The glamorous life of a travelling musician
The life of a travelling musician is not all champagne and private jets. Unfortunately, for the bulk of us it is usually a bit more pedestrian than that!
Mode of travel
Often, if it's possible and I have the time for the travel I always prefer trains! Europe has a decent network of high speed trains that are usually quite comfortable and relatively stress free. It is a nice sort of travel that is more relaxing than an airport and gives you a nice leisurely few hours to write Steemit posts.
However, there are two big downsides to trains. The first thing is that you really need to keep an eye on your baggage. Thieves are not uncommon, and at stations they come in and just pick up a bag from the luggage rack and leave straight away. It's quick, and you will not notice if you don't pay attention.
The second downside is keeping track of where you are. Announcements are made in different languages and are often incomprehensible anyway! Plan your trip, know your changes!
The other mode of travel is by plane. Essential for the longer tours. Depending on the group I play for, it could be a great airline or a crappy economy one. As a violinist, there is the nightmare of the check in desk. The uncertainty of whether the person behind the desk will allow my violin on board. This is stressful beyond belief!
On the other hand, the bonus with travelling with planes is free frequent flyer points! The orchestra pays the travel!
Accommodation
Sometimes, we get a budget place. This is the time to check for bed bugs! And to see if the previous tenants have left a nice surprise under the bed...
Other times it is jackpot time!
Sometimes, the group will give an option of credit towards booking an airbnb in the city we are staying in. This is a mixed bag, often the more affordable ones are too far from the concert hall and it is an extra layer of fuss to deal with. In the other hand, if you are travelling with family, then this is a better option!
Regardless of the quality of the accommodation, for some reason I keep getting water all over the bathroom floor! Why does this happen?
Breakfast
Again this is completely linked to the amount of money that the orchestra has to splash around.
It can definitely be feast
Source
Or famine.
Photo by @bengy
My favourite places to travel (for breakfast) are France and Spain. Tortilla for breakfast has to be one of the best things ever!
Internet
Internet whilst travelling is a pain in the arse. Hotel wifi is dodgy at best, and potentially woefully slow. Even with a VPN, it is really not a great idea to do anything too important!
Which is why I'm thankful for the EU directive about roaming. From 2017, there is no roaming for EU sim cards within the EU. Normal data, sms and phone calls, just like you were at home!
Thanks EU! This makes up for your other problems!
Sightseeing
Unless you have free days on your schedule, forget about it. If you are lucky, you might snatch a couple of hours to see something. But when I'm away, I want the time to read, play a game or watch a movie!
Jetlag
The old guys in some of the better known orchestras that I play in moan about the old days (in between moaning about everything else!). Days where there was paid jet lag recovery days. These days, it's land, rehearse then perform. Repeat for a week or two or more...
Travel, the necessary evil
For a musician, travel is a necessary evil. I like being at home. I love sleeping in my own bed. I hate moving around.
Since having a family, I appreciate the 'me' time, but I would trade it all for the comfort of being home.
However, despite all these hardships, the audience will never know and won't care. The mark of a true professional is the ability to take these things in your stride and bring out the magic and commitment night after night.
Please let any classical musicians or classical music lovers that you know to subscribe to @classical-music, and to start using the #classical-music hashtag, so we can try and grow our community! Join us at our Dischord: https://discord.gg/ppVmmgt
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Thanks, I saw the post. There are a lot of entries. To do it justice, I think I will need to do it from a laptop at the hotel rather than a phone.
Great @bengy it is thoughtful from you ✌
The Life of a Musician is no way easy. After spending various hours travelling just like you have highlighted above, you still need to perform and thrill your audience. The fans however, do not care if you are tired or not. They want you at your best.
Too true, it is our job to overcome these obstacles and be the best!
Love the way to talk about the good with the bad :D I would definitely like this to be the second post amongst the Classical Music Discord group to pick up a heap of votes! We can't all travel and play like Yo Yo Ma but at least we can still try to make the most of it :p
That's right, we can't all be superstars and be always pampered. To get there we need to lump it and still do well, that's the only way to stay sane!
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Baaaangggg! Nice article! Interesting life!
Thanks! It is an interesting life, in both the good and bad meanings! But I wouldn't trade it for anything else!
Nice post. I’ve heard horror stories of instruments being damaged on airplanes...even in their cases. Must be extra challenging for those with larger instruments.
Yup, oddly enough the larger instruments tend to be safer. They have special cases that are made for flying. The little ones like violins are not good for going under in the hold.plus you can throw them further...
Awesome dude I write about music too! Followed
Thanks, look forward to seeing your articles.
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That was a pretty nice write up, I loved it, I myself have always hated travel, but like music, so now I need to listen to "Turn the Page", your post reminded me a lot of that song. Have you thought of having a fixed feature for you music post like this where at the end you have a small gif of a violin and it links to one of your short performances, or long ones.
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That's a good idea! Although, my signature is getting as long as a post in itself! Have you got a tutorial on how to do that? I tried looking for one before, and I wasn't able to make it work.
Unfortunately not, I have seen some people with little d-sound images, that play when clicked, so not sure where or when I saw it. One of the open mic people might know how, I think it was on one of the participants sites. If I do find it I will try to add it to my list, I keep learning new html/markup stuff all the time.
Thanks for keeping an eye out! How do you do the links with the pictures in the signature of the content?
It is a little complicated but not to bad, so to get this (Your personal banner going back to your blog page:
type in the following code:
<a href="https://steemit.com/@bengy"><img src=https://steemitimages.com/DQmNkGnZTTNr9JKU2Z7oMKRSQBHi8pYb4Pc1o7XggG14FNA/DQmXDFhqQrKJrKavGxmhTuLaF2iR3JkZKJzPPj4vFK6Pkvu_1680x8400.png></a>The first part is the link you want your picture to go back to example your steemit page, the img is the link for the picture.
Thanks, I will tinker with this. Maybe the music thing is similar!
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