When can you call it a gig?

[Joe Baker]

Okay, so you're performing in a couple of hours and you're on your way there. But is it a "gig"? I've heard some folks place restrictions on when a performance is a "gig", while others consider any engagement to play a "gig".

My solution to this etymological conundrum:
THE TUBENET FREAK JURY!!

So, freak jury, what is your verdict?

NOTICE -- The poll left off my last option:
"Cha-ching!! I'm making my car payment from tonight's earnings!"

If that's your definition, go ahead and vote for the $20 thing (so you can see the results of the poll), but tell us in a message that you really meant this one.
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Joe Baker, who hopes there is more concensus here than there is on baritone/euph, silver/lacquer, pisons/rotary -- but won't be surprised if there's not...

[Tom Mason]

Its a gig when you have to use it to get enough bullfrogs for supper......

I voted for the spend money option because in my case, it costs money to leave town, and there are no gigs in town. I also have the view that one should play as if it were a paying gig even if it is a demonstration of instruments for an elementary classroom that includes your daughter or son.

Tom Mason

[Lew]

I have always thought of any time one is playing in public as a gig, but according to dictionary.com a gig is:

[quote]A job, especially a booking for musicians.

To work as a musician: “gigging weekends as a piano player in the ski jointsâ€

[Mark E. Chachich]

Greetings!

I make no distinction anytime that I perform and give it my best. To me, if I agree to do it it is a gig.

Reasons:
a.) I can not do it any other way
b.) you never know who is in the audience

best,
Mark

[Joe Baker]

LV, I just noticed -- it cut off my last option, which was something akin to
"Cha-ching!! I'm making my car payment from tonight's earnings!"

So by all means feel free to vote for that (I'll see if I can figure out how to get it to display that one...)
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Joe Baker, who has never had one of those, but has heard stories...

[windshieldbug]

Oddly enough, I asked my free lancer/professor wife this same question a couple of nights ago, since my musical change of status. She told me that any playing engagement (paying or not) is considered a gig once you're out of school, so I didn't have to change my expressions. And I know better than to question professors...

[Biggs]

A gig is any public performance that is requested. For example, I would refer to my old high school band concerts as a gig for one reason: if I were to receive a call for a paying job the night of a school concert (this has occurred) I would have to turn down said paying job on the basis of the musician's creed to 'honor the first committment." Thus, the term gig, IMHO, covers paying jobs, volunteer jobs, and even jobs where you lose money as long as someone requested your performance.

[Dan Schultz]

You forgot the 'will play for food' option.

I will play just about anywhere anytime. Pay doesn't matter near as much as having a good time. If I pick up a few bucks along the way, it just makes making music all that much more enjoyable.

[dmmorris]

I've played for real money, gas, beer, pizza, CDs, visibility, etc...and always for fun. I'm an amateur. So any time I get an opportunity to have “face-timeâ€

[Daryl Fletcher]

Some of us define "pay" in different ways. I think that's alright.

For example, a few months ago, my quintet played at a youth detention center. It was one of the smaller audiences we've ever played for, but also one of the more appreciative. The rewards are hard to define, but certainly are real.

We weren't paid money, nor was there whole lot of prestige in playing for a group like that. I still count it as a "gig".
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Or, maybe I just enjoy playing for a captive audience.

[Joe Baker]

I played a jailhouse gig once. We were only allowed to play Cage and Debussy. That's cause when they put 'em in there they threw away the key!
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Joe Baker, who is lyin' like a cheap rug

[Chuck(G)]

So, "gigging" is when you actually catch something (diseases included)?

[tubatooter1940]

When I was in high school, our pep band played Folsom Prison. This big psycho-looking guy wanted to play my drum set. I let him.

[Monty]

Useful rule of thumb--" A gig is when you have to be on time". Pay isnt at all the single determinng factor because there are plenty of events you may want to do pro bono for other reasons more important than money- and some of those can be prestigous or for an important cause.

Most of the things you list seem to be what I would call "bad gigs"

[smurphius]

Couple bucks of gasoline? Hmm.... I suppose that would work, assuming you're driving an SUV (because you're a tubist, right?) and you were only going 10 mins down the road. Hahaha. Otherwise, it's like $10 of gasoline now a days. HAH.

[Joe Baker]

Is a grade considered 'pay'?

No, I don't think so. My reason: if you're being payed to play, then the reason you are there is because someone wants to hear you play, and wants it bad enough to give you money. If you're playing for a grade, then someone is letting you play as part of their job. Maybe they really enjoy it, maybe not; but they're certainly not making any sacrifice to hear you play. That grade may be valuable to you, but it costs them nothing to give.

The key, I think, is not what you get, but what someone else gives. This is really sort of where I've drawn the line -- if someone is paying for my presence, I've considered it a gig, even if I'm not the one getting the money.
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Joe Baker, who thinks playing for a grade is either a "concert" or a "recital".