When did you start working professionally?

[Jim Alfredson]

I've been playing keys since I can remember. My first paying gig was for a local cover band that played country (predominately) when I was 16 years old. Everybody else in the band were in their mid-30s, married with kids, etc. We used to play beer tents and there were always problems with me playing those because of my age. My dad was a professional musician for a long time, before learning piano tuning, and he used to help me haul around a Hammond M3 and Leslie to gigs.

That was a good experience for me because it helped me understand playing to a crowd, tune selection, practicing with a band, etc. Oh yeah, and it also gave me insight into how stupid people are when they are drunk.

So, when did you start playing professionally (ie, earning a buck or two)?

[7/4]

I didn't make a buck at until I was 39.

[Free For All]

I think my first paying gig was when I was around 17 or so.

I've been doing this for 30 years! Holy shit!

And the pay is for the most part still the same (or worse) as it was then.

I still love it though. Wouldn't have it any other way.

I feel very fortunate to be doing something I truly love.

[mikeweil]

I think I had my first paying when I was around 25, but I was over 40 when music started to become my only paying job .....

[Robert J]

I joined my first jazz band when I was 17. They were already together that summer getting paid on an arts grant. I was just the hanger-on who was pleased to be lugging a heavy Rhodes and amp so I could play at lunchtime facing the Detroit River. No pay there.

I got us our first paid gig, still facing the Detroit river, about a month later. It was a place called Lee's Imperial House Tavern (Jim, your dad probably knew this place). It had been there forever, was owned by a Chinese family for years, and had various live music. It also housed the first B-3 I ever played (badly). On weekends there was a decent Dixieland band and a great crowd. It was also good place for underage drinkers like myself. I got talking to the owner one night, and he said bring the band in Thursday. We got $10@, 2-3 beers, and a plate of Chinese food. It was heaven! We did a mix of standards and modern stuff.

But as the late 80s picked up and the economic slump in Windsor and Detroit turned around, bars and clubs changed. There were more conferences in Downtown Detroit, busy hotels, and lonely guys. So Windsor's strip club population grew and Lee's Imperial Tavern became Cheeta's. We lasted about 1/2 year, which is not bad considering we were still in high school.

As a soloist, 17 for a ballet class. I think it was $7/hour, about 4 hours a week. No Chinese food.

Edited November 23, 2005 by Robert J

[DukeCity]

My first "paying" gig was when I was 15 or 16. My high-school band director booked our little combo to play an office party at the local Boise-Cascade paper mill. Originally we were just going to get snacks from the party, but I talked them into giving us each a ream of paper! (think I aimed a little low?)

[JSngry]

First paying gig was at 17 (how much truth I learned then is debatable...), second at 18, had some throughout college, but didn't o "full time" (and as a road dog at that) until I was 25. Other than a year to save money prior to having our first child, kept away from a regular, full-time straight job until two years ago, when LTB's job situation took a dramatic change and the need for me to pick up the slack fpr the sake of the family was unavoidable. It's good to meet your familial responsibilities and all that, but I still feel like I'm betraying something very fundamental. I feel dirty. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing time in the Cosmic Slammer for some "career mistakes" I might have made along the way. Just hope it don't end up being a life sentence...

[Free For All]

I talked them into giving us each a ream of paper! (think I aimed a little low?)

Is that where the ever-popular term "getting reamed" came from?

Since we're on the topic........

[DukeCity]

I talked them into giving us each a ream of paper! (think I aimed a little low?)

Is that where the ever-popular term "getting reamed" came from?

Since we're on the topic........

Better than playing the office party for these guys...

[Harold_Z]

In 1964. I was 17. My first steady gig was that same year in Greenwood Lake NY. At that time a hot spot with plenty of work. I was playing in a bar band (rock and R&B). I had a Farfisa combo organ, and played left hand bass. I HATED the sound of the Farfisa (even moreso when I would do a gig in a joint that had a Hammond and then I would have to return to the Farfisa), so I bought a Fender Bass in 1967 and that became my main ax. I played full time until around 1990 - got a day gig, but still play whenever I can.

[AllenLowe]

age 17 - country and western gigs - I played bass -

[Robert J]

For the most part, 17 is the magic number here. You'd almost think the question was about virginity.

[Alexander Hawkins]

First jobs a few years ago at about 16/17. When did I start trying to rely on it? About 2 months ago. Wish me luck!

[Jim Alfredson]

First jobs a few years ago at about 16/17. When did I start trying to rely on it? About 2 months ago. Wish me luck!

Luck!!!

I became a self-employed, professional musician in 2001. All that money I wasted on college, pretending to be "practical" and trying to get a degree... BAH! I could've bought some serious Hammond organs with that bread!!!

[7/4]

First jobs a few years ago at about 16/17. When did I start trying to rely on it? About 2 months ago. Wish me luck!

Luck!!!

I became a self-employed, professional musician in 2001. All that money I wasted on college, pretending to be "practical" and trying to get a degree... BAH! I could've bought some serious Hammond organs with that bread!!!

Dang...

[AllenLowe]

I should mention that my very first, on-stage, gig was at my high school Senior Prom, 1970 (I was a junior, 16 years old) - noteable because the guitarist was Elliot Steinberg, who later became Elliot Easton of the Cars - I played tenor on this, with guitar/piano/bass and drums -

Edited November 25, 2005 by AllenLowe

[Alexander Hawkins]

First jobs a few years ago at about 16/17. When did I start trying to rely on it? About 2 months ago. Wish me luck!

Luck!!!

I became a self-employed, professional musician in 2001. All that money I wasted on college, pretending to be "practical" and trying to get a degree... BAH! I could've bought some serious Hammond organs with that bread!!!

Know what you mean about college. Mind you, on the money front, I'm still new enough to it that there's plenty of gloss to be worn off!

[doubleM]

I rang in rather late at 20. By 22-30 I was playing for better money, but it was playing covers. Now I try to not leave the house for 1/4 of what I used to make per gig...playing disco. But at least I get to play music that I (usually) dig.

Edited November 26, 2005 by doubleM

[Guest]

I played my first gig 1963 (age 15) with Betty Boop's son (who is now executive in charge of music: Universal Pictures).

We got the gig indirectly from "The Rifelman"'s son (Johnny Crawford).

For about two years (?) we played partys in Bel Air and Beverly Hills...until I told him I tried marijuana.

He told his mother and I was fired :-)

Edited March 30, 2006 by flat5

[Peter Johnson]

[comes out of the musical closet]

I was 16 and got a paying gig playing incidental piano music between acts and at intermissions for a series of Noel Coward plays at the University of Portland. Gigged a bit through the rest of high school, and then a little in college, and now...14 years on, haven't done a thing. I miss it sometimes.

[Herb]

1965, I was fifteen, playing rock'n'roll at local teen towns and school functions. I joined the Musician's Union when I turned 16 so I could get permits to play in bars.

[Johnny E]

I played snare drum in the 1984 Mummers parade and was paid $50. I marched from Oregon Aveneue all the way up Broad Street to the William Penn building, stopping every block to let the jackasses strut. It took all day in 10 degee wheather. I was 14, and to this day it's still the worst paying gig (considering what I had to go through) I've ever had.