Penguin's been busy

Fear not reader(s), I haven't abandoned you. Yes, I know it's been over a month since I last wrote anything, but I've been busy. Not that kind of busy where I just say I've been busy and I've actually just been lazy and you can kinda tell by looking at my film list and Twitter feed and then call me on my procrastinating bullshit. I mean work related busy.

First of all, my big gig went very well. It was hard work filling in for someone and learning an entire album in a couple of weeks for the sake of one gig and having to rehearse Cajon so much that I ripped my hands apart, but my God it was fun. Here's a picture (I'm the one at the back sitting on the box)

In gig related news, I won't be doing the cruise ship gig this winter, but instead I'm now finally teaching in school. I'm only in one day a week doing instrumental lessons and hopefully groups, but hooray for some steady work. It's weird going into school and being called 'Sir' or 'Mr Penguin' (obviously my real surname isn't Penguin and the kids don't really call me Mr Penguin. If they did it'd just be a bit messed up) 

I've also been really busy with having to transcribe drum parts, arranging songs about Jesus for keyboard students, arranging Christmas music in June for brass students exams and writing out various exercises to use in my teaching. Given the amount of work I have ahead with all of that, I'm toying with the idea of putting them all in a book.

The great thing about being a freelance musician is at that I can spend a day in the studio recording a play-along version of my partner's favourite song to cheer her up during uni exams and I get to call it work. By the end of the week I was filling in with a big band performing Michael Buble songs. Who needs financial stability, eh? 

Oh yeah, and I've started a diet. I even go and get weighed every week. I know what you're thinking..."fatty fatty bum bum" well sod you! It's more a controlling my diet and getting back in shape now that I'm (mostly) in remission from my colitis. I'm cooking fresh stuff every day and being very good. I'm even teaching my baby brother, who's also in the group, to cook.

Hopefully with the summer holiday approaching I'll have more time to sit down and thrill my readership with the delights of my innermost thoughts once more. I bet you can't wait.

Gigs are like buses.......

........ They're big, red, full of nutters and smell of stale piss. Okay that's not what I meant, well some gigs.... never mind lets get back on track here.

Bad jokes aside I've had a real shortage of gigs since I've returned to being a professional musician, luckily for me most of my work comes from teaching anyway but getting the odd gig now and again is important for several reasons. Most of all cash, it's a necessary boost to the income when a half decent gig comes along. Just getting out there and playing is really important too just you keep your hand in as it's very easy to become complacent or even lazy if you're not performing. The other reason has to be self esteem, if you're not getting any gigs at all you really start to wonder why you're bothering.

What makes it harder for me is the fact that I'm completely freelance, I'm bandless so to speak and therefore have to rely on people needing a percussionist. When they do it's usually a last minute kind of job where I'm just filling in so it's high pressure but that's what makes it all worthwhile. 
I really enjoyed being in my last band but while bands and artists tend to get the odd well paid gig, or medium to high profile bit of TV work today's music scene is a pay-to-play culture and I can't afford to do that as music is my job and I have to make it pay or I'll starve. (For those aware that my partner is a food blogger replace starve with bitch a lot and cry)

I've already mentioned that this year I got orchestral work playing timps in a requiem and that I'm depping (the muso lingo for filling in) for a very good band at the end of May. It looks like I'm also going to get some dep work with a covers band containing members of the very good band and some work which will essentially be up-market busking. There have also be some noises made about doing some percussion at festivals too, it may not be glastonbury but it's high-profile enough and it's work. Of course as musicians we tend to live on the promise of work, 50% materialises and the other 50% doesn't but so far it's teetering on the more positive of the two.

The big news is that I've been offered a cruise gig at the end of the year. It's very early days at the moment and it may not happen as I haven't decided if I'm going to accept the offer yet. I have established that I can get the time off school and a friend who is also a music teacher has said she's able to take on my private students if I go. There's so much to consider with this one and while 10 weeks in the Mediterranean playing cheesy pop does sound cool It's not a decision I can rush into. Not least because it would mean being away all over Christmas and New Year.

The main thing is that I'm getting offers again and that's going to help fill the gap between now and reapplying to spend the rest of my career in the classroom.