Is there a "Best day of the week" to get Gigs?

Large marketing companies whose business it is to know what works and what doesn't, spend $000's analysing things like the best days of the week to try and sell or pitch their products.

The fact is, not all days of the week are created equal when it comes to the average attitude of your potential "buyers".

As far as gig venues are concerned, whether you're approaching them in person with a personal visit or trying to interest them on the phone, some days of the week will work better for you than others.

It's not only days of the week, but times of the day that can make big differences to whether or not you get the gig.

There's one main reason for this and its no different from when someone tries to sell you something. It boils down to have much time you feel you have available to listen. How open you are.

For venues, Thursdays, Fridays and the weekend are not generally good times to try and approach them. They should be busy and preoccupied with their daily trade. If they're not at that time of the week the chances are they won't be around long enough to become a regular venue for you.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will prove to be your best days for targeting new venues for gigs. This is when the bookers will have more time to listen and will be able to think and plan ahead rather than managing the busy day to day affairs. Time-wise, leave it until after 2.30pm.


If you can't call in the afternoon (the best time in my experience), then do it after 6:00pm but early enough to avoid the main evening trade.


How to get gigs

How to Get Gigs at the Last Minute

Picture the scene: the club manager is putting the finishing touches to the New Year's decorations ready for the big night.

He's sold all the tickets and is looking forward to a great New Year's eve with lots of happy party-goers filling his tills on the biggest night of the year.


Suddenly the phone rings at the venue. It's the guitarist from the band due to play tomorrow night. He apologetically tells the venue manager that the singer has a throat infection, lost his voice and they won't be able to do the gig. Can you imagine the panic?







Where's any venue going to turn when they're in this predicament? They might ring an agency who may or may not have an act spare for New year's eve.

They will certainly check they're files for details on any other bands who they may have used before or who may have contacted them.

If your band is up for a gig at short notice can you see how useful it would be to have been sending this venue a regular monthly newsletter and in particular adding the phrase "Some dates in December still available" to the one which you sent early this month?

Can you imagine the leverage you'd have with the size of your fee in cases like these? What about the potential for future gigs at this venue now you've helped them out in their time of need.....















How to Get Gigs

Are Band Gigs the No1 method of Band Marketing?

Or maybe, are they an end in themselves?

Here's yet more weight to the argument that gigging itself is what music success is all about for bands and solo artists now in the digital age.

For the majority of professional and big name acts, the real money is being made on live gigs.

Point 1 on the post above recommends giving away free samples of your music in order to get people to your shows. If you're one of those still worried about giving their creations away for no profit, you'll see we're reminded that:

"Nothing sells music better than hearing the music itself" ...

It used to be that live shows were simply a method of promoting the new CD. Now the whole thing has kind of reversed into:

"Music is the calling card, the live show is the product"

For the semi-pro and aspiring gigging amongst us, what's the benefit?

The growth in the number of people watching pro & name act gigs stimulates the overall gigs market and drives the need for acts in the smaller venues.

When Your New band Member Cancels First Gig

An email from an exasperated guitarist in an Indie band this week. Four months on from trying to recruit their new drummer they finally managed it. After the new guys impressive initial audition they arranged to meet up again to discuss working practises for the band.

The idea was to make sure there was more to this drummer than simply his rhythm. To try and check out they'd really got the right man..

They worked out beforehand what items they needed to talk through to make sure the new member understood and "signed up" to the band expectations.

Areas they covered were in this New Band Member Gigging post

Everything on the list was gone through and agreed with the new guy and the First Gig duly confirmed with a new venue.

Then came the first full rehearsal. Disaster. The drummer had done absolutely no work learning prior to the rehearsal and was using the full band practise to familiarise himself with the songs themselves never mind his own parts. The result was the first gig cancelled and one skin-beater exiting stage left - before shooting a single rim at a band gig.


The band felt they'd taken all the precautions to make sure they'd got the right person, so what went wrong? When I checked some of the detail, in fact the warning signs were there from the start. Besides turning up for his audition with a girlfriend he was significantly late for both the audition and the follow-up discussion. He had later postponed the first full rehearsal for "Personal Reasons".

Ultimately though, anyone new band member can say they agree to operate the way the others suggest. Action is all that counts.

The band have since decided that there needs to be a stage in between initial auditions and appointing the new person. Namely, agreeing some new unfamiliar material for the person to learn by a set date and checking he can do that for himself ahead of the rehearsal.

