General Music Chat

The boyz and I have been offered a full time position as a praise group for a local Church. We would be paid to play every Wednesday & Sunday.
( the offer came with a disclaimer that the pay would be minimal )
A very flattering and tempting offer. We will discuss the implications at our next meeting.
I for one, within the confines of the present information will vote against this move. Though I am both interested and flattered by the offer, I feel it will present as a stumbling block to our own mission. It could also prove to be an over commitment that may be detrimental to our group cohesion.

I have made a motion that we approach the organization with a counter offer to do a special service for them, perhaps quartery.

I would be interested in entertaining any opinions on this from my fellow musos.

Regular gigs are a lot of work.

You can't expect to play the same stuff all the time, twice a week, man. This means that you'll be spending a LOT of time constantly updating your material. That means time spent away from family & friends. It's another job.

The question you need to ask - is the "minimal" pay worth the effort?

Yes Phil.
My thoughts exactly.
Not just updating " our " material, but playing what "they" want.

My answer is ... thank you, with all due respect, no sir.

Counter offer would be in order. Playing there once a month would be ideal. This way you have a regular place to play once a month. Then fill in the rest of your schedule as needed....

Thanks for your input Bob.
I feel we might get stale to the listeners on a monthly basis.
But then again, we have a lot of material that never sees the light of day.
Both originals and popular "praise and worship" cover songs.
And in 30 minute blocks ... yeah ... we could cover a lot of ground.
Perhaps even some requested music.
Food for though to be sure.

I always say, go with your gut feeling and work out the details/implications of your decision afterwords. It's easier to remedy a bad-choice than a guilty conscience.

That's awesome you got an offer! I hope it works out to your satisfaction!
Chris

Thank you sir.

I know that in the end all will work out as HE intends.

I'm just playing the game.

Remember you want to stay in love with your craft. Think before you leap which is just what you are doing. It will work out as He intends all you have to do is listen to what He says.

My ideal gig is a once-a month gig. I'm always asking these venue owners to book us on the same day every month, once a month, for example the last Saturday of the month. This way the regular patrons won't get sick of hearing the same band every Saturday. And we won't get sick of playing to the same patrons every Saturday. I would like to get two such gigs per month and then fill in the rest of the schedule with occasional parties, benefit shows, county fairs, etc. With the music business the way it is these days it's just about impossible to find this situation. Frustrating...

Consider that even on a once a month basis you are exposing your band to the public. These people don't confine themselves only to church. They have lives outside of church, so there may be opportunities that come from the within congregation. or word of mouth from them to others outside of church. Besides, how much new material do you really need to do on a once a month gig?

My ideal schedule would be to be promoting my own and other bands to do shows around East Texas. During the outdoor season especially every or every other weekend be in a different local City Park with a rotation schedule for the larger parks.

I really have no idea how much new material I would need to do a show once a month with the same basic crowd.

It's not like they are coming there just to see us.
Playing a church is a lot like playing for a captive audience of one person. Each congregation has a kind of overall personality ... especially when it comes to music genre'.

And you would have to inform the pastor that he should be able to pay the going rate. I always tell the church guys that want to get by on the cheap that if their god can't afford me they are worshiping the wrong God.

In my experience, it really helps to have at least one & a half shows' worth of material, when you're playing the same area monthly. If you're playing it more often than that, you'll need more. Otherwise, you get stale after a few months.

That's more what I'm looking for there.
Ray does a good job of mixing the various types of songs we do for each gig. We have certain songs in our set list we will pull out without really changing the dynamics of the set if we need to shorten. And alternates for those times we need to play a little longer.
Each of the two " master sets " stand alone as far as the dynamic range and flow we like to present.
Lot of complements on our "mix" of songs.
We kind of like the intensity to make a sine wave of sorts though out the set. And repeat the variance in the second set.
When we break it into three parts though this process becomes a little more difficult.
Ray did this by first categorizing the original songs light medium and heavy.
With the occasional diversion of a popular cover.

I like Bob's idea ... maybe you could pull of bi-weekly with a rehearsal on the in between weeks for some new material for each gig?