Oh man... there are a few things that you should never say to a musician... and when I'm saying a musician, I don't mean just someone who plays music, however good they are... there are quite a lot of musicians that take little to no pride in their work and are just doing music because they don't know what else to do... but that is a discussion for a different time!

Anyway, there are musicians who care deeply about what they do... and money is usually not the driving force behind what they do... unfortunately, many non-musician musicians are driven by money or positioning or something... not entirely sure, but it sure isn't the performing!

So, there are some of us (and I count my wife amongst these musicians) who will do the best fricking job we can... even if we aren't paid well enough, or the conditions are crap, or the situation is poop... as long as we have receptive and interested musicians playing with us. We see our job as elevating, inspiring, and encouraging others in addition to our own musical contribution... and we just MAKE THINGS WORK! Even if that means getting taken advantage of... on occasion. But that just results in us politely smiling next time and saying... NO.

... but while we are there, we will do the best we can and employ our entire arsenal of skills and experience without reservation. Too often, I see other musicians decide that they are "too good" to do that... and they hold back and distance themselves... and then they become jaded and pale imitations of what they could have been over time. It is a form of artistic death that is hard to stop once you start it...

Anyway, there is this particular institution that is trying to cut some costs... and that means that they are trying to cut the payments to their staff and musicians. So, reduced hours... fine... I mean... the job was grossly underpaid anyway, and slashing the tiny amount of hours won't fix the huge financial and administrative mismanagement... I mean, just cutting the director salary by about 10 percent would fund the whole program...

... but that isn't the point of this post!

So, we brought up the fact that the old pay system was already grossly underpaid... we got paid for a tiny amount of contact hours, but the preparation time would be on the order of 10-20 hours if we wanted to a shit job... or 20-30 if we wanted to do a decent job.

... and that was when the idea was floated... well, you don't have to do a good job at all, just don't bother spending the time... and you won't be judged for that.

RED FLAG... that was the moment when we knew that this was the wrong place and the wrong people were running the show. No true musician would ever say something like that...

... and we had the upper hand in the "negotiation"... as we didn't want the work anyway, but were just doing it to help out. It is amazing what sort of leverage you have when you are just prepared to walk away.... apparently there will be a second set of "talks".... but we have made up our mind... we are coming in with PROPER fees... which they will see as ridiculous... and we will walk away!

There are things that we just don't sell... and doing a half-arsed job... pride and attachment to our work... not on the list.

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