Turning Minuses Into Plusses
Many temporary agencies hire people off the street for “day labor”—check your phone directory for ones in your area—many don’t require any real job skills, and don’t care about your appearance. Poor wardrobe—I’ve found many great bargains on suits at local thrift shops—many is the time I’ve been complimented on my clothing choices, and people didn’t like it when I told them where I got the items, so best to keep that a secret so your “betters” won’t judge you.
Do some studio gigs for some other people, if you are good at a particular instrument. Put the word out at local studios that you are available—many musicians need some backup, and you could very well get some decent pay and some great contacts for your own upcoming work if you try this approach.
MUSICIANS CAN BE UNRELIABLE
Through no real fault of your own, bands often break up, your best co-writer can find another gig, or your favorite string arranger decides to leave the business. All you can do is pick yourself up and try again. Put that ad out in the local music newspaper, if there is one, put notices up on bulletin boards in music stores and studios, and try to get the word out on the street that you are looking for a new situation. In the meanwhile, don’t be unfruitful—work on some new material, freshen up your press kit and/or scrapbook, do some solo acoustic gigs if you can, and do some music work for your local place of worship—all these can keep you out in the spotlight, and not allow yourself to get rusty.
After my first band broke up, I found that my guitar playing had improved to the point that I could step up to the plate and accompany myself on the tunes I’d worked so hard to write—the lead guitarist would never have allowed me to do that, live. It took a potential co-writer that didn’t work out to point that out to me, though—I was too busy trying to re-form the band with the original musical parts with me just as a singer, but was showing new people how to play the tunes on my guitar—it was just a matter of practicing a little more so I could do both at the same time, and this made for a much richer arrangement, later, as I decided to add a co-lead guitarist to thicken
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