Please feel free to remove this if it's somehow against the rules.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not a beginner. To some people, I'm at a moderately high level in terms of my technical ability and repertoire knowledge.
I'm becoming more and more frustrated by how hard it's becoming for me to get even a $50 jazz gig, it's a little ridiculous. I live in a city with a very good music scene with a LOT of good musicians. It is not a large city; it only has around 600,000 people. Because of this, I understand that the competition is a bit more intense, with only a small (compared to many larger cities) selection of venues.
There are three places that come to mind that I can call "safe"—meaning that they're reliable in giving me work. Thus, I've performed at these three places a whole bunch, and I enjoy doing so. But then there are all these other venues. I've been looking at where other people are playing, and I've taken to contacting some of those places to see if they'll oblige. Unfortunately, 95% of them have not. I understand that this is somewhat typical. I've made a list of venues I've contacted (and that I have yet to contact), which totals around 40 venues. There are 25 that I've contacted, and around 15 that I still need to write to/call. I started to make this list in the summer, keep in mind.
The outcome: Of those 25 that I've contacted, ONE has given me a gig that I've actually done, and that's just one gig. This is in addition to the three "safeties" that I already mentioned. I've asked some of my musician friends (the ones who are REALLY good and VERY established) what the "method" is. All they've said is to keep following up once a week until you get a clear yes or no. If the answer is "no," try again a few months later. Thing is, I've done this, and it's not working. These people have told me that the way they get so many gigs (i.e., a gig or sometimes multiple every night practically) is by being as good as they are and that "people just gave them all the gigs" as soon as they moved to town. Now this is understandable; these musicians I'm speaking of are TOP-NOTCH, best-in-class, and in some cases, internationally renowned—who just happen to live where I do, in this mid-sized city.
So, from what I understand, there's no "magic formula" to doing it—but if that's the case, how come it's simply not working? What's giving "everyone else" (subjectively) all the jobs? It can't be musicianship or talent... again, I'm at what some people would call, a moderately high level of playing.
The other thing I've considered is the fact that the only places I've reached out to have been small restaurants that aren't high-paying. Also, I've never played any pop, rock, R&B, etc. gigs, and that's something I'd LOVE to dive into. But again, how do I actually do that?
Any ideas?
Let me preface this by saying that I am not a beginner. To some people, I'm at a moderately high level in terms of my technical ability and repertoire knowledge.
I'm becoming more and more frustrated by how hard it's becoming for me to get even a $50 jazz gig, it's a little ridiculous. I live in a city with a very good music scene with a LOT of good musicians. It is not a large city; it only has around 600,000 people. Because of this, I understand that the competition is a bit more intense, with only a small (compared to many larger cities) selection of venues.
There are three places that come to mind that I can call "safe"—meaning that they're reliable in giving me work. Thus, I've performed at these three places a whole bunch, and I enjoy doing so. But then there are all these other venues. I've been looking at where other people are playing, and I've taken to contacting some of those places to see if they'll oblige. Unfortunately, 95% of them have not. I understand that this is somewhat typical. I've made a list of venues I've contacted (and that I have yet to contact), which totals around 40 venues. There are 25 that I've contacted, and around 15 that I still need to write to/call. I started to make this list in the summer, keep in mind.
The outcome: Of those 25 that I've contacted, ONE has given me a gig that I've actually done, and that's just one gig. This is in addition to the three "safeties" that I already mentioned. I've asked some of my musician friends (the ones who are REALLY good and VERY established) what the "method" is. All they've said is to keep following up once a week until you get a clear yes or no. If the answer is "no," try again a few months later. Thing is, I've done this, and it's not working. These people have told me that the way they get so many gigs (i.e., a gig or sometimes multiple every night practically) is by being as good as they are and that "people just gave them all the gigs" as soon as they moved to town. Now this is understandable; these musicians I'm speaking of are TOP-NOTCH, best-in-class, and in some cases, internationally renowned—who just happen to live where I do, in this mid-sized city.
So, from what I understand, there's no "magic formula" to doing it—but if that's the case, how come it's simply not working? What's giving "everyone else" (subjectively) all the jobs? It can't be musicianship or talent... again, I'm at what some people would call, a moderately high level of playing.
The other thing I've considered is the fact that the only places I've reached out to have been small restaurants that aren't high-paying. Also, I've never played any pop, rock, R&B, etc. gigs, and that's something I'd LOVE to dive into. But again, how do I actually do that?
Any ideas?
