Reply #40: If you're thinking about jazz, you can make a living [View All]

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

I know quite a few people surviving in the Los Angeles jazz scene as full-time musicians. It's not easy, but it can be done. My cousin is making a decent living playing jazz guitar in clubs and restaurants. His girlfriend, who is an amazing singer and jazz pianist sometimes gigs with him. I think it helps if you live in a major metropolitan area, because jazz guitar isn't going to be that much appreciated in small town America.

I think it will help to supplement your income with teaching, however. Guys can make good money teaching guitar, if they are really good and well organized. It helps to be extremely talented, because if you play well, some of your listeners in the club will sign on with you as students.

Robert Conti, who is not a household name but is well known in jazz guitar circles as one of the most technically gifted musicians around worked for 10 years at the Marriott Hotel in Laguna Beach, California, doing a solo guitar gig. He apparently made enough to afford a home and raise a family. He plays an 8 string guitar and makes it sound like several guys playing at the same time. But he was smart enough to not just limit himself to playing jazz guitar standards in that expensive hotel lobby. He was really good at schmoozing the customers and sitting at their tables and telling jokes during breaks, making them feel special. Now, I believe he is working full time at a casino in Las Vegas playing guitar in a lounge. And he has a lucrative business selling instructional materials on the Internet for jazz guitar. I've bought his fifteen books of chord melody for jazz standards and they are the best I have ever seen.