ten hour gig

[Lt. Bob]

Sit back my friends and hear the tale
A tale of a mighty gig
Lt. Bob was just a passenger
On a 10 hour gig ..... a 10 hour gig!

Yep .... it's old man Steve's stupid busy season ...... actually started the night Jenn died.
(family tradition I guess .... played the night my mom died .... played the night my dad died )

So starting last week it's Wed thru Sunday with a double on Sunday.
I have been doing 10am-2pm on Sunday and they wanted to add a 4-8 slot ... did I want to do it?
I said sure ... my gears already there .... but if there's people there in between I'm playing those hours too.
I get 50 bucks an hour so that's another 100 bucks.
They said fine.

I don't really take breaks .... took a 25 minute one around 5 and that was it.
10am-8pm .......... wasn't too hard really ....... I was ready for it to be done by that last hour though.

mo' money mo' money mo' money

I like money ..... plus I'm broke from going to New Orleans so much and we're having the faux chimney replaced ..... need that dough.

I do need to find something better to sit on .... that Walmart stool hurts my back bad.
I bought a Gator guitar stool but it's too high ..... first thing I'll try is cutting a couple inches off the legs but that'll also make the spacing smaller so it may not be stable .... we'll see.

This will go till Sept. so I've got 6 months of this ahead of me and I'll spend some bucks to get the right seat ..... gotta be portable though.
I do have a buncha band gigs next week for Bikeweek where I won't be sitting so I have a little time to find something.

[vomitHatSteve]

Dang! Mad respect that you do this season in and out.

You end up with a 10-hour gig once or twice a year most years, don't you? (I seem to recall another similar thread)

[JD01]

Awesome, well done, Steve. And hope you're holding up OK generally.

This is my annual request that you film and record one of your shows.

[Lt. Bob]

Dang! Mad respect that you do this season in and out.

You end up with a 10-hour gig once or twice a year most years, don't you? (I seem to recall another similar thread)

yeah but this one is every Sunday till Sept ..... so .... ummm ... yay?

[Lt. Bob]

Awesome, well done, Steve. And hope you're holding up OK generally.

This is my annual request that you film and record one of your shows.

I record a lot of them ...... I just need to get some to ya'
As for filming .... it's just an old guy sitting on a stool playing.

[Armistice]

OMG... Hardest working man in showbiz!

Video is always a pain with gigs, especially on small stages. Set a camera up pretty much anywhere on the floor and you can guarantee that someone will walk in front of it, stop in front of it, pull faces in front of it, etc. At least you can get good audio via what you're doing now, but without someone holding an actual camera and moving around taking different angles, and keeping people's heads out of shot, it's just impossible.

I doubt you'd be bothered for solo gigs - too much work!

[musicturtle]

Well done, hardworking man you are.

Reminds me of the Sundays I used to work at my restaurant gig...

Would show up at 10:00 AM as the the opening manager, oversee brunch service, have some dinner then work as a server til close at around 10:00 PM.

The things we do for $$$.

Hope you are hanging in there okay.

[muttley]

Nice one Lt. Us old giggers gotta keep it real.

I was thinking on some of the extended gigs I've done over the years and mostly they would be all dayers with my best buddy who is a stella base player that I've gigged with since I was a kid. We used to get a lot of sit in's at those as we just busked through the fake book and rock and pop standards mostly. Sit in's help because it would take the strain off of me singing and soloing all day.

As a matter of interest how many tunes do you rattle off on these gigs? How many repeats? Do you have any backing other than loops etc? How many repeats? I understand it's about reading the room but I remember that being maybe the hardest part of extended gigs.

Glad you are still moving that air. True trooper.

[Tadpui]

Cheers @Lt. Bob, hope the gigs are going well! Mad respect to you man. My back hurts just thinking about wearing a guitar for 10 hours!

[CrowsofFritz]

Feel that. I’ve been training for this promotion but without the promotion salary to go with it. I’m averaging at least 6-10 hours of overtime each week. Normally my boss wouldn’t like that, but I think I’m still making less than I would with the salary.

I am getting a little burned out because im spending so much time outside of work on my songs. Can’t help it once im in a creative binge, though.

[Greg_L]

$$$$$$$

Get that money dude. This is what you do and who you are.

[Lt. Bob]

Nice one Lt. Us old giggers gotta keep it real.

I was thinking on some of the extended gigs I've done over the years and mostly they would be all dayers with my best buddy who is a stella base player that I've gigged with since I was a kid. We used to get a lot of sit in's at those as we just busked through the fake book and rock and pop standards mostly. Sit in's help because it would take the strain off of me singing and soloing all day.

As a matter of interest how many tunes do you rattle off on these gigs? How many repeats? Do you have any backing other than loops etc? How many repeats? I understand it's about reading the room but I remember that being maybe the hardest part of extended gigs.

Glad you are still moving that air. True trooper.

thank ye sirrah!

Let's see .... I don't use a looper at all. To me after 4 or 5 songs everything starts to sound the same when I hear guys using a looper.
All my backing tracks are done on a keyboard ... MIDI tracks. I don't use a puter or karaoke tracks.

And most of my tracks are fairly minimal ... bass and drums and some keyboard parts where necessary but I like lots of room to play so that 1. tracks are not the focal point and 2. lots of freedom to play something differently as I wish.

Ummm ..... I don't take a break for the most part so it's maybe 12-15 songs per hour.
I have almost 700 tracks so technically I wouldn't have to repeat anything at all but it's a tourist spot so over that period of time there are some say, Jimmy Buffett things I'll repeat because I know there's someone out there that wants to hear them.
In a normal 4 hour gig never repeat stuff but on this 10 hour thing I believe I may have repeated maybe a dozen songs .... perhaps a few more.

