Your experience, your advice.

[V4Vinnie]

Hi gang,

Here I am with something that maybe part of you had experience before, so I need advice or else.

Here's my story, I'm a professional drummer since my 14 (I'm 33) when I record an album with my first band in a 2" tape which it was a reality check about playing precise and an awesome one. Since then I was all the time drumming and making a living of it, I play with numerous artist, record many records and as today I live only from my income os music. I'm married with my lovely wife of 3 years & 8 months and we have a daughter of 2 1/2 months, so far my live in that matter has been a blessing.

Here's is my bump in life, in music lately has not been stelar, meaning, I'm almost out of work in music, here in Puerto Rico things are slow right now, the band that I was part of, I had to left it because of money problems, so here I am in the middle of nowhere looking to a very foggy future, don't know what to do.

As a fellow musician, had you passed like this in a time of your life? What to do in this cases? Is it all loss? I'm not in the mindset of starting a new career change and don't want to do it.

Maybe I'm drowning in a glass of water or maybe is the real deal.

Any advice or experience will be really appreciated.

Thanks gang.

[Paul Marangoni]

You're not the only one my friend. Musicians the world over are struggling with the same exact issues as you. Having a family only compounds the urgency. There is no easy answer unfortunately. There are fewer and fewer gigs available, and more musicians than ever in history competing for them. I don't see this situation getting better any time soon either.

I suggest you seek an income stream outside of playing as soon as possible. Hopefully you can find work directly related to your skills as a player (teaching for example), but don't rule anything out. Do some soul searching and think of all the other skills you have and then start searching for work.

You may want to consider working on a cruise ship for a while, but I have heard that those gigs don't pay what they used to, and musicians are being exploited.

I don't know what the economy is like right now in Puerto Rico, but I assume it's similar to the rest of the world: difficult. I wish you the best of luck.

[Julián Fernández]

I do believe there´s a niche unexploited yet and that is high level inet drum lesson in spanish...
Plenty of guys on youtube, and even when the ideas/concepts are cool, the presentation is kind of amateur-ish...
Some quality youtube preview lessons and then a cool site with different option for buying lessons... Skype lessons would be easy to add once the wheel is rolling...
With a couple of lights, a simple DAW and a couple of cameras you can get amazing results... There´s money there, and someone -sooner or later- is gonna take it...

Good luck anyways!

[langmick]

33 was the age where I really started to question ly life.

Do as much analysis of who you are as you can, no matter how much it hurts. Embrace reality.

Life is not a cush job.

[Jim Richman]

Advice? Get a job that pays money. Don't refuse work because it is not music related. Man-up and make some moeny.

[Rhythmatist]

Advice? Get a job that pays money. Don't refuse work because it is not music related. Man-up and make some moeny.

Yep, when the kids came along and I needed income and a health and retirement plan I took a rock bottom manufacturing job (and I hold an MA in Percussion). I observed and learned, took a few workshops and learned some new skills and worked my way into higher-paying, albeit more stressful positions...learned more new things and am now in an even higher paying but much less stressful and even enjoyable position. And, I'm working in several bands keeping very much alive in my musical pursuits. BTW, I turn 60 in May and I was in my mid 30's when I came to this fork in the road.

[GoAndPractice]

27 and reading this thread...

[Riddim]

Once you make babies, they become concern #1. You'll have to look beyond the instrument or the music to feed them.

[V4Vinnie]

Waow reality sucks...!!! Somebody told me that "It's never too late, just more difficult." I hope that is true at some point.

[DeeP_FRieD]

Waow reality sucks

Nah, I just think people's expectations are overgrown... 1st world problems.