1. Have at least an hour worth of music written and practiced that you are confident in.
2. Have decent recordings of at least two songs to show to promoters and venue owners, preferably diverse in your specific style (a ballad and a rocker).
3. Make sure that all the members of your band are cool with the dates of your potential shows BEFORE you accept them.
4. Make sure you have adequate equipment. Drummers, don’t use caved in drumheads. Guitarists, buy a tuner. Don’t have a job? You can donate plasma for $50.00, average band 4 members – that’s $200.00 off the bat.
- Labor World Day Labor 7.25/hr
- Donate Plasma Donateing plasma FAQ
5. NEVER take a show you’re not sure you can commit to. NEVER cancel a show unless you have no other option and make sure you do it in a timely fashion. It’d even be a good idea to suggest a replacement band.
6. Don’t bitch about your timeslot. Make sure you find out before you even accept the show and if it doesn’t work for you, then simply decline. If the promoter can’t tell you, then either tell them to figure it out first or accept and be prepared to take whatever you get. Figure on opening a lot of shows when you first start out.
7. Be on time or early. Be as quick as you can to load in and out.
8. Bring your audience for the WHOLE show, not just your slot. Don’t just play your slot and leave if you can help it, be there to watch the other bands. Making friends is not just polite, it helps build relationships that might lead to other shows.
9. Promote! Do your share. If you don’t have an audience then either
- a) You didn’t try hard enough…
- b) You aren’t that good… or
- c) You’re on the wrong kind of bill.
Don’t take every show you get offered, be sensible about the accompanying acts. The more you play out each month locally, the less you can reasonably expect people to come out. Change up your song set and write new material every chance you get, the same 8 or 10 songs over and over will get old quicker than you think.
10. Unless you arrange money before the show, don’t expect anything. If you’re in music to get paid in Louisville, you better join a cover band.
Author: Donnie Poole (Drums/Representation of Sonic Epitaph)
Get and Article on The Local Sounds
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To create link towards this article on your website,
copy and paste the text below in your page.
Preview :
1. Have at least an hour worth of music written and practiced that you are confident in. 2. Have decent recordings of at least two songs to...
© 2010 - The Local Sounds
