Re: [Harp-L] Re: re: how much do you get paid for a gig?

["Chris Michalek" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Think of it this way.  There is nobody on this list that could sub for Robert Bonfiglio or Howard Levy in a heartbeat if something drastic where to happen to one of them and the "show must go on"

In any other musical world like, bass, guitar, piano, sax etc.... there are literally 10s of 1000s of players that could sub for another person in an instant. In fact, in those worlds, death or illness etc is often the doorway to opportunity.

I'll use myself as an example, I have played/play with musicians who make $2000-$5000/nt.  Although my technical skills on the diatonic surpass just about everybody, I am not a good enough musician to "hang" in my own band.  There have been times where material was written during set up and it is expected to be played by the group.  Everybody else can play it but not me. There might be a dozen people on this list that could hang with the band. Even so, at this moment in time I simply do not have the skills to operate at the level of say David Sanborn, Joe Lavano etc... in the sax world there are 10000 guys who can play at that level and are waiting for something to happen to them so they can be next.

The harmonica as a viable instrument is still in it's infancy. I love that I am and able to see it evolve so steadily before my eye.  People like Jason rosenblatt, Tinus and Otavio Castro are doing the things that "should" be done with our beloved instrument.



>-----Original Message-----
>From: Haka Harri [mailto:harri.haka@xxxxxxxx]
>Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 02:43 PM
>To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [Harp-L] Re: re: how much do you get paid for a gig?
>
>Chris brings back the topic of the percentage of harp players being crap musicians. I agree that 99.9 % of us players don't make big money. But we still do it out of love of the instrument and/or the music genre that we dig. You don't have to be a fancy classical music player to light up an audience. On the contrary, most people love hearing even a medium level player sitting in for a couple of blues numbers. Whatever you get paid is based on supply/demand. Personally, I am content with the responses from the audience and a couple of free beers. Of course I am not a professional musician and make my living elsewhere. But I would still not register to the 99.4 % of crap musicians on Chris' list.
>
>Lovin' the harp
>
>Harri
>
>
>> Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 12:37:49 +0000
>> From: "Chris Michalek" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: Re:  [Harp-L] Re: re: how much do you get paid for a gig?
>> To: "Joe and Cass Leone" <leone@xxxxxxxx>, harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>> Message-ID: <W4910119075203921154349469@webmail17>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>> 
>> I know the level of money Robert is making may seem obscene 
>> to many but I assure you it is not. While I have never made 
>> money close to that I know plenty of people who have.  That 
>> level of money is the "real world" of the working musician.
>> 
>> Robert is the best at what he does and he's earned the right 
>> to make that and more. This is also the reason why I call 
>> 99.4% of all harmonica players crap musicians. I know the 
>> kind of money that is out there for other musicians but 99.9% 
>> of us will never acheive that.  Most harmonica players are 
>> simply poor musicians.  Now that you been given a glimpse of 
>> what is out there, what are you gonna do about it?> 
>
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