[CrowsofFritz]

Dang you know 700 songs by heart? Chords and all? I don’t think I could ever do that even if it were my job.

[vomitHatSteve]

technically I wouldn't have to repeat anything at all but it's a tourist spot so over that period of time there are some say, Jimmy Buffett things I'll repeat because I know there's someone out there that wants to hear them.

The best-paid gig my 90s band has done so far was at a marina the day TN state won a game. Some dude tipped us $100 to learn and play Rocky Top to celebrate.
Then he did it 3 more times.

Not repeating yourself is great and all, but getting paid is better!

[Lt. Bob]

technically I wouldn't have to repeat anything at all but it's a tourist spot so over that period of time there are some say, Jimmy Buffett things I'll repeat because I know there's someone out there that wants to hear them.

The best-paid gig my 90s band has done so far was at a marina the day TN state won a game. Some dude tipped us $100 to learn and play Rocky Top to celebrate.
Then he did it 3 more times.

Not repeating yourself is great and all, but getting paid is better!

getting paid is prime plus the reason a band is even there is to make the audience happy.
You made him 400 bucks worth of happy so that's a win-win!

[Lt. Bob]

Dang you know 700 songs by heart? Chords and all? I don’t think I could ever do that even if it were my job.

oh .... way, WAY more than that ..... 700 is just the songs I've done sequences for to do in my solo.

I have no idea how many songs I know ...... thousands ........ to a large degree if I listen seriously to a song a few times I can play it.
And I tend to never forget them ..... I remember songs I learned when I was 12.

At jamfest some years ago EZ said , "So what, .... you know every song?"

There's plenty of stuff I don't know of course but I do know a lot.

But I don't use chord names when learning a song ..... I don't really think that way at all.
I simply use scale numbers .... I, IV ... V ... VI ..... that does away with keys being important and is easier than remembering chord names.
I think a lot of people memorize the sequence of chords in a song so if a song is G, C, Em D and I want to play it a 3rd down they have to figure out that it's now E, A, C#m, B.
But in either key and in every other key it's the same I, IV, VI V.
That way I know every song I know in every key.
So I can learn songs without actually playing them or even knowing the key ...... the number system is basically from classical training and scale study.

That's also how I do hired gun work and can play with bands I've never met doing songs I've never heard.
There's certain patterns that pretty much every song is made up of pieces of. There's a lot of them but it is a finite number and I recognize a lot of them pretty quickly.
So I'll notice that "Ok the first part is this pattern then it goes to that fancy blues pattern and then that straight ahead rock groove" and so on.
I'll pick a key in my head and then 'play' guitar in my mind .... then just change once I actually find out the key they want.
And I know things like II and VI tend to be minor depending on context.

it's a way more efficient method for a session/hired gun type working musician.

[muttley]

Dang you know 700 songs by heart? Chords and all? I don’t think I could ever do that even if it were my job.

oh .... way, WAY more than that ..... 700 is just the songs I've done sequences for to do in my solo.

I have no idea how many songs I know ...... thousands ........ to a large degree if I listen seriously to a song a few times I can play it.
And I tend to never forget them ..... I remember songs I learned when I was 12.

At jamfest some years ago EZ said , "So what, .... you know every song?"

There's plenty of stuff I don't know of course but I do know a lot.

But I don't use chord names when learning a song ..... I don't really think that way at all.
I simply use scale numbers .... I, IV ... V ... VI ..... that does away with keys being important and is easier than remembering chord names.
I think a lot of people memorize the sequence of chords in a song so if a song is G, C, Em D and I want to play it a 3rd down they have to figure out that it's now E, A, C#m, B.
But in either key and in every other key it's the same I, IV, VI V.
That way I know every song I know in every key.
So I can learn songs without actually playing them or even knowing the key ...... the number system is basically from classical training and scale study.

That's also how I do hired gun work and can play with bands I've never met doing songs I've never heard.
There's certain patterns that pretty much every song is made up of pieces of. There's a lot of them but it is a finite number and I recognize a lot of them pretty quickly.
So I'll notice that "Ok the first part is this pattern then it goes to that fancy blues pattern and then that straight ahead rock groove" and so on.
I'll pick a key in my head and then 'play' guitar in my mind .... then just change once I actually find out the key they want.
And I know things like II and VI tend to be minor depending on context.

it's a way more efficient method for a session/hired gun type working musician.

Spot on Lt. and if you guys want to do what he does, that's how you do it.

That's is exactly how I do it. Let's be honest, if you know five hundred tunes you probably only know 20 sets of changes. The way to think about it is where is the melody leading and normally one of those sets of changes will lead you there. Sure there are odd balls in there but even busking them after the first chorus you can jump on the weird changes. I grew up doing loads of jazz gigs and got the most common sets of changes under my fingers early on, once you have them its simply a matter of using your ears to hear where the melody is leading you and as Lt says, it's more about the intervals, that way you soon learn the same changes transposed to any key and can apply them. Playing a lot with horn players helps because they mostly work out of Bb, F and Eb which requires you to think of you chord work up the neck away from open shapes.

I have no idea how many tunes I know but it would be much the same as Lt I guess and like him I'd be comfortable sitting in with new ones as that's how we learned. Once you have the key, the rest is just about where you are happy finding the shapes under your fingers and relating it to other progressions you already know. Soloing is the same. Learning lyrics is a chore for me, thats what holds me back these days. My head is a clusterfuck of lyrics from 50 years of playing tunes...

Listen to Lt though, thats how it's done...