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Hopeless music situation (Europe)


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Well I don't know about you, but me and most of my musician friends are out of hope...

I only have a gig in September 25 in Spain IF things are getting better. A European tour with a world music ensemble I play with is probably not gonna happen, neither sole gigs in Greece, Israel, Turkey etc. Before the virus happened we had around 10 or more well payed gigs in the books, now it's only one with a big question mark around it...

My steady band at home is going to rehearse Sunday after three months, but there is absolutely nothing for the forseing future (original music) and I doubt people will have the courage to come up with new ideas to work on. It's a question of perception

I sit down on the piano to work on my classical chops but I quickly loose hope...

How r u guys are coping with this?

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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I think everyone here is in pretty much the same boat.

 

And I feel the same lack of motivation--I have much more time to practice,or write, at home--but don't seem to feel like sitting down and doing it.

 

It doesn't help that other things in life (jobs in some cases, kids having to cancel stuff) all kind of pile on.

 

I really feel for the pro guys I know that earn a living doing music (or working at clubs or restaurants, or indoor painting, etc etc).

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Even on a local basis - in and around the greater NYC area it"s a shit show for public performance. The larger the venue, the bigger the crowd, the more far off the reopening. There isn"t even a Tuesday night restaurant gig to be had.

 

I see a lot of Facebook live performances popping up accepting tip jar via paypal or venmo. That has to be pennies when major acts are doing collaborations for free all the time. Lesser known acts have YouTube channels with a few years of content to watch for free. Disney+ is free, Apple TV is free. At least for the time being. (Anyone know if iConcerts or Qello has a promotion?)

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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No bookings up here and I will be surprised if there are any soon. I won't accept any gigs that I deem unsafe. Summer does mean outdoor shows up here usually and we have calls in with some of our regular customers.

 

I'll be surprised if some of our clubs remain in business.

 

We played one live stream recently, hosted by a sound company. They got many things right but enough things wrong that I hesitate to repeat it.

Time to consider different approaches.

 

There has never been a people or a time in history where humans did not have music. There will be music. The rest of the equation is up in the air.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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It's a question of timing and age as well. I'm 51, and I see the boat leaving the port. I doubt that there will be need of 50something y.o. live musicians in the upcoming world. Web certainly have to find other ways of expression

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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In the UK I have been receiving emails from various venues stating that they are taking bookings for shows and concerts from September.

 

Maybe there will be some hope of some sort of new normal developing over the next few weeks.

Col

 

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I"ve been quite unmotivated to practice too. Sometimes I manage 2-3 days of decent practice, only to lose interest. I have, however, been enthusiastic about recording and recorded a few tracks towards my next production music album.

 

Tonight, I have my first gig in 10 weeks. It"s in a mid-sized club but will be to 10 people paying $140 each for dinner, drinks and show. Very weird. Chops seem to be working, but I imagine it will be a little tiring, not being 'match fit".

 

Chins up everyone, reach out to friends and family if your mental health is not good.

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I think eventually people will get tired of youtube and Instagram flashy fakers and turn back to live music. So musicians that have flashy or at least impressive skills will have live gigs to do. It will take awhile though.

 

That's the cycle of music. We're very much in an electronic place again at the moment. The sounds of synthesis and computers rule the cellular airwaves. I tend to agree, at some point the next generation of kids will reject it and a very unproduced sound will come into fashion. Hard to say how far out that is though. There's an awful lot of producers raised on EDM at the moment that haven't hit adulthood.

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Don't lose hope! This will pass....things always do. One vaccine and its game over for the virus. Even without one, once enough people have had it, it will become fairly safe again and things will resume. I have accepted this weird time as a strange injection of space, crowbarred into my busy life. I am using it to do the things on my 'to do" list which have literally been accumulating for decades. I started by making a list of them but no longer need one now. I do things instantly if they need doing, and keep chipping away at some historic projects which, after years of procrastination, I am now tackling. It feels good to have plenty of time and not to be feeling a bit jet lagged all the time from keeping strange hours.

 

Music wise, I am working on my reading skills which could do with a lot of improvement. I just play through a few different pieces every day in a book which I have never bothered to play through before. It is making a big difference. I am also playing lots of things for my own enjoyment with and no other agenda than self indulgence. :) . Things I never normally play because I always have to be working on other things. I am not doing any technical exercises at all - I don"t want to ATM. I am sticking to doing things I love.