Until then any candidate still "being auditioned". It might take them longer but it should help them weed out more time wasters. Oh, and they've resolved to heed warning signs like habitual lateness....

Getting "Gigs" on the Street

I read about someone today who makes as much money from busking on the streets as he does from his on stage gigs.

Street Performer

Although I've seen and heard some great singers on street corners while out shopping with the Mrs, I've always thought of these performers as people who can't get "normal" gigs. The only possible positive being that playing that way might help a novice toughen up for eye-balling an audience and performing in front of them.

The fact that the guy in the post concedes his street work is as lucrative as some of his stage gigs is fascinating. What was also surprising is that he had to audition for work on the Subway!

But, the weather where I am is probably a lot worse than in Denver so I don't think I'll be joining him any time soon even if I had no gigs....


On the subject of street performing, here's an earlier post of mine on the subject (and audience interaction) if you're interested in more.

Wrap up well....

How to get Gigs: with or without cover songs?

On Tuesday this week I talked with a couple of gigging bands in the US who write their own material and who wanted to get more gigs. Two days later here in the UK I bumped into a friend who's a regular local gig-goer.

This guy doesn't play in a band but he enjoys live music and he's out every week watching local bar and pub bands.

Anyhow, he'd been out mid-week to one of his favourite haunts but had a complaint about what he saw.

There was some new Indie band on who he admitted were very good both vocally and musically. But he told me he'd only stayed around 20 minutes. He's never seen them before and didn't know any of their material. He said quite a few people had watched a little of the show and walked out. Nothing wrong with the band at all - apart from lack of familiarity anyone had with what they were playing.

Now you may think that someone really into music generally should stick around and hear something new. Sadly a lot of people won't do that. They want at least something they're familiar with.

As I said to the two bands mentioned at the top of this post, new bands who include some covers in their sets have a far greater chance of band bookings than those trying to get gigs playing just their own material.

Here's a survey I did on it:

Covers for Original Bands

More info on it here:

Covers and Getting Gigs

and Hugh Cornwell's (Stranglers) take as reported on this blog:

Original & Covers in same set

So maybe no need to look down on covers after all?

What's talent got to do with getting band bookings?

Saw an interesting contrast between two bands over the last few days.

I went to see both halves of what used to be one great covers band as they played separate gigs close to where I live.

One of the two new bands had the guys who most people would say were the "stars" (if you can get stars in covers bands!)from the old band -including the dynamic front man.

The other band had the "journeymen" players, background musicians from the old band. Both had added a couple of new musicians to make up the numbers.

Musically both these two new bands were great, but the one with the wild frontman certainly had the edge in terms of putting on a show. The interesting bit though came when talking to the members afterwards.

The "band of stars" had been rehearsing material since the start of the year and had managed to put together one set of 10 songs. The gig I saw them play was their first together and they were doing it for no fee. They had no other gigs booked.

The other band had been gigging solidly since the original band split up. They played two sets and have gigs lined up well into the future. Crucially this band contains a couple of guys who not only know how to book gigs but who have the drive and determination to make it happen. Neither band has an agent or manager.

It struck me that like most things in life, success doesn't necessarily come to those with most talent but those who want it more - and who know how to get it.

Play Band Gigs for Free?

This issue was raised with me by a guitarist from Boston in the US this week. Should his band accept the offer of free gigs. "Trials" if you like.

His feeling was that they would be good exposure for his band and could lead to paid work at the venue in question and even elsewhere.

Exposure is King I agree. You get more gigs from playing gigs (ie people who see you book you for their venue/party etc) than many other means. But while I have no issue with the idea of "trial price" gigs at new venues , free performances are something else.

I've used the offer of a reduced fee for an initial gig to secure regular work at places in the past and talk about it in Gig-Getter for when price is an obstacle in discussions. In these cases you always need to get agreement that further gigs at the venue will be at your normal price.

Personally I wouldn't recommend any band get a reputation as being available for free. It will devalue how venues see you. It will cost you financially and it will make it more difficult for you to get your fees up to the levels they should be.

You might want to play the odd charity bash or band member's party but you've probably sweated for your gear and ability like workers in any industry. Why give what you have away for nothing?

Booking Band Gigs in "Hard to Get" Venues

If you subscribe to the Gig-getter newsletter you might have read something yesterday about the need to call venues back after sending out band demos.

I'd checked back at my own records from when I first started trying to get band gigs I discovered something which surprised me. The venues which I'd needed to chase most, to make the greatest number of follow-up calls to get the first band booking were the ones where we ended up getting the most repeat work.

