From YAHOO...."10 Workers to Tip This Season"The one of the ten which caught my eye:
9. Musician/Singer
Base Pay per Hour: $49.10
Tips per Hour: $4.10
Percent of Total Hourly Income in Tips: 8%
No holiday party is complete without a jazzy guitar riff playing in the background or a bright-lipped brunette cooing about winter. But, what are these pleasant sounds worth? Typical tip: $35-75 per person.
A couple things here: "Holiday Party"? WHICH holiday? 85% of America's Christian.....is it so offensive to call it a CHRISTMAS Party, since it probably IS?
And, another thing; I got out of the singing business too early, I guess! They're expecting $49.10 an hour (actually, a little low, depending on if it's a combo or not. If it's a solo act, that's low...but what's with that TIP..PER PERSON? WHOA! Not BAD, eh? also, it RARELY happens, not per person!!)
But, my favorite was "Cooing about winter.." (yes, I used to be that 'bright- lipped brunette' singer, so I know..trust me: That will be ONE SHORT GIG: Let's see, 'winter'..what would I "coo"? .. "Frosty the Snowman" "Baby, it's Cold Outside" "Winter Wonderland" "Let it Snow" . I think that's it. And I did a bit of research to make sure.
If you're avoiding that pesky term CHRISTMAS, that's one short gig of WINTER SONGS, eh?
For THAT kind of tip? NIIIIIICE!!
heh heh!!
z
27 comments:
A woman like that, she could sing anything she wanted and I'd be happy just to look at her! It would certainly liven up the Christmas parties up here in the mountains if we had Christmas party singers.
But we don't...... :-(
One gets sick of it after a while, the happy holidays and all that crap. But then that's probably what they want, to wear us down.
Z,
The hourly rate may sound more lucrative than it is. A friend of mine quit engineering to spend more time playing piano. Getting $50 to $100 to play at a party is nice, but isn't really a get-rich scheme when you practice around 40 hrs a week, and play one party per week.
Yes, the homage to winter is frustrating, particularly when the Christian radio stations switch to the all-Christmas music format including songs such as "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", "I'll Be Home for Christmas", and "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer". All of them mention Christmas. All of them bore me to tears. Sorry to sound like a stick in the mud, but roasting chestnuts and burning yule logs don't particularly pique my interest. "God and sinners reconciled"--now there's something I'd like to know more about.
-Tio Bowser
Hermit.....well, you can look at her here!!
MK...wearing down might be just the thing. But I think people are catching on and I'm hearing MERRY CHRISTMAS said in response to HAPPY HOLIDAYS..a good thing.
Talk about wearing down: I have to admit that last year they started so early and played SO much Christmas stuff that, by Dec 22 or so, I was telling Mr. Z it was a plot to get even ME to tire of Christmas! I swear!
Tio...I am a musician and used to figure we made about $-2.10 an hour when one considered how many hours of learning the music, rehearsals, etc. it took. You're right. My comment that it's good money was for a Christmas gig of 'holiday' songs without the word Christmas in them......3 songs for $50 isn't too bad!
As for your comment about secular songs...I have to admit I like them. As YOU know, Pastor doesn't allow them in the church ... which I understand, but...
You'll enjoy this: I was there Wednesday morning rehearsing some piano/organ with Mary, and Pastor asked if I'd be coming to the advent service that night. I told him I was SO stressed from the Christmas Program I was doing the next morning elsewhere that I thought I was going to go home and "make some dull moments for myself" since I was tired and, usually, there's "never a dull moment!"
Mark F. says "hey, Z...haven't you been to an advent service?...it's the perfect place for you tonight.....we have quite a FEW dull moments!" I thought that was a pretty good one!
I didn't go!
A truly gifted singer is worth it but I never realized you should tip them.
Hi geeez I just stopped by to wish you a great weekend.
I love that santa
*smile*
Z,
That is a nice reply by Mark. More often than not, don't those kinds of replies usually occur to you after the conversation has passed? Do the Germans really call this Treppenwitz? Or should I stop believing everything I read?
Regarding Christmas music, I find the overtly Christian music superior to the secular. If I want Christmas music, I'll listen to Joy to the World, What Child Is This, etc. If I want secular music, I'll listen to Child in Time or Immigrant Song, but the lukewarm White Christmas I spit out. I think we had a similar conversation with Bob B. regarding traditional v. contemporary music.
I don't mean to come off as browbeating as I probably sound. Just saying, Bing Crosby tunes don't do anything for me. My favorite secular Christmas song is probably John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War Is Over), so what can I say?
Tio Bowser
Tio...we did have that conversation with Bob, but that was CHURCH music, not so much Christmas music...anyway, in my mind!
I do like all the crooning, etc..love it! I like Lennon, but not THAT one!!! :0)
And yes...Treppenwitz...meant to be funny, but not REALLY FUNNY at all...
