I have had a guitar under the bed since I was 10. No musical person in my life whatsoever. The first one broke so I bought another one on the recommendation of a music store (completely wrong guitar with hindsight). It gathered dust. When I was around 50 we moved and there were some music stores around that did lessons. 'That will do it'. Nah Discovered Guitar Noise on the WWW. All text based then, but learned a lot. Finally got a cheap electric guitar. Found I liked electric a lot better but eventually bought a decent acoustic as I couldn't be bothered plugging things in. Played after work every day until a friend of mine said it wasn't really very good. So away went the guitars. 2007 and I say 'stuff you' I am going to learn the guitar. I discover very early Justin Guitar on YouTube and basically learnt most of what I know from him. He is a very good teacher. The very first song I learnt was Take me home country roads. I would bash at it every evening. Eventually I got it, including the F#m (in A) barre chord. More about this at the end - trying to keep it short (Ha). I went to a community music group. Was introduced to a mic and had to learn to strum my chords, keep my face in the mic and follow my lead sheet without glaring at the fret board. Met some friends there and we started playing together. Really rough stuff, but all fun. It was very on and off as I often had to work away for weeks and months on end, so the music suffered. Finally retired 8 years ago and still playing with the friends. The music group had gone to the dogs, so that was no longer happening. Just before COVID we found a guy learning the drums and he joined us. My wife started learning the bass and playing with us. We did a couple of very shaky gigs at a friend's church and then another at a school centenary. You know the ones - we spent months trying to get things right. Dragged all our gear in their. Nervous as hell. Start playing to the walls with the occasional face appearing in the doorway.

I've got a rare Friday night off, so I thought I'd throw something out there to our members in different parts of the world. I've noticed something interesting over the years when it comes to tips, and I'm curious whether it's the same elsewhere. Here in Australia, tipping musicians isn't really part of the culture like it is in some other countries. But when it does happen, I've noticed a pretty consistent pattern. When I play in more affluent areas, I rarely receive tips. Yet when I'm playing in working-class, blue-collar areas, people seem far more generous. And it's not just the tips. I generally find those gigs much more enjoyable too. The crowds are more responsive, more willing to have a laugh, sing along and actually engage with you. There's something refreshingly genuine about those audiences. In the wealthier areas, I often find people a little more reserved and harder to connect with. Not always, of course, but often enough that I've noticed the pattern. You'd think people with more disposable income would be more inclined to throw a few dollars your way, but in my experience, it's frequently the opposite. And before anyone gets upset, I'm not suggesting wealthy people are all miserable tightarses. Some of them are perfectly pleasant tightarses. 😂 I'm genuinely interested in hearing what others have experienced, particularly those of you in countries where tipping musicians is much more common. Do you find working-class audiences more generous and engaged? Or has your experience been completely different? I'd love to hear how this varies around the world.

Thought we'd try something a little different this week! If you've got a gig coming up this weekend, let us know where you're playing, what sort of gig it is and what part of the world you're in. Pub, club, wedding, corporate gig, private party or a three-hour acoustic set in the corner while everyone watches the football. 😂 And if you're NOT gigging this weekend, let us know what you're up to instead. You never know, there might be another Pro Muso member just around the corner who could pop in and say hello! So, who's playing where this weekend? 🎸

I'm working on a new app at the moment and I'd really like some feedback from the gigging musicians in here before I go too far down the rabbit hole. The idea is deliberately simple. A lyrics and setlist app for musicians who DON'T need 400 features and an engineering degree to work out how to use it. 😂 It won't have MIDI or a heap of complicated automation. The focus is on making the things most of us actually need onstage really easy: - Create and organise setlists - Lyrics with simple autoscroll - Easily change the font size - Add chords directly into your lyrics - Clean, simple interface - Quick to set up and easy to use during a gig Basically, build your setlist, open the song, hit scroll and play. I'm already building it, but I'd love some input from people who actually gig. Would you use something like this? And more importantly, what ONE feature would you consider essential in a simple lyrics/setlist app? I'm deliberately trying to avoid feature creep, so don't turn it into the cockpit of a 747 just yet. 😂

For all the musos from the land of Oz. Not sure if this subject has been discussed before but I’m interested to know what effect the pay day super rules have had on payments from venues or agents. There is so much confusion out there and quite frankly is causing major trauma for some booking agents. Personally the old cashy will always be a winner but that is getting harder to find. Anyone with thoughts?