Five ways to get more gigs
If your goal is to get more gigs and play better venues, these five tips can help you make the most of your time and energy and give you a plan of attack. Read More.
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Sick for the gig? Here are tips to get through the show in one piece.
Here are some practical tips to help you deal when stars (and germs) align to make you sick for the gig you’ve been looking forward to play. Read more.
Develop a home base before moving to regional music venues
There’s an advantage to concentrating your live performance development in local music venues as you plan for future tours in new and wider territories. Start your career in a central place – your hometown or a town nearby – then expand outward from that central point. Read more.
Have you outgrown your favorite music venue?
Growth is good, but grow with awareness as you move to the next level. The truth is, most acts move too quickly. They think they’ve reached a level of success that they simply have not. Carefully assess every step of your success before charging ahead thinking you’re ready to move on. Read more.
Modify the drums (and more) when a venue pulls the plug
Last week, Echoes published an article about my unexpectedly unplugged and unamplified live music performance at an outdoor festival. The entire band had to make adjustments to accommodate the requirements of the gig – and drummer Rob Mitzner, in particular, relied on a setup he’s customized just for such circumstances. Read more.
Gigging without electricity – how we made it through the show in the park
I had thought that, even though the gig was outdoors, we would have no problem plugging in amps and instruments. Many parks have outlets tucked away inside lamp posts and maintenance buildings, accessible for public events. As we moved closer to the date, we discovered the city would not in fact turn on the juice. Read more.
Are you building a music career or just filling the calendar?
Have you ever felt frantic about getting more gigs on your schedule? Depending on your goals and where you are in your music career, that may be exactly the thing to do. If you are in this to create a lasting career in music, one that builds momentum and progresses from one level to the next, you need a plan when booking music gigs. Read more.
Expand your audience with opening act and support slots
One way to expand your audience is to serve as an opening act for a better-known artist on multiple tour dates or one local show. Sometimes you can get lucky and be in the right place at the right time, but if you’re more interested in strategy than chance, here are three suggestions to help you land some of these choice performance slots. Read more.
Got an unconventional gig? Use unconventional promotion.
Unconventional venues require additional promo on your end and you should see it more as an active partnership with the venue. Rather than expecting the venue to promote you to their followers or patrons and pack the house for you, you generally will need to anticipate some involvement when it comes to spreading the word. Read more.
How to find and play unconventional music venues
When jazz pianist Vijay Iyer scheduled the New York City release show for his 2015 album Break Stuff, he didn’t choose a standard venue. Iyer’s concert was staged in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Iyer isn’t the first artist to eschew traditional clubs and concert halls in favor of more unique performing grounds. Read more.
Another awful music gig
In “Tales of the worst music gigs ever,” we shared a handful of on-the-gig horror stories and lessons learned from them. While those stories were all wrenching in their own rights, here is one from New York bassist Dmitry Ishenko that stands in a category of its own. Read more.
The Super Bowl halftime show wades into controversy
Updated January 2019. Solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the fraught politics of professional football, and a missed opportunity to feature Atlanta hip hop have created controversy for the Super Bowl LIII halftime show. Read more.
Tales of the worst music gigs ever
Every musician has stories of the best gig ever, that performances where the music, the crowd, and the stars aligned. Then there’s those other times when nothing goes right. Gear explodes, drunks attack, people vanish… But even the worst gigs can be valuable learning experiences. Read more.
Focus on song intros for your live performances
A good intro will set up what is going to happen next. With most artists and most songs, it’s one of the first parts of a song I need to rearrange. We want to capture and engage the audience, make sure people are with you. I use the analogy of a mother hen gathering her chicks, making sure they are with her and together before she crosses the street, rather than just taking off and hoping they follow. Read more.
Owning the crowd: music performance tips from the “One Man Sideshow”
You might have great songs and finely-honed chops, but engaging an audience from the moment you walk on stage until the moment your last note fades is another skill entirely. Here are tips from David Darwin (AKA The One Man Sideshow) for indie artists on what to do before, between, and during songs to make your entire music performance as powerful as your individual songs might already be. Read more.