General Music Chat

As usual you get it John. If you don't make a living from it you ain't a pro. As an example, many college baseball players are just as good as professional players. But until they are signed to a team they are not pros. All of the qualities people sited for being "professional" can just as easily be attained by amateurs.

In most things pro simply means you take money for your services.

In that case, I'M A PRO!

Im an artistic musician who spends a lot more money than I make playing the 3 or 4 gigs we do every month. So I guess Im a pro .


And its another day in Paradise !!!!

Heck no I'm a Christian !!

A great pro is one who earns money from their skill and also knows how to act professional....if that makes any sense

Other than performance, many professional musicians also get hired for music transcribing and composing.

I think if you want to be a more versatile professional musician, where you can offer more services to broaden your income, you need to be a good notation reader and a firm grasp on Music Theory.

Through my experience, I get a majority of jobs in the studio where I have to read charts and sightread.

Wow, very interesting.

I throw up a poll, JW, just to see what's going on..to try and glean what others are thinking.

Love the responses from this thread. Great material here, I am sure someone is copying this down for their next book. lol

I have to laugh, a lot of answers that make a lot of sense. Even varying answers that seem correct yet not the same.

And for the record, I am content to be a starving artist..as long as that means I can choose what I play and turn down what I don't think is good.

I hate to say it, but in this day and age, if you get paid a huge amount of $ to play, even if you suck, you are a pro. (If you sucked that night, they chalk it up to little more than that, a bad night)

Any other spacial oddities are usually labeled "artiste's temperment". LMAO (you have to be high on scale to get away with that one)

I hate to say it, but in this day and age, if you get paid a huge amount of $ to play, even if you suck, you are a pro. (If you sucked that night, they chalk it up to little more than that, a bad night)

It depends which circuit you are focusing on.

If you work as a studio or session musician, you have to nail the material that is given to you the first time. No one will hire you if you have to go over 100 takes and 3 hours to get one thing right. (Current standard rates in Chicago are $300 for a one hour block using a studio musician.)

Think of it as building a portfolio and gathering props where you get another good paying gig through clients.

You must be talking about the shitty corporate rock being poured out in the mainstream where it's all about emo hair and boys wearing girls pants from Hot Topic... all image.

The funny thing, they hire real pros to make the crappy music sound decent.

So then I whipped out OPIUM...

See, that's when it always, always gets worse...

LMAO - The song, not the drug, you twit..

If they smoked opium, it would have been a slumber party instead of a jam.

That's why I love to read what you write.. LOLOLOLOL

jsantos - No offense, but I have absolutely ZERO interest in being a studio musician and I am sure it's what you say it is..I just have no interest in that.

Play live or not at all. You want to record, great. Use it to promote your LIVE show.

See, I look at it quite differently, Cap. I see a recording as being something that will outlast me, my legacy, if you will. It's even more important than the fleeting moment of the live performance.

Being a Pro in my opinion is …

Musical proficiency / Know your instrument and music, chart reading and writing, inside out
The ability to play different styles (Jimmy Smith, Floyd Crammer, Chester Thompson)
The ability to play different genre’s (Country, Blues, Rock, etc and play them seamlessly)
The ability to learn and chart 30 songs in 1 or 2 days
(then play them with the band the next night like you’ve played them for 20 years.)
Knowing how to play in a band, dynamics, volume control, stage presents, when to leave a hole, when to fill a hole and how to fill the hole tastefully.
Listening to what is happening in the song between instruments (interaction, groove and dynamics) and adding to that groove or knowing something special is going on between 2 players and staying out of it.

If you’ve ever played with Real Pro’s you will know what I’m saying and if you can do all the above then the Pro’s will be knocking on your door to play for money … but the pro money comes after you can do the above.

yah Capt. As I lay Cr(D)ying is pretty lame, they are like entry level hardcore and singer sucks, the guitars aren't special, and they aren't smart people......was a story going round they crashed out in a hotel room and left the tour money IN the van...which got broke into and they had to 'persevere' because they are stupid...I can hammer out some of their songs with just my right hand when kids say "professional" they mean has big ass amp and I didn't cast a vote cuz I'm hardly even a musician

Well, I guess I'm not a "pro," i.e. "working girl." I think I'm more of a slut...

LOL