Gigs Practicing and More

To pick up our email conversation!!!

Tjaco:

Money, practicing and gigs. Practicing won’t necessarily make you money it will make you great. If you think about it practically, when I’m talking someone obviously wealthy and they say “Man how did you get so good?”. I usually say, well while you were making lots of money I was practicing!

So in a financial sense it doesn’t pay to practice. That’s why there are lots of bad players making money and getting gigs right? Cause they ‘ain’t’ wasting there time getting better. They’re using it effectively to make money build contacts and get gigs.

F*(ck that, because they still SUCK. If you’re going into jazz for the money, well then that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. If that’s your first goal then do something where you’ll make real BREAD.

Music is about the music. It has taken me 47 years to make a decent living with this pile of metal, and I did it by practicing hard AND making friends and supporting soloists as best I could AND by spreading my gigs around.

So in one sense by practicing you’re losing time making money, however in another sense if you really love this, then you’re helping your situation because you’ll get better and better, people RESPECT hard work and you’ll make money.

If you really think and study then someday that’s worth money to others who are trying to learn and get better.

You probably know this already but I thought it would be cool to put this up. I’ve led a very hard life and spent most of it penniless living in run down homes. Finally I’m reasonably comfortable and secure. The word there is REASONABLY. But I love music and this is where I want to be. The idea of putting a tie on every day is sickening to me. It’s not to others and that’s cool. I’ll settle for the occasional penguin suit.

I respect you alot for busting your ass like you do. I do understand that this is a major choice that you have to make and I also respect people that aren’t great players but made financial choices based on things like ‘kids’ and ‘family’. However being a musician I REALLY respect the guys who make the sacrifice trying to be great. That helps all of us, it helps the instrument and the music and that’s my first concern so I respect those people more.

I think we all try to get through life and do the best we can. Some day we’ll kick the bucket and we’re done!!!!! That’s cool also. Take a break from all this crap. “-)

I DO BELIEVE THAT THE BETTER YOU GET THE BETTER I GET. SO I WANT PLAYERS TO GET BETTER AND BETTER SO THAT WE RAISE THE BAR. so if you’re practicing hard that will make me do the same. in some ways healthy competition is good.