These venues where it was most difficult to get hold of the person who booked the acts became the backbone of our gigging schedule. The places we played most regularly and most often.

Since I wrote this another thought has ocurred to me. Maybe there's a reason for this....

If it took me so long and so many calls to get to a "yes" and a date from the venue, maybe these were the sort of places that other bands gave up trying to reach. So, there's less (sustained) competition to get on at these places?

Not only that. If the person who booked the bands at these "difficult to reach" venues is so often not available, away from the premises and the phone, maybe he/she has a greater need to book bands for multiple gigs when he is available to talk...

I'm not sure this can be proved one way or the other but it's probably another argument for being persistent when you're trying to get gigs

Good news about playing Gigs

Three items of good news in the press caught my eye over the last few days.

1. Buoyed no doubt by the success of this year's Glastonbury event (see pic right from drownedinsound.com) a PRS spokesman has come out and confirmed that:

"Live music is more popular than ever" and admitted that although consumers are spending less disposable income on recorded music, the share going on live music is rising.

2. Being a musician is one of the top 10 "jobs" LEAST affected by the recession
If you're part-time muso who's a road sweeper or dentist by day you're doubly lucky as those two professions also feature in the top 10 compiled by the Daily Telegraph in the UK

If you're a more mature player here's one especially for you:

3. Taking up a hobby like as guitar playing has been identified by researchers at Warwick University as a "pre-emptive strike" against a mid-life crisis.
Even better if you're being paid to strut your hobby in public..

gig-getter main site

Practise like you're Gigging

Our lead guitarist had a bit of a nightmare at a large open-air party we just played at. A lot of bum notes -which normally really isn't him. He has more than one guitar and when we spoke afterwards he admitted the one he was using on stage was one he hadn't touched for several months before that gig itself. This was something he wouldn't normally do.

On the night, the neck had taken him by surprise with it's thinner profile and blocks instead of dots. New numbers he'd learn on another guitar felt alien to him and left him a bit disorientated.

Luckily the crowd reaction hadn't suffered but the whole episode reminded me of something I watched on a Bass playing DVD by Billy Sheehan (see pic above).

In the DVD Billy said that his advice about guitar straps got more responses from his viewers than anything else he'd ever recommended. He'd simply told his students that they should use the same strap, adjusted to the same length when they practised as they did when they were gigging. His point was that if you practised sitting down and then gigged standing up, what you've learned rehearsing is not gonna feel as familiar to you onstage.

I think there's a lot of truth in this. When you get onto the stage (or just the corner of the bar), you don't want anything to undermine your own confidence. The idea is to be free of worrying about your playing so you can concentrate on "giving" a show to the crowd. We can't do this if we're stressed out about playing the right notes.

I'm a very ordinary and basic player so I try to make things as easy as I can for myself onstage. I rehearse up to any gig with the guitar I'll be using on the night. When I run through the material alone at home (with a phrase trainer) I stand up as I do on stage and concentrate on NOT looking at the fretboard. That way I'll have the best chance of focusing on the audience on the night.

One more thing about practising like you're gigging. If you feel you're act is too static onstage it'll be easier and more natural to address this on the night if you move about like you're enjoying it when you practise too...

The Best way to Get Gigs playing private functions

If your goal is to avoid paying a cut of your gig fees to an agent or any third party, there are a few proven ways you can get your share of the more lucrative private function and corporate event gigs.

1. You can do a search for all the businesses based in the area you want to play gigs.

Call these businesses and ask the name of the person responsible for booking any corporate hospitality or events. When you've got that, write to them with details of your act and include a demo CD or website address to access mp3s of your band in action.

You can take the same approach with hotels where their "event planners" can be canvassed. This can (among other benefits),help to open up the possibility of you playing wedding receptions when couples book the hotel for their function. Follow your intitial approach up with a phone call to check they recieved the items and ask whether/when they are planning any events. Follow up regularly after this with your band or act's newsletter.


2. A les speculative approach is to target just those businesses or companies where you have some connection. Someone in the band is related to someone who works in the business/hotel etc. This way, you can get the name of the event planner from your contact, mention the connection when you get in touch and of course, get your friend/contact to help by "pushing" your act on your behalf. Obviously this approach will generally give you less target businesses in the first place.


The best and by far the most reliable way method for getting gigs at private functions will come as a result of playing "everyday" gigs.

