Getting And Performing Gigs – Independent Music Advice

Pay Musicians More For Gigging! A Open Letter To Event Organizers

By event organizer Thom Milson.

I grew up heavily involved in my local music scene: I knew the bands, and the promoters well enough that I called them my friends. As soon as I was old enough I started organizing shows so my favorite local bands could be heard and seen more. I had a fair crack at it, but as the years went on other things took over, and I moved into other realms. I remember that time fondly, especially because I helped many bands get going, both fan base wise, as well as financially. Now, for many reasons I’m being drawn back into the world of promotion, and I’m noticing quite a few differences in the way the local promoters now operate: they don’t pay the bands.

How to Rock the Audience When They Least Expect It

by Shaun Letang

This is a contributed guide by Nils at Bandologie. “It’s the story of a successful promotional concert me and my band did. The scene? 9:15am in a school break hall in front of shocked pupils.” If you have anything helpful to contribute to one of our sites, contact us here.
Here you can read about one of the most powerful independent music promotion events that I participated in.

At the age of 24, I became a product manager at the major record label BMG. Before that though, I used to play the drums in a heavy metal band for several years.

Like many musicians, we often tried to get local venues to allow us to gig. This though, wasn’t always easy. Most musicians almost beg club owners and bookers to play another gig, but there is a better way: While begging can work from time to time, the only solution to carry on getting gigs in the long run is to get a bigger audience to your concerts. Not easy I know, but true. As they say, “Don’t shoot the messenger”.

How To Tour With A Band – Tips For Your First One

by Shaun Letang

This is a guest post from Jeff Fields of Allcases. If you have the knowledge to contribute to this site, find out how to write for us.
Three bass players and two vocalists later, you’ve finally put together something that resembles a tour-worthy band. Congratulations. Now all that remains is to tour the world, score a radio hit, and
live the rock star life, right? Not exactly.

If becoming a rock star was easy, everyone would do it. A huge radio hit is not out of the question, but for most bands, a lot of tours in vans are part of the long road to success.

I’m not here to tell you how to make great music. Chances are, you’ve got that down (And if you don’t, this blog post won’t help). What I can do is offer some useful tips to keep you playing together long enough to give yourself a shot.

How To Build A Drum Room For Beginners

by Shaun Letang

This is a guest post from Mike Sorensen of Acoustic Fields. If you have a music related guide that you feel will be useful to our readers, please submit them here.
If it gets to the stage where you’re making money from your music career, you may want to consider creating a rehearsal space to practice and record your music. There are two main things I’ve seen that can hinder bands:

Money issues. As in not having enough of it.
Finding a place to practice where everyone around doesn’t complain about the noise.

Rehearsal and recording studios can prove expensive to hire in the long run, and can be a real drain on band finances. As a result, a lot of bands look to set up their own space in a garage, an empty warehouse, or at the local railway arches.

A Preparation Guide For Your First Live Performance

by Shaun Letang

This is a guest post from Andy Chubb. If you are an experienced musician / business person with a working knowledge of the music industry (And something useful to share), please consider contributing to this site.
Playing your first gig can be a very nerve racking experience. Whether it’s in front of a few friends or in front of a room full or strangers, it’s not easy to escape those first gig nerves. They can have you feeling terrible right until the ‘dreaded’ experience is over, at which point you’ll realise the actual performance wasn’t that bad. But the nerves leading up to it? Well, that part isn’t quite so fun.

A lot of the time, nerves come due to a lack of organisation and not knowing what to expect. While you can’t fully know what to expect on your first gig, being prepared can go a long way in helping ease those nerves.

I thought it might be a good idea to write down a few hints and tips for those who are going to play their first gig. As a reasonably experienced musician myself, I would like to pass on some advice that will hopefully help others out. If you find these tips useful, please share them on your favourite social networking sites, or leave a comment below.

How To Be A Wedding Singer

by Shaun Letang

Today we have a guest post by Sam from Music Live UK on how to be a wedding singer. If you have ever been interested in making some money as a singer at people’s weddings, then you need to read this article!

If you are a talented singer with good on-stage presence, then you could consider a career as a wedding singer. Weddings are big business all over the world. By providing quality entertainment at some of these weddings, you can easily build a career for yourself. Yes, wedding singing is a competitive market. But with a combination of talent and good marketing skills, you can earn yourself a very good living.

How To Get Gigs For Your Band Or Yourself

by Shaun Letang

As a independent musician, you’ve probably at one point wondered how to get gigs for your band. Doing live shows is an important part of anyone’s music career, it’s a great way of meeting your fans face to face and allowing them a different kind of contact with you. It’s also a great place to make CD sales and build up life long fans, as if you impress with a performance you’ve got a lot of power at that moment.

A problem many musicians face however is being able to get gigs to perform at. If you’ve never performed at a show before, what proof have you got to show venues you’re worth hiring? Thankfully there are ways around that, which is what I’m going to share with you in this article. May I say though, if you’ve never done a show before and are nervous about the whole thing, check out our post on dealing with pre gig nerves. There’s some good tips in there about getting shows to practice your live performances too, so have a look. But anyway, here are how to get your band booked (Also works for solo musicians).

Dealing With Gig Nerves And Performance Nerves, The Ultimate Guide

by Shaun Letang

Suffer from gig nerves? Then this is the article for you…

Public speaking is seen to be a fate worse then death for some. The process of standing in front of a room full of people delivering a speech can make even the most bubbly person shake from head to toe. If you want to take your music career to the next level however, most likely you will have to speak in public at some point. And not only will you have to speak, but you’ll also have to perform your music and get on an elevated stage so everyone can see you CLEARLY. Sound fun? Well actually, it can be once you get used to it! Some people truly believe performing live to fans and connecting with them in person is one of the best parts of being a musician. If you’re one of the people who suffer from pre gig nerves or performance nerves however, we’ve created a guide to minimizing pre-performance nerves, and getting you comfortable with performing shows once and for all…