The question about gigs, and the implied need to define how "amateur" I am, is fair. I will address that, because not only do I hope it will help focus people's responses here, but because someone will look up this thread someday and I think it would be nice for them to see it all laid out too.

I have a weekly gig for which I receive whatever music I need (print or recorded) to learn new material, strings and help with major repairs of equipment, sometimes help with workshop fees if I attend something, and a nice dinner afterwards. I have a couple of people who play with me for this when they can, for the experience and for the love of music, and who are quite comfortable leaving the work and leadership (and "compensation") to me. I use my own sound system there, and leave it there along with most of my "stuff."

I have two other gigs twice a month each, which I do for free because they are my laboratory for working with people in a different way. I usually do these by myself, because part of what I do there is practice working alone. I bring a small PA to the larger one and do the other entirely acoustic, so I get to practice these approaches.

I could have another weekly gig, but it's on the same day of the week as these twice-monthly ones are. This one would pay a slight amount for three or four songs. But the people are less honest about their feedback-- it's a nursing hoime, and I do those often for free with my husband, but the people there want music so badly they appreciate ANYthing, and more than the bucks, I need feedback at this point.

I could have as many gigs (with our little band, with just mny husband, or alone) as I wanted, if I wanted to play in nursing homes and childcare centers for free. We do play about a half dozen of those a year. I would play more of them if I had a big enough voice to do them without a PA, because for me the toting of equipment is a strain on my recovering health.

An issue for me that flows out of that is that here is physical recovery time for me after each gig. How much down time is required seems dependent usually on how much help I have had toting, setting up, and breaking down equipment and materials. This means that if I do much of this kind of thing, I can't expect to also hold down a solid day job. So I need to choose, and if I choose music, I need for it to pay at least a little.

I do have a new one-time gig which was offered to me when I did a short presentation for free at a workshop I was attending. It's exactly the sort of thing I had been envisioning when I embarked on learning some of what I have been learning in the last year, and I happily agreed to do it as an experiment to see what it will be like doing that sort of thing. They offered to pick up expenses-- travel, meals, & overnight. I am not at all concerned about not getting "paid" because I have volunteered my way "up the food chain" in every career I have had, and I always do extremely well starting that way.

But the reaction these people had was so positive and FAST, I know I can be doing LOTS more of it.

At the session at Folk College where we talked about all this, what I realized is that I have to write up the workshop descriptions, now that I know my likely markets, and check around to see what that market will bear for that product. Before I can hope that people will know how much to offer me, I have to be clear what I am offering them, and I have to make a range of products of various sizes and sorts so that they can find what they want and can afford.

If I do that, I expect to be pretty busy by the time Black History month rolls around and if I can solve the how-far-to-travel issue, for the time of year that happens, I should have a full month "touring" from workshop to workshop. I anticipate a "shakedown cruise" year, and then I think I will have a better idea how much I can do and how much it can net our family income.

~Susan