985 I studied a Bachelor of Jazz and drums were my major but we had to take a second instrument so keyboard was mine. (best thing I ever did) It was a three year course full time and we had to do a one year prep course before hand as well. During this time I continued playing drums and started composing music for television and films. I used to go into the post audio sessions and made sure the music cues were all in the right place. It was here I developed an interest in producing audio for TV and became skilled at that. I have done a lot of work mixing music dialogue and effects etc..I have also done lots of location audio work too for TV and film recording dialogue and sound effects etc...I have also composed a lot of music for dance, dramatic theatre and puppetry. I started producing sound effects for theatre in the 70's and have been involved with theatre in some capacity ever since. Theatre is very good. I have also performed live to silent movies too. The biggest being 'Metropolis' (the full 2 1/2 hour version by Fritz Lang and running at the correct speed too 18 fps. My biggest achievement I think was doing the soundtrack for a puppetry piece called 'Wake Baby' which toured the world and ended up on Broadway for three weeks. My soundtrack was LOUD and got rave reviews in the US)
 
Also during that time I also started producing local artists. They were handing out grants but there was no studio around to do the recording so I setup and got a lot of that work. That is where I cut my teeth producing other artists.
 
In 1983 I got the Atari and used a Steinberg Midex expander to give it 5 midi outs and it had SMPTE timecode. For the next 15 years I used the Atari locked to one track of an 8 track so I had 7 audio tracks plus the midi system which by this time was massive eg a room full of synths. (53 at the largest setup)  I mixed all of them live to a stereo. I still have every 8 track master and two track master (and the tape machines too) from that period. (Amazing raw materials for today's production!)
 
Still producing music full time of course right through the 90's right up to today. I switched to a computer in 1998 with Logic running on a PC and used that right up to 2008 when I got a much better machine and switched to Sonar 8.5 and now Studio One. (The reason I know what I am talking about re Studio One is that I have been using it every day all day for the last two and half years) Sonar allowed me to get rid of a lot the synth hardware and then I really got into virtual instruments. (I recently got a new Kurzweil PC3K and it seriously sounds better than anything I have ever owned previously, fact! You only need one keyboard and this is it!) Also I really know the meaning of time deadlines and having to get work done in very specific time periods and under serious pressure. (This really tests the software you are using and Studio One excels in this area, ie never crashes no matter what you do. Other programs cannot boast the same)
 
I have never given up producing music fulltime from 1980 right up to today. It has been hard and there have been some lean times but it is all I have ever known and done. I have got a very supportive wife and that really helps! It is possible, you just have to believe in yourself and keep on doing it. I am very happy to say that now my setup is the best it has ever been and the quality of what I am doing now has been the highest it has also ever been. Some of the work I am doing right now is the best work I have ever done in my life. I think it is important to be striving upward in this manner and not leveling out so to speak.  I got teaching work teaching sound engineering and have done that for 9 years now but that was only secondary to the music production though.
 
I still play drums and have also never stopped doing gigs either. The latest thing for me is a tribute show featuring Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Elvis and the band is a very class act that is for sure. The front guys are pretty good too. I have been playing Sonor drums since 1980 as well and they still sound amazing to this day. I have also been doing a lot of live mixing work for other bands in the last 10 years or so and doing a lot of that lately. (The PA's today are LOUD!!but I like it though)
 
That dog in my avatar has been with me for the last 15 years every day curled up in the studio listening to everything I have done but alas she has passed now very recently which has a bit sad. (Beeps will be sad I know!)

batsbrew
i did it full time, from the middle of 1980, to september of 1986.
almost 6 years.
i lived on the road, and played mostly 6 nights a week, 5 hours a night, from town to town.

 
Almost my exact same story, just a few years earlier: 1972 - 1980. Disco killed it for me. 
 
That, and a growing hatred of driving, always driving. The better-paying the gig, the further away it was. So many nights being exhausted from a gig but having to pack up after, then drive all night, and  sometimes having to immediately set up on arrival, wolf down a burger and go right onstage again.
 
I had good chops back then, though. A couple thousand gigs does do that for you, I have to admit.
 

craigb
Hey, can you guys play Freebird

Man, I guess I never realized how popular that song was until I noticed everyone would always ask for it. My first tour out, I started in England and thought for sure I'd heard the last of "Freebird!" But sure enough, someone HAD to yell it so I played it...from the solo section out and man did we have a blast. LOL!
 
After I was done though, I said "from here on out, you can have all the "free bird" you want in the mens bathroom!" :) We still say that today....then we give them a little of the solo section. LOL! :)
 
-Danny

I use it crack up bands that only have one guitarist.  I also add "It's in G!" just to be helpful.

craigb
I use it crack up bands that only have one guitarist.  I also add "It's in G!" just to be helpful.

That goes over well at piano recitals, too.

My standard response to Freebird  or Stairway was "Sorry folks, but we made a deal with Skynrd/Zepplin that they wouldn't play our **** and we wouldn't play theirs"
 
Randy

Laugh if you want, but there have always been certain songs that are guaranteed to bring the audience to your side. We hate them from years of repetition, but people still love to hear even bad renditions of Stairway to Heaven or Smoke on the Water. Thankfully, nobody asks for Disco Lady anymore.

A friend of mine had a wedding band as his primary gig.  They played everything.  Classy jazz, Irish jigs, blues, classic rock, dance, R&B, country, pop, etc.
 
Whenever someone would yell out, "Freebird!", "Proud Mary!", "Born to be Wild!", "Disco Inferno!", "Celebrate!", "Jump!", "Mack the Knife!", "Folsom Prison!", or "Danny Boy!", there was a very good chance the band already had it covered.
 
They'd play for about 3-4 hours per night.  The money wasn't very good and the work wasn't very steady, but he made it work for many years.