Re: OT: compensation (WAS Re: Looping venue help)

[phaslem@wightman.ca]

I'm finding this to be a very interesting thread as we all work  
towards perfecting our craft. Back in the 90's I made my living  
playing the hammered dulcimer, but after a while found it too  
restricting because in order to get the paying gigs that were  
available I needed to stick to traditional tunes and could only slip  
in one of my own compositions once in a while.
Finally I went back to having a day job and found it liberating as I  
was able to refuse gigs that wanted to restrict my repetoire. The down  
side was that since I have less time to spend practicing and working  
on music, my developement has been slower that it was when I could  
spend 4 or 5 hours out of every day playing music.
Recently I found myself in an interesting twist on this however, I  
applied to play at a festival here in Ontario and was turned down for  
a main stage spot because they want to keep those spots (between the  
lines read better paying spots) for those musicians that are out there  
trying to make a living at it. Now I feel that I'm playing and writing  
some of the best music I've ever done and I have played at this  
festival before, so this is a difficult answer to accept since it has  
nothing to do with musicianship or ability. I am invited to play a  
side stage for "local" musicians which will have an audience of  
perhaps 25 people as apposed to the 2,000 + that will attend the main  
stage performances, and like anyone I was hoping for the maximum  
exposure for the new recording that I'm working on.

Paul Haslem
Ontario Canada
www.dulcify.ca