I have some suggestions that may make your concert work a little easier. 1. When you are booked for the show find out when lunch dinner breaks are scheduled. Usually the stage is dark or production is in penalty with the union. I have never been refused access to tune during meal breaks. 2. Make contact with the local stage/production manager. Give them your wish list. It is probably too late to do anything about your time window the day of the show. 3. Don't "Diva Out" when things don't go as planned. GET OVER IT! Nobody likes working with a sour puss. Some shows, do to unforeseeable events, your work will be more like a sporting event than craft. The more attitude you give you will get back exponentially, and there are a lot more of them than you. Spend your energy doing the best you can within the parameters provided and take pride in what you were able to achieve. Being pissed off while you work and staying pissed off the rest of the day (or weeks!) later is a negative sum game. Don't beat yourself up. 4. Take a look at the big picture. Everybody on that stage has a job to complete before the down beat. On most shows the piano is not the most important cog in the wheel (it just is to us). If it was they would be carrying their own piano and tech. Sometimes you will have to stop and start back up. Be flexible. They maybe uncultured capitalist thugs, but the stage/production manager usually not stupid and most likely knows what is of most importance to his show. 5. Be very clear with the promoter rep when you make your deal that you are on the clock (unless they buy you for the day) and the clock starts ticking at your call time. They are paying all the stage hands on the clock and any overtime they will pay you will be insignificant. Let them know up front. Maybe email to confirm. 6. Get paid in cash. They usually have a lot around and it has great tax advantages :) Michael Riffle Piano Technician/Human Piñata Frazier Hall Room 93B University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO 80639 michael.riffle at unco.edu office (970) 351-1132 cell (970) 584-TUNE (8863) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090628/e50b112a/attachment.htm>
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