Playing the saxophone What does professional mean?

[Pete Thomas]

“Amateur band” to me means a band that doesn’t receive money for their services. If you ever get paid, even only a couple bucks, or get a free meal, you’re professional. When there is money involved, “a few friends getting together for fun” gets more complicated.

I think this is the basis for an interesting discussion/debate.

My take is that a professional is someone who makes a living from playing. No other work. So in that case a couple of bucks or free meal is not it.

And of course there is semi-pro

 

[turf3]

Well, there are very few people who make a full time living from performance only. Most of those have spouses with reliable employment, health insurance, pension, etc.

As I noted in the other thread, there are a lot of versions of "professional musician". The guy who plays ten gigs a month for money, and drives Uber, mows lawns, and works behind the counter at the auto parts store to be able to survive, is he a professional? The guy who plays the same number of gigs, but has a teaching studio of 25 students, is he a professional? The guy who plays the same number of gigs, but makes his monthly nut selling insurance? How about when the guy who was playing ten gigs a month for money, marries an RN and quits all non-musical employment, does that convert him from "semi professional" to "full professional"?

To me, I think "professional" vs. "amateur" really comes down to the gig, rather than the individual person. When I was playing in society bands, we'd sometimes get $400 a man for a big dinner-dance - nice pay for the late 1990s. Some of us had full time non-musical professional jobs, some of us were high school band directors, some of us played gigs and taught students, some of us played gigs and had various minimum wage jobs, some played gigs and kept the children while the spouse went off to work every day at the hospital or software company. We were all getting paid the same, and we were expected to meet the same standards of quality in our performance. I'd call it a professional gig, being played by a band full of people with varying ways of making their income.

 

[lig]

I've been fortunate enough to have made a fair amount of $ over the years playing music.

That said - it has never been my primary source of income. I'd consider myself semi-pro, I guess. My term for that is "weekend warrior" 🙂

Eons ago I disappointed my dad by choosing business school over music when I went to college. He said "you're treating your education like it's trade school" 😀 and he wasn't wrong.

I was competent - All City Jazz, All City Orchestra, All City Band but there were tons of great musicians locally and it wasn't my dream to play music for a living being honest.

No regrets.

I managed to retire early and can play all I want now without regard to actually putting food on the table or making a mortgage or car payment.

 

[Grumps]

And of course there is semi-pro

Which I always loosely defined as making enough at playing on the side for which you are taxed.

 

[Pete Thomas]

The guy who plays ten gigs a month for money, and drives Uber, mows lawns, and works behind the counter at the auto parts store to be able to survive, is he a professional?

No, I would say he (or she) is semi-professional. There's also teaching of course. I have a funny (to me) anecdote regarding that.

 

[lig]

Which I always loosely defined as making enough at playing on the side for which you are taxed.

Love that now. Wrote off a ton of expenses and gear last year.