 

I am not putting pressure on myself. If I didn't feel motivated to do things then I wouldn't.....I was a bit like that at the start of the lockdown, but then got energised...... Don't feel guilty if you don't feel like doing very much. Maybe a guilt free rest is what you most need ATM. I have always believed that music and the arts should be optional and not allowed to become a burden. Sometimes a break from playing injects a fresh new spark when you finally wish to resume playing.. Sometime we forget the value of slowing down and stopping to seeing how the world is rather than frantically rushing through it.

 

Don't lose hope. You can come out of this stronger and playing better than ever. The audiences will be there again when the time is right. In the meantime, make the most of this strange time by doing as much, or little, as you feel inclined to. :)

"Turn your fingers into a dust rag and keep them keys clean!" ;) Bluzeyone
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PS... I other thing which I find very useful: always spend the first hour or so of your day doing the jobs that you enjoy the least. (For me that means paperwork...) That then means that the rest of the day will therefore be something to look forward to and savour; free of the dread of doing - or guilt of having not done - those jobs...
"Turn your fingers into a dust rag and keep them keys clean!" ;) Bluzeyone
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its like this with many folks who are deeply impacted and psychologically demotivated.

 

There are strategies to break thru- its similar to Navy Seals stuck in submarines for months.

How they cope and what their strategies are.

 

You have to set up small goals where you actively start and finish small goals.

 

Your brain responds positively to this completion. Thats how dopamine is created in the brain.

 

I am a productive song writer and write music every day. Its a dopamine creator and the activity is a pleasant drug.

 

Push yourself. If stuck, find someone to push you. Every day

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

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All my gigs are cancelled through November, as are any other events of any kind (like the national championships for my dogs and competitions). While I'm a worship leader at my church, folks in our area don't have strong enough internet to livestream any music and it's a struggle just to pull up Facebook Live for the sermon for a lot of people. Even if we pre-recorded music there's a 90% chance no one could watch it anyways. AND to make things even more fantastic, the crappy company that's the only place in town for internet (other than expensive satellite, which we ourselves do pay a premium for) has gone bankrupt. They're also the ONLY landline telephone place in the entire region. So once they go, there's no internet at all for 80% of our area, and no phones for a 100 mile radius other than cells, which get spotty service anyways.

 

Ugh.

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All my gigs are cancelled through November, as are any other events of any kind (like the national championships for my dogs and competitions). While I'm a worship leader at my church, folks in our area don't have strong enough internet to livestream any music and it's a struggle just to pull up Facebook Live for the sermon for a lot of people. Even if we pre-recorded music there's a 90% chance no one could watch it anyways. AND to make things even more fantastic, the crappy company that's the only place in town for internet (other than expensive satellite, which we ourselves do pay a premium for) has gone bankrupt. They're also the ONLY landline telephone place in the entire region. So once they go, there's no internet at all for 80% of our area, and no phones for a 100 mile radius other than cells, which get spotty service anyways.

 

Ugh.

 

Not to derail the thread, but where in MN are you? We do a family fishing trip every year up there in Pine River. We are planning to be there around June 6th.

 

Back to the thread, we have a handful of gigs tentatively scheduled here in Dallas TX throughout the year. I suspect most will be cancelled. Although I do have one May 30th at an outdoor venue which is still a go. First since March 14. So looking forward to getting out and playing.

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The situation here: All the work I had scheduled for the summer has been canceled. It wasn't much, but it would have helped to pay the bills until the (scarce) work with schools resumes. As it stands, I have nothing from June until the beginning of October.
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Same here Marino. Thank god i have my radio day job

Thanx for the nice words and kind ideas. There's a way to get out of this, it's all new to us

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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PS... I other thing which I find very useful: always spend the first hour or so of your day doing the jobs that you enjoy the least. (For me that means paperwork...) That then means that the rest of the day will therefore be something to look forward to and savour; free of the dread of doing - or guilt of having not done - those jobs...

