Newsletter
Home: 2006 |
2005
Members Main
______________________________________________________________
The Gigging
Essentials - Essential Guide to Gigging
By
Nathan Hallford
Getting yourself known is
one of the hardest aspects of being in a band. As
Radiohead once said, anyone can play guitar, and if you
watch Pop Idol and other such programs, anyone believes
they can sing. But not everyone can take it that step
further and organise their own concert. It takes a lot
of work, a lot of convincing, and organising a music
event takes a lot of time too. Here's Blue Beam's
step-by-step guide to gigging.
The Demo
Gone are the days when a band will play live in a
garage, record it on cassette and copy from cassette to
cassette. These days, a good demo is absolutely
essential, and no band can get a gig without having a
decent CD to take with them. The quality does not have
to be of record-studio standard. You can make a home
recording using a pre-amp into your computer, or you can
record a rehearsal, if your studio has decent equipment.
Naturally, it is best if you book a couple of days in
the studio - making sure that you know your songs back
to front, and then you record two or three songs at most
in one weekend. Get everything down, print out a CD
cover, get your CD done, and you have a homemade product
you can be proud of |
|
|
The
Location
Emerging artists have to be selective. Indie music is
not played in jazz halls, and jazz music is not played
at Indie venues. When selecting where you want to play,
you have to consider yourself as the army general
planning a campaign. Each location should be considered
strategically - what will your audience be? What are the
chances of people coming along on the off chance of
seeing a band? Don't consider the money, you're an
emerging artist, not Madonna; your time will come if you
put in the hard work and you find the right places. To
build up a buzz around your band, you have to be known
within the local community, and that means finding the
places people go to regularly, and being there -
regularly.
The Promotion
Don't think that your band will automatically be given a
gig. At the best venues, there is a selection process
and the owner of the venue will seriously consider the
musical merits of each band. And of course, not
everything depends on your CD. This is where you have to
have a little marketing savvy. |
|
Your band page, of course,
is very important. Band pages have proliferated across
the internet, but they serve one particular purpose:
business cards. Your band page is where you direct
people so that they can see your promotional material,
they can hear your music, and they can see what you have
done.
You should have a press kit both on paper and online.
Emerging artists always have a concise, precise press
kit, with information about where the band has played
previously, what the band has already recorded, some
photographs, and some information about each member of
the band. The longer the press kit, the less likely it
is that it will be read - when putting your press kit
together, consider yourself as a journalist or as the
owner of a music venue. You don't have much time, and
you want the essential information quickly. Put it down,
make it look attractive, and have it printed properly.
When you give your CD, you will also give your press
kit. The owner of a venue will look for interesting
pieces of information to use for your promotion, as he
will then contact local magazines, radio stations,
internet radio stations and promoters, to advertise the
concert. |
|
|
Remember, everyone in the
music industry is looking to make money. That's why it
exists. The owner of a music venue is looking to get
people in his venue, to sell tickets and to sell drinks.
You have to convince him that you will get people in!
The Buzz
So let's imagine that you have given your CD and press
kit to a venue, and they have given you a date.
Congratulations. You have done the first part. Now you
have to create a buzz around that date, and here's where
the internet comes in. You have a mailing list - use it.
Use your band page to accumulate a mailing list, and
make sure that your next gig is well advertised on the
band page - there is every chance that people will visit
your site more than once if they like your music, and
they will want to keep in touch with what is happening.
Create a flyer with your logo and the essential
information. Make sure that the flyer can be displayed
on-screen at 100% - this is very important because most
people will be viewing your flyer on-screen. |
See if you can
get a cheap deal on printing - there are many offers out there
for musicians who want to print their flyers and you should be
taking advantage of them. Go round other venues and distribute
your flyers - you can stand outside and hand them out, or leave
them with all the other flyers. Marketing gurus say that 1 in 10
will look at the flyer, and that 1 in 100 will go to the
concert. Make your flyer attractive, and you can improve those
statistics considerably. Indie music has grown through hard
work, and those emerging artists who have the wit and
intelligence to do something a little difference will find that
the hard work pays off quicker!
Next, you want to contact your local radio stations, internet
radio stations, and local magazines. Every local magazine has a
listings section, and it is often free to be in it. Maintain
good contacts with the journalists who write these sections,
send them a CD, your press kit, and your flyer, with a letter
telling them about the date of the concert. Remember, those
previous statistics still count - 1 in 10 people will look
seriously at it, and 1 in 100 will go. Improve your promotion
and you improve those statistics. Internet radio is also very
important because it expands your audience at an incredible
rate. Get yourself on an internet radio station and you will
find yourself listened to not just in your community, but all
over the place, pushing yourself up the ratings, and into a more
prominent position.
Make sure also that your webpage is prominent in all of your
promotional buzz. If you get people visiting your site, they
will naturally be more interested in your concert. A music event
requires this kind of buzz for anything to happen!
Preparations
Any gig requires a certain amount of preparation music-wise.
Don't leave anything to chance. Make sure that you have your set
list prepared well in advance, and make sure that you know the
links between each song perfectly. If your lead singer is going
to talk between songs, make sure that the rest of the band knows
where, and that you move seamlessly between songs. There is
nothing worse than a group on stage that doesn't know what's
coming next - when the audience sees musicians talking to each
other between songs, they are excluded from the experience, and
the music event becomes a purely egotistical trip for the band.
You need to work closely together, because independent musicians
alone do not make an indie band. There needs to be a
near-telepathic connection between each member of the group, and
if your concert is to be a success, you need to make the most of
your rehearsal time and perform your concert several times over
so that everyone knows what to do.
On The Day
You have promoted your concert, you have the buzz, you have used
your mailing list, and you are guaranteed an audience. If you
are human, you will be feeling the butterflies in your stomach,
you have created a music event, and you are about to actually do
it. If you have rehearsed enough, you should be prepared well
enough for any mishaps - and beware: mishaps do happen, you
can't avoid them.
Arrive early, and make sure that you get on well with your sound
engineers. If the venue doesn't have one, then you should always
have one yourself, because it is essential that you have someone
who can listen to how you sound in the rest of the room. Take
time during your soundcheck to make sure that your return
speakers are well positioned and that everyone can hear exactly
what they want to hear. Don't be afraid to speak up and say that
you can't hear your own voice or your own guitar - this is your
chance to make your music event the perfect experience not just
for the audience but for you!
Always, always remember your settings - check your amp, check
your instrument, check everything, and write everything down.
Many bands forget to do this, and it's the most essential part
of a soundcheck. The sound engineer will write everything down
behind the sound deck, but it is your responsibility to remember
everything on stage. Once you've done this, once you've
soundchecked with three or four different songs, and you feel
confident with the sound you are creating on stage, then you're
ready.
You have successfully created your event. Emerging artists have
to do everything themselves, or at least they do until a
promoter comes along and sees what they are doing. Every
successful band, from U2 to Nirvana, has gone through the
initial stages of sending of demos, creating press kits, and
convincing venue owners that they are worth the risk. They have
all had to go out and try to convince people that they are worth
the entrance money. Once you have got your foot in the door,
there's no stopping you. Add the music event to your press kit,
add the photos to your band page, write about your experience on
blogs, and keep going. Indie music is all about hard work, and
independent musicians know very well that it's worth it.
About The Author:
Play
With Your Band in our New York City Gig in Manhattan.. Thousands
of people will attend our gig. Click here for more information
Back to Top
______________________________________________________________
|
