you may recall that I semi-retired from my band a few years ago. What that meant, at first, is I played at the 'big' gigs.. those most important that is... but my band used guest drummers for the other gigs. So I was only playing 3-4 gigs per year. I've been at that rate since semi-retiring.
Now... I'm thinking of cutting back even further. Now don't misunderstand.. I'll NEVER stop playing, but I have to be honest with myself and this loading, unloading and setting up, tearing down and loading, then getting home and unloading again thing is getting to be a bit too much.
What I'm thinking of doing is sometime this year ending the paid gigs.. those where it's more like a job. What I'd continue doing is playing small gatherings for friends... maybe a few 'charity' functions... but no more structured gigs. I can still get through those 4+ hour gigs but I don't enjoy it anymore... anything over a couple of hours and it becomes 'work' to me and not 'pleasure'. for me this would be my final 'retirement' step... which, as I said, does NOT mean stop playing music... but the gigs yes. I'm not 100% sure yet... but I'm certainly leaning that way. - JamesJM