 

I apply this also to eating veggies with a meal--wolf them down first and then enjoy the food you actually like to erase the memory :)

 

I'm a born procrastinator and it's only now in my middle years that I have seen how much that actually can ruin your day. You put it off but you still end up worrying about it the whole time! Must be genetic because my kids are doing the same thing and refuse to learn from their dad's learned wisdom :D as surely I refused to learn from mine!

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Same thing down here. As I suspected the restaurant/bars that have had music are trying to get back on their feet and either are putting off music or offering to us at half the pay. I am taking the cut in pay to help a few out but I'm afraid it will set a precedent. It is quite the conundrum!!!

Jimmy

 

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there was a pay cut for musicians around the country before the virus. thank god I retired from playing out and only play out when I really have to satisfy certain clients. I think live music, the very few venues across the country that still existed before the virus offering a pay scale to what I made in the 80's will get even worse. I think the pay scale will be laughable. I got lucky and made a great, great living just playing full time. I really miss those days.
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I"m playing Friday night. One of my favorite open air venues. Hands are soft. No way am I ready for 4 hours. Ibuprofen will be my friend.

 

We get this text...

' Please everyone keep this mind: we will have a large responsibility to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 guidelines, regardless of how we may feel about their necessity. Every musician and bar is counting on us. If we don't set a good example, those who make the rules are very likely to decide that we (collectively) are unable to follow the guidelines and shut everything down again.'

 

Not sure what the heck I"m supposed to do about guidelines. I"m just the piano player. ð. I"ll be rear stage right playing piano and popping Ibuprofen and 5 Hour Energy.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I have the same worries, the same lack of motivation, the same blurry hope on some yet undisclosed future. Beeing a professional pianist, producer, arranger and keyboardist for the best time of 20 years, and things never looked so bleak here in Portugal - even though they're allways a bit grim, the music scene is a hit-and-miss business here, and the market is incredibly small and owned by just a few...

I'll guess there's no other way than up :) so, that's an incentive to keep preparing, keep sketching down ideias for future productions, keeping busy in the networking department!

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I"m playing Friday night. One of my favorite open air venues. Hands are soft. No way am I ready for 4 hours. Ibuprofen will be my friend.

 

We get this text...

' Please everyone keep this mind: we will have a large responsibility to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 guidelines, regardless of how we may feel about their necessity. Every musician and bar is counting on us. If we don't set a good example, those who make the rules are very likely to decide that we (collectively) are unable to follow the guidelines and shut everything down again.'

 

Not sure what the heck I"m supposed to do about guidelines. I"m just the piano player. ð. I"ll be rear stage right playing piano and popping Ibuprofen and 5 Hour Energy.

 

 

I bring one normally for stuffy/hot gigs (which is most), but personally I'd bring a fan and have it blowing from behind me--assuming there's no people behind you :) Good for you, maybe not so much for people in front of you that are worried that you might be sick!

 

I might be willing to play in the right situation but I'm likely going to have one of my "good" masks on, which means no singing...not sure how that is going to go over. I was told at our May 15 gig (which I didn't play at) that not a single person in the joint was wearing a mask.

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I"ve come to the conclusion that regular live work is a year away or more. I"m trying to shift my music making to session work and recording others, and I actually enjoy it more than I thought. I"m used to doing 1-3 gigs per Eek with different bands, learning new songs and programming sounds all the time. Now, I can do a session, make the same money and be done at 5 pm.
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In addition to playing music and running a studio, I co-own a company that provides sound, stage and lights for concerts, fairs and festivals. That's my main gig through the summer, we are normally fully booked from June-October. This summer was going to be our biggest yet, we were looking at weekends with 3 separate systems running. We even bought a new (used) truck for this year, an NPR with a 16' box and a lift. With the Quarantine, all our gigs cancelled through September, and I doubt those will happen either. Plus all my playing gigs have disappeared. I've had a few mixing jobs come through the studio, which, thankfully, covered my rent and overhead, so for the time being, I can keep the studio, but I basically have no personal income. All my work has been as either self-employed or a contractor, so I don't qualify for conventional unemployment, but I have applied for the PUA/CARES Act unemployment, hoping that something will come through.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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Well, it seems that you're in a way harder situation than I am financially speaking. I hope it will go better in the forseing future

As far as the pure music goes (beyond money and pay checks) , we're all on the same boat...

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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