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It's tax time again! Same question as last year: How much $$$ did you make in 2005 playing tuba or euph. You may include gigs on other instruments as long as you doubled on tuba or euph. At the request of several list members I have altered the options.

LOTP (BIG-TIME professional)

I am assuming that you are asking about gross monies received... as opposed to what's left AFTER the bar bill is paid!

TubaTinker wrote:I am assuming that you are asking about gross monies received... as opposed to what's left AFTER the bar bill is paid!

this is obvious - because there are no negative options.

Too young. Yup, me too! Heck, I'm only 44...
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Joe Baker, who likes this rationale much better than the truth!

I think I made a whopping $50 last year from playing. Since I think I spent over $5000 on equipment, I guess I will need to keep working at this rate of pay for about 100 years to break even.

It's a good thing the financial services company for whom I work (IT Director) is paying the bills.

two years ago my friends and i thought playing christmas carols outside of stores would be a cool way to make money.

In ten hours of playing, we made 50 bucks.

Last year we tried it again.

in 4 hours of playing, we made 20.

pulseczar wrote:two years ago my friends and i thought playing christmas carols outside of stores would be a cool way to make money.

In ten hours of playing, we made 50 bucks.

Last year we tried it again.

in 4 hours of playing, we made 20.

WELL!! That's about what I make pounding the dents out of horns!

When I read this topic, it brought a real memory.....

Background: 10 years ago when I was playing the Hohner 265 Double Bass Harmonica with Jerry Murad's harmonicats, my "bread and butter" job was driving an expedited delivery van. When a performance date was close, I carried my instrument, amplifier and stage clothing with me in the van so that even though I could be dispatched to go anywhere in the US, I could still get to the gig on time. At the time, I was dispatched by a pager. When the pager buzzed, that meant I had work. I was eating dinner with the other two guys in the trio along with the agent, when suddenly my pager buzzed.

Funny: The agent said, "Isn't that funny? A bass harmonica player with a pager. Do you free-lance too?"

In today's world, this applies to tubists too.

George
http://harmonicat.blogspot.com/

if you think about it, playing for drum corps actually make you lose alot of money. You're paying 1000+ for a nationwide gig during the summer instead of getting paid for it.

Not to knock down drum corps though. I love drum corps.

I am truly ashamed to admit that on more than one occasion, our food and bar tabs totaled up more than our nights pay and we had to pony up cash to settle up before we could go home.

I got a small tax deduction by adding up the miles and parking for community band and chamber orchestra rehearsals and gigs, as well as cash donations to those groups which are charities under United States code title 26 section 501(c)(3).

Errrm, I get paid in Euros, and you only mention $
Last year I only made money playing french horn though, so in this poll it's 0 whatever the currency might be.

My first tuba job was playing tuba for elementary school bands when I was in Junior High School. I went from that to playing in a professional concert band (also for money) and a local symphony orchestra. I always keep an eye open for anyone who wants to hire a tuba player for anything worthwhile.

I already have a job.

Rick "who doesn't need the stress" Denney

Thus far we have 132 responses to the poll . We had 137 last year . A few more and I'll do a comparison.

LOTP

wow, this has been a very uplifting post, I thought I was getting too few gigs, but apparently I'm fairly well off....I go through my youth symphonies though, and they hook my brass quintet up with gigs around our area, along with people who call me periodically to fill in for them or to play on easter sunday (75 bucks this year!)

Funny…

I study Molecular Biology/Chemistry as my primary occupation. And instead of taking a pizzadelivery job (as often suggested on this board) I play tuba. Mostly street parades and jazz concerts. And that’s add up nicely to place me well in category number 4.
Everything is made by playing my sousaphone. I always wondered why that is (apparently) not possible in USA. Maybe there are more tubists in America than Europe?

Søren wrote:... I play tuba. Mostly street parades and jazz concerts. And that’s add up nicely to place me well in category number 4.
Everything is made by playing my sousaphone. I always wondered why that is (apparently) not possible in USA. Maybe there are more tubists in America than Europe?

The majority of Americans under the age of 60 only want to listen to rock/rap/country "pop" music. Actually, I suspect a lot of people really DO enjoy dixie/polka/jazz music very much, but the people who stage events where music is provided don't seem to think so -- and they're the ones who hire the entertainment.

FWIW, the most money I ever made playing was after I dropped music as a major, and was just playing trombone in a junior college jazz band. One day I was playing a euph I found in the corner of the band hall, and the symphonic band director heard me. He came over, said they didn't have a euph player, and asked if I'd be willing to play in the band. Not really being interested, I said "no, I need that time to work." He came back with "suppose we paid you $50 a week for two rehearsals". That was more than three times what I normally earned per hour, for much easier work (individual practice time was borrowed from my trombone practice time).
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Joe Baker, who recalls that about 100 people came to that band's concerts; approximately the number of parents of the band members.

OK----Time to summarize. (2004 vs. 2005)

Total votes: 04-137, 05-149
Zero tuba/euph income: 04-19%, 05-28%
$1-$500: 04-16%, 05-14%
$501-$5000: 04-31%, 05-20%
$5001-$50000: 04-24%, 05-25% (two categories combined)
Over $50000: 04-8% , 05-10%

What does this all mean?

I dunno----you tell me!

LOTP

Søren wrote:...Maybe there are more tubists in America than Europe?

Yes. There are.