Like Felicia I make a living playing gurdy, it is also integral to my sound, which also includes bagpipes, guitar, cittern and lots of other bits and bobs. When I was at college in the 90s the gurdy helped me get a bit of beer money from busking; however, on graduating I was unable to get a decent job so my part time job as a musician became my career and for a while I did make a living with the gurdy as my main instrument; however it was not easy and has in fact got more difficult. I have played gurdy in many capacities but the market place is receeding, eg.. 1. I did several recording sessions for rock and pop music. Nigel Eaton is your main man in this area but during the period he was touring I got several sessions due to him not being available. These days when a gurdy sound is required samples tend to be used so very little income in that department. 2. Playing for dancing. A bit of work in that area but not a living. 3. teaching.....as above 4. Film and TV. A very small amount of work but if you are lucky enough to be in a decent film with a decent contract there are residual payments for repeats eg I appear playing under the titles of the BBC film Station Jim. 5. Making my own albums. An expensive investment which over time can be re-couped; however, with cd sales in decline covering studio and production costs could be a thing of the past. On the plus side the albums do generate a small income from radio royalty payments. 6. Heritage Whoring, themed weddings, corporate events etc. Sadly these are the main sources of income. These kinds of events are often a creative wastland as most people are not interested in the music and merely want a pretty instrument played by someone in medieval costume, but it does pay reasonably well. Add all the above together and there could be a living, if you are very lucky and have a frugal lifestyle. O yes, you have to put in a lot of dull administration work promoting your gurdy-playing activities, which brings me neatly to.... The latest album by Drohne aka Philip G Martin is available by emailing me at [email protected] or as a download from ITunes [link on www.drohne.co.uk ]. Sorry about the gratuitous advertising but you will need to get in the habit of doing it if you want to make a living out of the hurdy-gurdy.
Philip G Martin aka Drohne www.drohne.co.uk --- On Fri, 1/5/09, Felicia Dale <[email protected]> wrote: From: Felicia Dale <[email protected]> Subject: [HG-new] Re: Schools? and a first time poster. To: [email protected] Date: Friday, 1 May, 2009, 4:08 AM You're probably right- I do have a tendency to exaggerate! Gurdy isn't my only instrument (though it is an integral part of our sound) so while I can't claim it's JUST the gurdy making my living I wouldn't be doing nearly so well without it. Has anyone done any kind of a census of gurdy players around the world to see how many actually make their living with their instruments? I'd be very interested in the results of such a poll. Felicia. On Apr 30, 2009, at 5:22 PM, Arle Lommel wrote: > >> …how thousands of players are supporting themselves and their >> families with their music… > > Let's not get too optimistic here. How many players actually support > themselves and the families with their music? There may be a lot of > players, but for most of us it's a hobby that occasionally pays some > dividends. But I would guess that the number of ones who actually > support themselves and their families exclusively from playing HG can > be counted on your fingers (or maybe your fingers and your toes). The > number of semi-professionals who make decent supplementary income > probably doesn't break 100. Most of the rest of us won't ever make > enough to pay back our investment in the instrument, but that's not > why we do it in the first place. > > I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'd lay money on it that there are > not "thousands of players" making a career out of it. > > So, while I'll agree about close-minded professors, etc., even as a > pretty serious enthusiast* I'd be hard pressed to recommend > "professional hurdy-gurdy player" as a career option to a young > musician unless said young musician fully realized that there are > vanishingly few regular jobs for HG and that the only reason to do it > is for love -- because the money is certainly not a reason to choose > it as a career. > > *I'm working on a doctoral degree about the revival of HGs in Hungary > at the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, so I think I can > safely call myself serious. > > -Arle > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
