Now that I am a musician of, shall we say, a certain age, I find that younger musicians and artists ask me for advice fairly regularly. I find this a bit puzzling. Though I’ve been playing music for a very long time, and have been successful at it by my own standards, that hasn’t translated into either money or fame to any significant degree. However, I have learned a few things along the way. These are some principles that have worked for me, and I’m sure they will work for you. A lot of them translate well into other areas of life besides music.

• If you are working for someone else, be a solution, not a problem. Life is full of problems, try not to add to them. Solutions are what people want.
• As a working musician, you have three basic assets: your reliability, your ability to get along with people, and your playing ability. In that order. Think about it. If you’re the bandleader, do you want the adequate player who’s there at start time, is polite to everybody, and is happy to be there? Or do you want the genius who shows up half an hour late, gets into an argument with someone at the venue, and acts like he’s doing everybody a favor by playing with them? I live and work in New York City. There are a lot of people who can really play here, and more arrive every day. That doesn’t explain why musician A works and musicians B, C, D, and E don’t, even if they play better than A.
• If you say you are going to do the gig, do the gig. Don’t cancel at the last minute because someone offers you ten dollars more to be somewhere else. (See #1.) I’ve actually seen people do this. A lot of what people hire you for is reliability. So be reliable. Being a reliable person and a great player is a potent combination. You’ll make up the ten bucks down the road.
• If you know you are going to absolutely hate the gig, don’t take it! Find some other way to make money. You’ll be happier, and so will everyone else. I recently worked with a world class player who repeatedly made it quite obvious to everyone involved, including the leader, that he was only there for the money. His attitude was so bad that he didn’t even want to stick around to fix his parts at a recording session because he had something of his own happening the next day and was worried about getting enough sleep. I’ll play with this guy again if necessary, though I’d be happy never to see him again. But I will never under any circumstances recommend him. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone else who experienced his behavior feels exactly the same way. Most of your work will come from other musicians. So be someone that people are happy to see on the gig.
• The vast majority of gigs you will do are not glamorous. (I’ve run into some very well-known musicians in some unlikely situations.) Don’t be dark about it. Deal with it. Find something about your playing that you can work on until it’s over. You can always work on your tone and your time, for example, no matter what the gig is.
• Excellence is a habit. Every time you play with other people, or in front of people, is a chance to advance your career. Give 100% no matter how lame the situation is. Sooner or later someone will notice your work and the lame situations will start to fall away. Be prepared. Know the material and write yourself charts or notes if necessary. Even when I’m working with artists who don’t read music or send charts (which is most of them), they really like it when they realize I have charts. It sends a message that I care about the gig, which I do. It facilitates rehearsals as well.
• The great percussionist Larry McDonald is the source of this one: “Communication is the currency of the road.” If you are late, communicate! Unless you are dead or in surgery, there is no reason why you can’t tell the bandleader or client that you are running late. They are going to be upset anyway. Providing either inaccurate or no information about your arrival time isn’t going to make that go away. Be honest about when you will get there. If you give them accurate information in a timely manner, they have options. They can start on time without you. They can call a sub. They can talk to the client and renegotiate the start time. If they have no idea where you are, all they can do is stare at their phone. If you communicate, there is a solution. If you don’t communicate, you make the problem worse.  I see people screw this one up all the time, including a lot of pros who should know better.
• Don’t play too loud for the room, or the gig. I’ve replaced more than one guitarist who made this mistake. Wouldn’t you rather be working and feeling a bit uncomfortable about your sound than sounding great at home with your amp cranked? I would.
• Show up with your gear working and your instrument properly intonated and set up. Carry spare strings, batteries, a tuner, cables, a mic, pedals, a music stand, a light, and a backup amp. (In a perfect world I’d carry a backup speaker cab too, but that’s not viable for most things in NYC.) The state of my car trunk is a running joke among people who know me, but when something goes wrong, even for somebody else, I often have a solution in there. If you have a MIDI cable for the keyboardist/bandleader, he’going to remember. I have one, even though I don’t use MIDI for anything. (See #1.) Stuff happens, but try to have an answer ready when it does.