Thanks, Dude...you, too!
shoprat; if you see a singer in a club or church event or something....there's usually no need to tip her; the place will. But, at a club with a glass jar near the piano with someone singing, it's not mandatory but nice to put a few dollars in there if you enjoyed the music!
My aunt has a "Christmas Sing" every year at her home. This year on Dec. 13th. We all (the guests) do the singing, and she hires a pianist to accompany us.
The same fella has been the accompanist for years. I know she paid him $150.00 for his playing years ago, and assume he may get more now. I don't know for sure but surmise he is.
The singing starts at about 8:30 and ends at about 10:00 with a short break in the middle for some punch and we always end with The Twelve Days of Christmas.
So, figure he makes at least $100.00 an hour given that the singing is an hour and a half. He's there for two hours but not playing the whole time. He does not have a glass on the piano.
So, the question is, are we all obligated to give him a tip?
Btw, the songs include those winter songs, but it's clear that everyone sings the Christmas carols with more exuberance.
Pris
Now that I think of it, we don't even have Christmas parties, let alone Christmas party singers.
Z-I'm adding you to my favorites-
How can I not?!
You sing-write-and --my guess---you know how to draw! :-)
Thanks for your visit to my site...
Carol/CS
I've never been to a party that had a singer. Then again, I don't get out much.
Well I say party up! Christmas comes once a year and it does seem to bring the best out of most people.
Just as long as we remember the real reason for the season!
Hugs,
Layla xoxoxo
Liz, ABSOLUTELY!
It's the birth of THE most important person in the world....presents remind us of the Three Kings and their adoration (sight unseen...that's FAITH!, what a reminder)...the beauty of the season reminds us of everything good.
If we're not reminded, we either did too much or far too little, right!?
MERRY CHRISTMAS! We got our tree today! Maybe I'll post a picture when I'm finished........lights are going up and I DO IT....HELP, SOMEBODY! (ANybody BUT Mr. Z!!!!!!)
Z,
Which Lennon? I wasn't aware of Julian doing that much, and I'll be beyond shocked if you say Vladamir.
Tio Bowser
My all-time favorite is "The Little Drummer Boy"! Nothing else even comes close.
tio..I meant 'I like Lennon MUSIC' but not that one!!
In my last job as an organist and choirmaster I made $200.00 a week. That of course included a midweek choir rehearsal as well as two services on Sunday morning --- and a twenty-mile commute in each direction.
Many of the church people thought they were paying me a too much. What few ever realized --- or cared to know --- was that I spent a minimum of twenty hours a week preparing those services. I also composed new music or new arrangements of familiar music for the choir, and for myself to play on the organ on a regular basis.
I was merely following in the well-established path of such figures as J.S. Bach, who was fully expected to compose new music every week and to perform brilliantly on the organ --- and to teach Latin to the boys as well in his spare time.
Bach was often paid in cords of firewood or bushels of potatoes and the like.
The point is this: If you strive for excellence and do this work wholeheartedly for the love of Christ and to honor the Holy Spirit, there is no way you could ever expect to get paid "enough" in earthly terms.
Needless to say, there is no comparison whatsoever to warbling secular "seasonal" songs to guitar accompaniment at an office party, and presenting a well-thought-out, beautifully prepared worship service.
As a serious, well-trained church musician who worked for over forty years in the field, I have always resented the coming of what-sounds-to-me-like "Hootnannies for Him," "Cocktails with Christ," "Prayin' at the Prom" or "Worship at Woodstock."
Many parishioners have no idea whatsoever what really GOOD liturgical music is all about.
A case in point: I worked with a young Sunday School Superintendent at an Episcopal Church about twenty years ago. She was absolutely positive that Dolly Parton-Kenny Rogers, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger-style foik songs were the only way to go when working with children.
I admit to a penchant for making mischief when I feel I am confronting ignorance or hostility to learning more than someone already thinks he knows, so I went home and composed the story of the Passion and set it to YANKEE DODDLE just to show this person how using certain "good old familiar tunes," which is what she ands many others always longed for, is absolutely inappropriate to express the true meaning and character of some of our most sacred texts.
Naturally, I thought she'd "get it" immediately when I performed this travesty for her one sullen winter afternoon.
Not so! Instead she exclaimed enthusiastically, "GREAT! That's JUST the kind of thing I've been looking for. The kids will love it. Where did you find it? It's EXCELLENT!"
When I told her I made it up, she was astonished, and looked at me with new eyes.
I felt like cringing inside during this whole embarrassing incident.
Yes the basic story of the Passion was accurately told, but the whole thing was a dreadful MOCKERY and SHE could NOT see that.
Ignorance on that grand a scale is a woeful thing, and I'm very much afraid that our country is absolutely loaded with it.
Well-meaning idiocy may serve the Lord more poorly than outright wickedness, I have come to believe.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
~ FreeThinke
FT.....do you consider a song like WHITE CHRISTMAS a "Worship with Woodstock" type of song? or do you like some of those old traditional songs?
I do love the traditional secular Christmas songs, I have to admit, but they're not permitted in the church services at our church.
