I’m writing this partly in response to an article I read recently by a musician explaining why other musicians should quit their bands, and partly for therapeutic reasons.

A year or two ago I was lamenting to my mentor- Bruce Golden about my seeming inability to get anything accomplished musically. As he so often does, he laid something quite prophetic on me. He said: “Never underestimate the importance of bands.” Immediately, a lot of things in my musical existence started to make some sense.

I grew up playing in “bands”. Since those early days, I’ve lived the musical free agent philosophy for the last 20 years or so. I’m starting to feel like I’m now approaching the twilight of my personal “musical free agent” epoch. I also suspect that the dude that wrote the above-mentioned article is most likely only beginning his.

What follows below is based only on my experience, so take it for what you will.

I think it’s great to play with as many different people as you can (especially older players and players who are better than you) as the aforementioned suggests. Do it a lot when you are in your 20's and 30's. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll eventually develop the desire for something more meaningful.

I don’t want to cheapen or disrespect the music that I love. I want to get back to what made me love that music and love my instrument in the first place when I was a little kid playing and listening in my room. A romantic notion? Perhaps.

I want to try to evaluate below both of the musical philosophies and work ethics that I wrestle with.

The advantages of the “musical free agent” philosophy

(in no particular order)

• You will become a much more competent player on your instrument. Although painful, there is nothing that will make you improve quicker than being on a bandstand and having a tune that you do not know be called and counted off.

• You will make more, steady gig money. This doesn’t suck. If there’s some specific piece of gear that you’ve always wanted to try out, but couldn’t afford it, now you can. Also… your spouse or partner will not hate this aspect of your music and will be far more tolerant with your music schedule and meanderings (I love you Vic! ☺).

• You will hopefully be able to play more gigs locally and avoid bullshit travel and floor/van-sleeping. Local promoters will hate the fact that you are playing so often in the same town and venues. But your chops (and again… your spouse or significant other) will not!

• You will meet a ton of new people. Some of these people will be life-altering and will become your best friends for life.

• Your communication and listening skills will increase ten-fold. Refer again to the first bullet point of this section. Or, just watch this.☺

The disadvantages of the “musical free agent”/“play the field” philosophy

(in no particular order)

• Lack of commitment (to the music, to any type of long range “project”)
Your common goal is simply making that night’s gig as good as it can be and also getting paid for that night’s gig. Nothing beyond that is on the minds of the others you are playing with.

• The musical equivalent of typecasting (if, or rather when, fellow musicians start to think of you as only one sort of player, you will start to get fewer and fewer calls for gigs that fall outside of the range of what your “perceived” type or forte is)

• Mailing it in (meaning that no one has the desire to rehearse… you’ll try to claim that you want to focus on your improvisational skills, but when it comes down to it, you just don’t want to get up, get out, and work on the music. So… you won’t be able to do any tunes with specific arrangements. But yes, your improvisational skills will improve! They will have to, or your phone will stop ringing.☺ )

• You will wind up playing the same 30 tunes at your gig that you play on every one else’s gig. (this is a by-product of the “mailing it in” bullet above). You haven’t been rehearsing tunes and arrangements with the dudes you show up for “the gig” with. So… you have to find the tunes that you all know in common. I love “Blue Bossa”. I love “Blue Monk” as much as anyone, but damn!… get together for an hour or two outside of “the gig” and learn one of the other hundred great Monk tunes like “Rhythm-a-Ning” or something for fuck-sake!

• Your opportunities to record will be few and far between other than the live recordings you make yourself on the gig or at home. Unless of course you are typecast as Steve Gadd.

• Small towns (like the one where I live) breed what I refer to as “musical incestuousness”. You wind up playing with the same people, in the same venues, but just under different band monikers. So why not just admit to being in a “band”, and commit to making that “band” successful? Oh yeah… I forgot… you get to play fewer $100 gigs if you commit to one band.

Ultimately, both of these approaches are, to my mind, essential parts of the same journey.

Now that I’m at an age (both physically and in my musical “career”) that I’m starting to ask myself… “What are my accomplishments?” “What will I be remembered for (if only by my child) musically-speaking?” I ask myself the following questions. Will I just be remembered for playing a shit-load of thrown together $100 gigs? Will I be remembered for a great record that I played on or made? I came to the decision that I didn’t necessarily want to be remembered as just a guy who played a bunch of $100 gigs around town. I decided that my goal was to make a/some recording/s that my son will have 50 years from now and be able to say… “This is my Dad’s record… Dig it!”

So, I agree with The Definitive Guide on Why You Should Quit Your Band that you should play the field so to speak when you are coming up or getting your musical sea legs. But ultimately, if you don’t quit music, I think you’re going to come around to wanting to do something or be a part of something with more meaning. If that’s not a “band”, maybe it’s a “project”?