What It Is Like Being A Freelance Musician

Believe it or not, I have only had two jobs - event staff at my high school, which was a student-worker job, and being a musician. Both my brother and I took the student-worker job because it got us so many perks in school like getting out of class, running events, and driving the golf carts around to name a few. Despite having an incredible time messing around with my brother and my friends, I still gravitated towards playing music, even before I knew I wanted to be a musician full-time.

My mother introduced me to playing in a professional atmosphere at the age of 10 in front of the congregation at our church. Since then, I have become the assistant music director here at Our Lady of the Visitation. Every weekend, I help lead the music liturgy along with my mom! While this is the most steady paycheck I have, I get more joy out of the looks on the people who come to church, hear our music, and have their worship elevated by our music.

Other than this, freelancing has been a grind. It has taken me four years to build a nice resume and reputation, and I have finally started to break into the equity productions of theater in New Jersey and New York City. I have learned to double on the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and ukulele. While doing this, I have been studying guitar regularly with my teacher, Jeff, who has taken my playing to another level. Lastly, I have started multiple projects with different bands, and now, I have found myself in a great project I have started with my partner, Mike. Our band, CityScape, is a premiere event band regularly booking high-end parties, corporate events, and weddings.

As you can see, every week can be different. For me, it is important to keep a consistent and regular practicing schedule, whether it is for a new show I am learning, a new concept from Jeff in our lessons, or getting new tracks ready for the band.