chb@vaxine.UUCP (Kool Klezmer) (02/13/84)
[] Just thought I would introduce a new topic to this newsgroup (not that I haven't been enjoying the 20th century music discussion - keep 'em coming!). Was wondering if there are any other two profession people out there in net.land, who are hackers by day and professional musicians by night (or vice versa). Would be interested to hear other people's feelings, ideas and frustrations about how you allocate your time to get everything done that you need to do. Setting my own example, I'll start the ball rolling ( or given that this is a discussion about music, maybe I should caution all of you to follow the bouncing ball, instead. :-) ) I am a free-lance jazz drummer, who works most consistently in 4 bands: two ethnic music bands, a piano trio, and a funk band. I also work full-time as an expert systems hacker, although for about a year and a half I went part-time to further pursue my musical interests. But what I found out was even with the extra time, all the little shit that usually gets in the way, STILL got in the way. Also my work situation was such that I would have a lot of fire drills at work that would absolutely HAVE TO be taken care of. I had hoped to get up to 2 hrs. of practicing a day, but was lucky when I actually accomplished that. Now, I am back to working full time but I shed in the morning for between 30-45 minutes before leaving for the office. Since I am decidedly NOT a morning person, sometimes I don't even make that. This is truly unfortunate, since 45 minutes is only enough time to do maintenance practicing and not get much new work accomplished. The other problem is that about once or twice a year I get to go on the road. Now those of you out there who have not been on the road, believe me, it aint the same for us little guys as it is for the big rock stars. Mostly a different small (frequently grungy) hotel every night. My last tour was spent in Cincinatti, Columbus, Akron, and New York. I'm afraid that I'm not a Midwest person. The only redeeming feature of these trips is if you are tight with the other members of the band, you at least have people to spend the time with. Unfortunately, (and back to the point) one must use vacation time, and Akron is not exactly my idea of a vacation. So, after all this bitching, some of you may ask why dont I stop beating myself over the head? The answer is very simple. I'm a musician. I tried to give it up about 6 years ago. Strangely enough, my day work suffered. I felt irritable and on edge. I think it was because I was feeling frustrated doing NO playing. So I am now feel a lot better off, trying to squeeze in what playing and practicing I can, rather than giving up one or the other. Anybody else out there want to testify? Charlie Berg ...allegra!linus!vaxine!chb