I play lots of weddings. I'm finding that I have some really different attitudes about this than most classical musicians that I know.

Playing at wedding ceremonies is probably the most common thing that classical musicians do to perform for money. Also the kind of gig that we're most likely to be caught complaining about. For that matter, classical musicians love to complain about pretty much any performing gigs that either aren't of the highest level of musicianship, or that are time-consuming and under-appreciated by the audience. So weddings are pretty much the ultimate culmination of the factors that classical musicians hate. The reason so many musicians play weddings anyway is that they pay quite well for a relatively short amount of time commitment.

If you catch me complaining about playing weddings, it's usually for one of 2 reasons:

1) Unrealistic Logistical Situations. Sometimes I have a role in the behind-the-scenes business arrangements at the early stages, sometimes as early as 18 months before the ceremony. Generally, wedding clientele are well-intentioned but concerned with the wrong stuff, logistically speaking. For ceremony musicians to feel comfortable and provide the best musical results, we'd ideally have a shaded, wind-less, room-temperature environment with flat ground. And we need to know details like how many people will be processing during each tune and what cues we can expect from the officiant. After trying to ensure that we know what to expect, it's almost inevitable that each wedding will still have something go awry. And if that affects my performance, that's when I start to feel like complaining.

2) Unimaginative Musical Selections. The Fairy-Tale Wedding that so many brides dream about often involves cliched musical selections - these "expected" wedding tunes are no fun to play, in the same way that Van Morrison doesn't want to play Brown Eyed Girl anymore. All too frequently, we play Pachelbel Canon and the Mendelssohn Wedding March because brides think that all the guests will be expecting them. Or even worse, we're requested to re-enact through our classical instruments some song that carries sentimental value to the couple. That's alright if it's a Beatles tune, but rather impossible if it's some synthesized contemporary Christian drivel.

Let me flip that stuff around...

On the whole, I like being a wedding musician.

On the business level, I've learned about building web pages, advertising and presenting at trade shows, making contracts, communicating with clients, managing my schedule.

On a creative level, I've set myself up to play with musicians who like to go above and beyond regarding repertoire and rehearsal. We counsel our clients on alternatives to the cliched processional tunes, and usually end up playing more music that we like than your average string quartet might.

Sometimes I get to make a new arrangement of a tune from the piano score, so I've learned about arrangement for violin and guitar and for string ensembles, as well as how to use notation software like Finale and Sibelius.

On the day of the wedding, often I get to take a nice drive in the hill country. I test my versatility by dealing with different venues, and abilities of thinking on my toes to deal with diversions from the plan.

And it fits with my number one ideal as a musician: developing audiences. Most guests at a wedding never see live musicians anywhere else. By playing more than just the greatest hits, we're opening people's ears, expanding their horizons and occasionally even inspiring someone to pick up an instrument for themselves, all in the context of making someone's special day unique and memorable.

And, oh yeah: the hourly pay is on par with doctors and lawyers. If only it was consistent or predictable, and didn't require so much prep-work and investment :-)