As long as you're giving people a good time when you play (check here if not) you'll get approaches from people who see you play live. These people who see you will also recommend you to friends/contacts who are thinking about what to do for any upcoming event.

The bulk of the "private" gigs I, (and most other bands I know) play, come via this route. For this reason, the more times you can get out and and be seen gigging , the more private work you'll get.

You can even invite event planners, businesses execs/owners and couples-to-be to your "public" gigs to check you out for themselves if needed.

Finally, a couple of factors which can increase your chances of getting private work.

1. A wide song repertoire (catering for various age groups)
2. Lights to enhance the show

and most importantly:

3. The ability to offer music/DJ in between your sets.
This last one isn't as difficult as it sounds. I know plenty of bands who hook up an mp3 player or lap-top up and use that when they're offstage.

Getting Gigs with TOTAL audience involvement?

Getting the occasional audience member up onto the stage is one thing; and it really does make for memorable gigs all round.

But what about this:

Rockaraoke

Whole gigs based around various other people fronting your act? I'm sure the concept will horrify a lot of bands and musicians.

Really though, how different is it from DJs who had to diversify into Karaoke in order to get the gigs? Given how successful Karaoke became, couldn't any performer wanting to maximise the number of night he was out gigging offer this kind of night from time to time? Probably only if credibility was no issue!

I do though personally know of one punk band who've done this kind of thing from time time in the U.K.

Their rationale (as well as gaining some extra cash and exposure from these gigs) is that:

1. It's useful practise in terms of (musically at least) running through material
2. Networking with other singers/musicians
3. It's better than staying in watching tv

Is it any more than a "cop-out" and admitting defeat I wonder

Some Gig-Getting Tips I'd agree with...and some I wouldn't

Here's a post I came across recently which has some food for thought for anyone looking for gig-getting tips.


Fill up your touring schedule

The author (Daniel Kohn) advises you to "Take Whatever You Can Get In The Beginning". I think I understand where he's coming from here. I've always advised artists who are starting out gigging that they should consider early gigs as investments, tools to:

1. Gain experience at playing live (and so improve their "art" and their confidence)

2. Get more gigs. Truly, the more people who see you play, the more gigs you're going to get. Unless of course your'e underehearsed (or just plain lousy). Then of course, your live appearances will work on your behalf to prevent you getting further gigs.

One important point here. Although you should take the kind of gigs ( Monday or Tuesday night as DK recommends) in the beginning, and lower fees than you'll accept as time goes by, I wouldn't ever recommend going out for free. it will only make it harder for you to justify your fees later. A discounted or "Trial" price perhaps. But free? Nope.

A second recommendation on the post is to "Personally Deliver Your Demo To Each Venue Booker". OK if you have the time but I would stress you should only ever deliver (or mail) a demo if:

1. The person you mail or hand it to is the one who makes the ultimate decision about whether to hire you
2. This person is expecting your visit or the mail (contact them separately first).

Please feel free to add your own thoughts or comments....

9 ways to Alienate your gig crowds

Sometimes the best way to explain "How" to do something is to talk about how NOT to do it. So, at the risk of sounding sarcastic, here are some ideas for when you're onstage. These will help you avoid good crowd reactions whenever you play live.

1. Don't Practise your material
This will leave you free to look anxious and worried onstage and make sure you don't spend any time focused on putting on a "show" of some sort.

2. Leave Plenty of pregnant pauses in between numbers
Great for boring an audience and killing any mood your songs may have created

3. Look bored
This one will work best when all band members do it and generally it should encourage similar reactions from the crowd

4. Don't talk to the the crowd
Make sure you don't even say thanks after any applause or even "Hello" when you start

5. Adopt a fixed frown
Be cautious not to smile. Works well with 3 above.

6. Avoid any eye contact
The danger here is you can end up looking warm and approachable if you make eye contact. Keep your eyes on your fretboard (if playing guitar) for example. You'll probably need to if you adopt suggestion 1 above anyhow.

7. If you must talk to the crowd:
Don't do any preparation about what you're going to say. Just hope it will all come out OK. Ideally keep the content focused on you not them and try to ramble for as long/often as possible. Mumble as much as possible and ideally use heavy reverb when you talk.

8. Don't use a set list
The ensuing chaos, lack of "flow" is always good for poor audience interaction. This helps achieve number 2 above as well

9. Turn your back on the audience
Should be done from time to time for extended period for maximum results I shouldn't laugh really, my band was doing most of the above when we first started!


