A Week in the Life of a Volunteer Musician

My friend Ron Kobayashi recently did a piece in the OC Register (4/13/08) on a day in the life of a jazz musician entitled "A Good Gig, If You Can Swing It". He walked us through a typical day in his life as he worked to balance the "music part of the music business" with the business part. After reading his story, I thought about my life as I work to balance my day job with my volunteer musician schedule. Since I am currently in the "spring musical" season (a particularly busy time for me), I decided to do my own piece, "A Week In The Life of a Volunteer Musician".

In my day job, I am fortunate to work a 40 hour week, 8-5, Monday-Friday. I live fairly close to work so I don’t usually have more than a 30 minute commute each way. My work week began as usual last Monday (4/7) awakened by the alarm at 5:45 am. I generally hit the snooze button once or twice, but try to make a habit of getting out of bed by 6:00. After my shower and shave, I head downstairs to check my email, grab a cup of coffee, and sit down for my "quiet time". As a volunteer musician, I primarily play bass in Christian worship bands. Since I can be considered a "worship leader", it is important that my heart be properly aligned with the God that I help lead people to worship, so I spend around 30 minutes each day pondering inspirational materials, reading 1-2 chapters in the Bible, writing a page or two in my journal, and praying over a list of people and events that are important to me. At some point during those 30 minutes, my wife Martha joins me in the family room with her coffee, Bible and journal, and we share part of our "quiet time" together. At 7:00 we move to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. This is a tradition we have enjoyed since our children were very young and my wife was a "stay at home" mom. Our kids are grown now and Martha leaves for work shortly after I do each day but we still "break fast" together every weekday at 7:00 am.

My work day goes uneventfully (as it often does), and I head for home around 5:30 pm. After a quick dinner, I say goodby to Martha and head off for a rehearsal with the "Edsels", a rock and roll band that is preparing for an event this Friday. Things go well, I get home around 10:00 pm and head up to bed. I need my 8 hours of sleep, especially this week!

Fortunately, this particular week has no Tuesday evening rehearsals. I share bass duties with 2 other musicians at Saddleback Church on Saturday nights but because I am playing a musical at Trinity this Saturday night, I am not on the schedule at Saddleback and don’t need to attend the Tuesday evening rehearsal. I enjoy a relaxing dinner, some time in front of the TV (I should practice for the upcoming musicals but tonight I’m lazy) and I head for bed by 10:00 pm. Wednesday is also an off night. We go out after work, grab some Mexican food (at a waitress service restaurant) and enjoy a quiet evening together. Before going to bed, I load my car with all the gear I’ll need for tomorrow. I have a lot going on over the next few days and don’t want to forget anything.

Thursday starts off like every other work day, but changes quickly. After breakfast, I head off to Saddleback Church where I play for the Thursday morning Women’s Bible Study. We rehearse our music, play from 9:15 to around 9:40, and I leave just as the morning speaker begins her message. Usually I head off to work but today is different. I have an 11:00 am meeting at Trinity so I decide to drop in at a local hospital to visit a friend who has just had surgery. I spend about 20 minutes with him, arrive a few minutes late for my meeting, take care of business there and head down the freeway to be ready to work by 1:00 pm. After work I meet Martha for dinner near my office then head off down the freeway to my jazz class. I play bass in the Irvine Valley College Jazz Ensemble and we rehearse from 7-10 pm on Thursday nights. Tonight goes well as we prepare for our concert in early May. I get home a little later than usual, leave my car loaded with gear, and head up to bed. Tomorrow starts a very busy weekend.

After work on Friday, Martha and I meet for another quick dinner, this time near Trinity so that I will be at church in time for the 6:00 pm dress rehearsal of a musical that will be presented that weekend. After rehearsal I leave my gear set up because Saturday morning from 9 am - noon, I have another rehearsal in the same place for a different musical that will be presented in two weeks. After the Saturday morning rehearsal, I inform the drummer that I will not be able to make the Edsels rehearsal that afternoon. I have to go home and clean my pool because the "Santa Ana winds" have left it a mess! Fortunately, I was able to get my neighbor’s gardener to do may lawns today so only the pool needs my attention. After the pool is cleaned, I catch up on a little reading and go upstairs for a quick shower before I head off to Trinity for the 5:30 call time for tonight’s production. There are a few glitches and unfortunately the band’s performance is not as good as it could be. Tomorrow will be better. A late dinner, a little TV and it’s off to bed. Sundays I get to sleep in a little but need to be ready to play for the morning worship by 7:45. I play 2 services, get lunch with Martha and some friends, grab a short nap in the afternoon and am in my place ready to play by 5:30 that night. The show goes much better! Everyone is happy, I clean up my gear, say goodbye, and head home for another late dinner.

Laying in bed on Sunday night, I ponder the upcoming week and review my schedule... Monday night the Edsels rehearse again, Tuesday night has a Saddleback rehearsal, Wednesday night I need to work on the "Eden" show that starts in less than a week, Thursday is Saddleback in the morning and IVC Jazz Ensemble in the evening, Friday night is the Edsels gig, Saturday morning the PRES Club plays the Trinity Pancake Breakfast with Ron Kobayashi (that will be fun!), clean the pool and do the yards in the afternoon, Saddleback in the evening (I think I’ll trade with someone so that I can have the night off), Trinity again on Sunday morning and the "Eden" show starts tech week on Sunday evening. I fall asleep thankful that I have a great day job as well as a very loving and supportive wife who allows me to keep such a busy music calendar.