• We all have opinions about other musicians. Be really careful about where and to whom you express them if they are negative. Word travels fast, and it doesn’t help your career. Don’t blow smoke either. If a compliment is insincere, most people can tell. And don’t spread gossip. The world doesn’t need to know everything you know. When in doubt, lay out!
• Everyone has an ego, even if you don’t see it. (I have to thank the late B. B. King for this valuable insight.) Behave accordingly.
• If you have to correct someone’s playing or attitude on the gig, do it as discreetly as possible, ideally one on one during a break. (I’ve worked for people who did the exact opposite, over the microphone, making sure everybody within earshot knew there was a problem. It can be very effective, but it leaves scars and it isn’t necessary.)
• At some point during your career, someone won’t pay you, or will short you on the money. You have every right to be angry about this. But put a time limit on how long you are going to be angry. Then let it go. Anyone who won’t pay a working person for their labor has much worse problems than you do, whether they know it or not. Why let them live inside your head? Don’t work for them again and focus on the positive things you can do to replace the money you should have made. There are always things you can do to get more work. I know people who are consumed with bitterness over what happened to them in 1966. It doesn’t help.
• Learn how the music business works. Most musicians aren’t interested in business, including me. I find minor sixth chords, for example, much more interesting than publishing deals. But if you don’t learn where the money is, how it flows, and where your place in the chain is, you’ll get screwed a lot more than necessary. Even if you just play in a band or just play for other people, you are in business and are technically a small business yourself. Be able to find your way around the playing field.
• Good manners are important. I’m constantly amazed by how far “please” and “thank you” go when applied consistently. There are people out there who think that bad manners convey “attitude,” “street cred,” or “artistic integrity” and are somehow romantic and desirable. Whatever. Admittedly there’s a certain appeal about someone who constantly gets away with being an awful human being and even gets rewarded for it. (See Trump, Donald, or Brown, Chris.) We all have moments when we think that would be fun. But to me there’s nothing sadder than an aging bad boy or bad girl who used to be all that and no longer is. They tend not to work very much either. Folks remember.
• Develop some sort of financial plan. I dedicate different income streams to different ongoing expenses, including retirement. (I learned this trick from the late Coxsone Dodd, reggae producer extraordinaire.) The vast majority of musicians have little or no money for retirement. So you have to set that up yourself. This is what I do, based on my income sources and expenses. Your plan will probably be different depending on your sources of musical income. Cash payments for gigs go into savings for estimated tax. Cash payments for private lessons and songwriting and publishing royalties go into savings too. These income streams are for retirement, so eventually I take them out of savings and put them into better investments when I get a minute. But in the meantime they are earning interest. Payments to PayPal go to equipment purchase and maintenance. CD and digital music sales go into album promotion. Payments by check (usually the largest sums) go into checking for personal expenses.  If you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to take a little bit of money out of every musical service you get paid for, no matter how small, and put it in an envelope for retirement. Don’t raid the envelope for anything! Saving for retirement is a habit, just like musical excellence. This seems impossible at times, but when you’re my age you’ll be happy you did something.
• Declare income, take deductions, and pay taxes. Keep records and save receipts (this is much easier now in the digital world, you can photograph things.) Get an accountant that understands the music business to help you. This will actually save you money; they’ll find things to deduct that wouldn’t occur to you. You’ll get some of it back in Social Security when you retire, too. In the immortal words of Copeland Forbes, legendary reggae manager, “You don’t have to tell the government everything. But you must tell them something.” I tell them everything; I sleep better.
• Keep up with whatever is going on now in music, especially if you hate it. Don’t get stuck in your era. Admittedly this gets harder as you get older. But it really is good for you, particularly if you do session work. And keep practicing!
• Have your own project happening, no matter how small, at all times. It could be a band, a recording project, a solo artist project, an experimental jam, whatever. Doing your own thing is good for your mental and emotional health. So consistenly dedicate some time to it. Doing your own thing also helps you learn about the business when you try to get it out there.
• Be honest in your interpersonal relationships outside of music. I prefer monogamy myself. It’s one less thing for you and your partner to sort out when you get home, particularly if you are touring constantly. But that isn’t for everybody. Some people are fueled by the stimulus, conflict, and excitement of sexual adventure. And there are plenty of opportunities for that in the world of music. If fidelity is not for you, don’t lie to yourself or anybody else and pretend that it is.