Please feel free to add your own suggestions via the Comments tab

If I'd known then what I know now about getting gigs

Back in 2006, the MIA (Music Industries Association) were reporting that there were over 18 million "lapsed musicians" in the UK alone. These were people who'd tried their hand at playing an instrument, maybe joined a band or whatever. The bulk of these 18 million had given up by the time they were 21. I don't know what the figure is or was for the US, but with a population of around 5 times the size it could equate to about 90 million there.

At the time of writing Gig-Getter it struck me as incredibly sad and I was reminded of it by an email I received recently.

Mike, a middle-aged IT manager wrote to me to tell me how as a teenager he'd played guitar in a band in the 1980's. They had tried to stay ahead of the trends in pop music and peddle their own material to the record labels in the UK. In amongst the seemingly endless rejection slips for each of their series of demo tapes (and back then it was "tapes"), Fiction (who had The Cure and were run by the guy who supposedly discovered the Jam) and A&M called to say they might be interested.

The problem was that both labels wanted to know dates they could come and see Mike's band gig in London. This was a problem because their only experience of playing live was the odd gig or two for friends in their Northern hometown. They had no manager and as far as getting gigs in any other city went - they "didn't know where to start".

So the chances with the record labels, and the band itself, came and went. Mike got himself a "real job" and today gets his kicks playing in a thriving tribute band for which he gets all the gigs.

He says that he does sometimes allow himself to wonder about what might have happened had he known back in the 1980's what he's since learnt now about getting gigs. But on the other hand, as he says, "Self control wasn't a big quality of mine back then so God knows how I'd have ended up!"

Band gigs without audience interaction

Playing at a new venue over the weekend got me thinking about how things would've gone without consciously trying to get the people watching involved.

Yes, the music can and should stand for itself. Certainly turning up with a script full of smarmy one liners and a gig-bag full of inflatable guitars and tambourines to hand out to the audience won't save you if your gears' lousy and you're not rehearsed.

I don't know about you, but when I'm in an audience, I like a band not to take themselves too seriously so if they try to get a few laughs (at their own expense) that will make me warm to them. And that's what we try to do a bit of. On top of that, anything we can do to get a few people (those who show a willingness) involved and up on stage the better.

Probably Saturday would've been good for most people without any of this, if we'd just kept our heads down and kept on strumming. Certainly there will always be some members of an audience (and certain types of venues) where the music is the only element that matters.

But when you want people to film your gigs, visit your website, feel compelled to book you for their own party and (most importantly) tell everyone they know about this band they saw over the weekend....9 times out of 10 it's down to really connecting with the crowd

If you're new to playing gigs...

Here are some pointers from a Gibson guitar site about what to remember before and when you turn up to play. Basic gigging etiquette if you will...

www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/back-to-basics-505/

And, no matter how long we've been playing, this reminder about why venues have live music in the first place can help your focus when you're trying to get gigs

http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Truths-and-Tips-on-How-to-Get-Gigs-and-Fill-Up-Your-Touring-Schedule&id=2305926

How to Get Gigs where gigs aren't normally played

Here's an interesting tip which is working well for my band in terms of getting new gigs. The techniques for how to get gigs I talk about in Gig-Getter involve trying to get your band on at venues where other bands normally play.

But you can aslo exploit opportunities in places that aren't so obvious. We approached a local venue which was under new management. Although it was in an area with a decent "catchment area" of potential customers/drinkers it was struggling with the recession to get people in through the door.

We suggested he try a live band night as a special to give potential customers a good reason to get off their backsides and pay a visit.

By helping out with advertsing (low cost stuff like posters and a press release to the local paper), we were able to pack the place out with people who wouldn't normally visit his bar.

The result was a night of record takings for him at the bar and us being asked back immediately.

In truth, he wanted soooner than would have been sensible (you need to build an audiences' appetitie back up). However, we agreed another 3 gigs across the rest of 2009.

If you do the math(s) on this, you can work out that with 4 of these venues who don't normally have bands on, you can get yourself an extra gig every month.

The beauty of course with venues where bands don't normally play is that you're not being compared with other acts and you don't have the competition of other bands for the gigs. In reality, your gigs may be so successful there that the bar owner wants to make regular night of it and starts looking for additional acts.

If that's the case, maybe you can offer to source his other bands from the contacts you have (networking other bands anyone?) and take a percentage if that's your thing....

Free Tips about how to get gigs