Wednesday 1 February 2017

TGIF

...or thank goodness it's February! It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I've not really had a lot to say to be honest.

Although, I've not had a lot to do either. I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that January is usually a quiet month for musicians. It doesn't seem to matter how old you are or what gigs you're doing; on the whole, in January, there's not a great deal to do.

The way that I see it, some people take this as a good thing! You've worked hard over the festive period and "struck while the iron was hot" (to paraphrase my Mum.) Why shouldn't you have a bit of a break? You could go and see the friends that you didn't see over Christmas, go to the gym, do some practice, maybe even... go on holiday? (Or down the pub if funds allow.) Some people use this time to reinvent themselves, learn new things. Generally, stuff that doesn't involve gigging.

That's all well and good, but personally I tend to struggle with that. I like the occasion of loading the car, driving down the road, setting up, playing the gig and then reversing the whole process. I tend to get agitated when I've got nothing to do. I'd hope I'm not alone in feeling like this. You can feel a bit useless when you have the skills, the equipment and the want to be working, and yet there's no gig to go to.

Fundamentally, I think that you become accustomed to the self employed lifestyle. If you can work, you do work. So we're into February! I'm very happy about this as the diary is looking a little more healthy this month. Albeit, my birthday is this coming Saturday and I feel like I should be working. It's the same sort of feeling that people who fly kites get when the wind blows. "Gracious! The wind is blowing! I'd better get my kite and fly it! It would seem a shame to waste the weather! Who knows when it'll be windy again!" Well, maybe that's an exaggeration...

I think that there is a reason why January is a bit of a blue month. Don't get me wrong, I like the cold weather and short nights and all. But it seems that with all the excitement of Christmas over, I just wanted to get my head back down and get on with it. For me, February couldn't come quick enough!

To all my musician friends who've also lamented the inevitable January blues, we did it! We're out of the other side! Let's get on with the job that we trained for. Well, we'll drive 3 hours to get there first. Happy February everyone!

Al


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