You sure must have done a wonderful job for your church...I know how well you play!
AVERAGE..where've you BEEN? I like Drummer Boy, too.
Am hoping to link my MARY, DID YOU KNOW here this Christmas if I can figure out HOW!!
Pris! NO, you are not obligated to tip him at ALL. Your aunt's paying well and she might be expected to give him a bit more IF he comes through an agency. If he's on his own and she knows him that well, she might add $20 to the already fair pay.
But, if he has a whiskey glass on the piano while he's singing and it's not full of whiskey, that's a clue he expects money and that he doesn't respect his hostess..that would be wrong in a personal home/family setting.
We have a restaurant nearby which is excellent and has different jazz combos almost every night..and amazing musicians, not garage-practicing types..I mean GOOD. incredible. They're paid well by the restaurant but they do keep a glass there....that's fine, that's public ..and oh, do they rake it in!
I have to admit the pianist at the restaurant I used to share a mic with during his gigs loved me because we got good tips and, since I didn't work there and was just doing it for fun, left them there for him!! fun times...REALLY fun. Tons of stories I could tell but my all time favorite was when I was singing at another place (just open mic, no paid gig) and a person approached me as I was leaving the piano and asked me to come to his table, which I did "Someone would like to talk to you"..The someone was one of the INK SPOTS! Old but charming and he gave me a very fine compliment I"ll never forget. I remember it was soon after my father'd died and it hurt me that much more thinking "If ONLY I could call Dad now and told him this great thing!" hard to even think about it...
Hi Z,
Thank you for the compliment.
I've always enjoyed "seasonal songs" like Sleigh Ride, White Christmas, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Sleigh Bells ring, Are Ya Listenin'?, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, even Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, etc.
Can't STAND Jingle Bell RocK or Feliz Navidad. UGH! And I feel the same way about most of the "modern" rockified or "blackified" versions of traditional carols. PHEW! Most of the new versions of old secular standards really STINK, although I like some of the Mannheim Steam Roller stuff --- nut not much.
But what I really object to is the blurring of scared and secular in the public's mind. When I was working, I actually had requests for Jingle Bells, Rudolf, White Christmas and such in CHURCH.
That's almost as sick as asking to hear O, Holy Night at an ORGY. (:-o
It's that old thing about some things are just NOT meant to go together. Garlic in chocolate fudge being my favorite example. ;-)
Light entertainment is great --- I love it in cocktail lounges, nightclubs, on television and in theaters --- just not in CHURCH.
And that does NOT mean that church has to be all prunes and prisms. It's just that there is a profound difference between the found in contemplating holiness, and that found in merely being sociable.
Love and Christmas blessings to all.
~ FreeThinke
FT...you're very welcome, you deserve the compliment; I know your musical background and successes!
As for "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"NO, NOT IN CHURCH! I'm with you!
I'm not big on 'mushy' music...i don't dislike all of Steamroller, but it's a bit elevator-music for me....some is beautiful, a lot of that type of music IS, but it's not my cup of tea if I had my druthers.
"Have Yourself..." is my favorite secular.
I can't stand FELIZ NAVIDAD almost as much as I can't stand the song FEELINGS!! PTUI!
You'll laugh (of cry?) when I tell you I'm singing MARY DID YOU KNOW? at church on Christmas Eve in a JAZZIER rendition than I usually do....sort of Joe Stafford does Mary Did You Know!or maybe Beyonce?... I'm a tad bit nervous because the crowd's pretty stodgy, mostly, but the organist/choir director sort of swooned (which, of course, did a LOT for my typically insecure singer's ego as she NEVER compliments anybody) when I sang a verse on Wed. for her and asked"You think I can get away with THIS that night?" Well, she's a jazz piano major so she went nuts and said it was 'fresh and wonderful' and so I'm going to try! I'm NOT telling Pastor beforehand! HEE!! Some Christmas EVe!!
ah holiday songs are the best Z!
I've got a thrash metal version of Jingle Bells by Korn if you're so inclined.
So there was an episode of South Park (I guess I'm admitting to having watched it) where Cartman won some awards as a contemporary Christian musician by taking pop songs and replacing the word "baby" with "Jesus". I actually thought the show made a valid point.
Does Carrol of the Bells count as secular Christmas music? I don't know the lyrics, but that would be my favorite if it qualifies. Otherwise, probably some of the Nutcracker numbers. Also, I think the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is excellent. Does that contradict my stodgy rants? And what's wrong with stodgy?
Tio Bowser
Beamish,
Would you settle for Twisted Sister's "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" to the tune of "We're not Gonna Take It"?
Tio Bowser
YA, TIO...I can't do those nondescript big orchestra sounding kind of things...it's just not me.!!
FT..I heard JINGLE BELL ROCK in the car today and, you know what? I like it..can't HELP singing with it! "Jingle bell time is the best time to rock the night away.." Ya, I hate to admit it but I LIKE IT!
Beamish. What's KORN?? A real flake, huh!? hee hee
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