Rules for the Road – Some Sound Advice for the Gigging Single Guitarist

I am a solo musician who has two years and about 250 gigs under my belt. While this number is not staggeringly high, I have learned a few things about the life of a working musician. Let’s go back three years. Like many of you I was a “constantly practicing” musician. I just played the guitar. Sometimes while sitting on the couch, on the phone (take it from me, no one but you likes this!), sometimes while in the bathroom (but the acoustics are awesome). Hour after hour, song after song I played until I began to feel a need to play for someone other than my wife. Today I want to talk about how to find the elusive solo gig, and how to make money (bonus!) doing it.

I have been out to many a bar or club that was not so busy only to find a very talented musician owning the stage. I would sit and watch and learn, trying to steal as many licks as I could remember without a guitar or pen and paper in front of me. The question I always asked myself was, “this girl is SO good, why isn’t the crowd here?” I then wondered how I would ever be able to get a gig for myself, when such a talented person is playing at a rather large club and there are only twelve of us here to enjoy it. If you can’t draw a crowd, then there will be no more gigs, right?
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I live in a medium sized city where the entire suburban area has about one million people on a VERY busy day. While my town is nowhere near the “next” Seattle or Nashville or LA or New York, there is a good local music scene. Good enough to intimidate the beginning musician. In spite of this, I felt I was ready to play music for others. More importantly, as I am sure many of you can identify with, I felt I was ready to share my voice, my imagination with others. The next question I stumbled upon was, “well where do I sign up?”

I stumbled onto my first gig through a friend who owned a bar. She was willing to let me play a three-hour set at her bar on a Tuesday night. If the crowd got into it, we would work out some form of payment. So I went into my first live show scared and not knowing if I was going to make any money. I figured that I knew about fifty songs, mostly covers and a few of my own, but enough to fill a three-hour set. Boy, was I wrong! Not only did I rush through my ENTIRE song catalog (not really though, because I was so nervous I forgot half the songs I knew), but I also had no idea of how to play most of the songs people kept screaming at me to play. I felt it was a nightmare. However, my friend who owned the bar got some good feedback, and not only did she pay me a little, she asked me to come back. With pay! So I was excited about the possibility of a second gig.

For the next six days all I did was play sets. Ten to twelve songs at a time, I was always practicing. Not just the songs either. Somewhere along the way I had decided that the solo musician must be a stand up comedian between songs. I began to try and develop a stage show. All this after one gig!

Wow! The following Tuesday was a reality check. I thought I had planned out and practiced a great show. What I hadn’t counted on was the “human aspect” of the crowd. While enjoying the high of getting a second gig, I had forgotten about the twelve requests I had gotten for Free Bird the week prior. Not only did I still not know the song, but all the witty stage banter I had come up with was meaningless when some guy kept yelling “Skynyrd” from the back of the room. What a disaster! When I recovered from the mess, I decided that it could be a learning experience.

From there I went on to play many more gigs at many more bars, or clubs, or coffeehouses. Along the way I tried to develop a plan of how to succeed. The following list is what I consider the Ten Commandments of how to get and ensure future gigs.

Matt’s Ten Commandments for Future Gigs or “Rules for the Road”

1. DEFINE YOUR WINDOW. Figure out what you do best and do it. Just like you wouldn’t walk into a roadhouse bar and play anything by Air Supply, don’t try and get a gig at a club where the audience won’t appreciate your style, just because it’s a gig. All you can do is ruin your reputation by walking into a jazz club and playing Metallica covers.

2. ALWAYS BE OPEN AND AVAILABLE. I had a friend had the chance to play an open mic night at one of the busiest clubs in town. He declined because the gig didn’t pay. The guy who ran the open mic was trying to sell a CD to a label, and an A&R rep from a small label was coming out that night. My friend, who I always thought was very talented, missed his opportunity to audition for a record label by not going because the gig “didn’t pay.”

3. CATER TO YOUR AUDIENCE. The crowd is there because of you. No matter how big or small, if you ignore them, they won’t come back. No amount of technical guitar wizardry will make up for the fact that that one girl, who likes your music and brought eight friends, really wanted to hear Brown Eyed Girl. If you ignore her repeated request for a song, you are alienating your audience. If you can, then play her song. Which leads me to…

4. ALWAYS HAVE A TIP JAR. Whether you are getting paid a cut of the door or a flat rate, you can maximize you profits by adding a tip jar. Regardless of the $150 you are getting for playing on a weeknight, you might make and extra $20 by playing that girl’s request. Always take advantage of this. It could just help to double your income.

5. BE TIMELY. Always show up early. You are not the Rolling Stones or Guns and Roses and there is no excuse for being late. If the gig starts at 8:00 then you should be set up, in tune, and ready to play at 8. You cannot provide a valid excuse for breaking this commandment. Learn it, and live it.

6. BE PROFESSIONAL. As soon as your show is finished, even if you are the opening act, settle up with the production manager, club owner, or whoever is in charge as soon as possible. Have your calendar with you. There is no better time to get rescheduled than right after your gig. Even if you were the opening act, the success of your show is still fresh in the club owner’s mind. Book a return visit right then. If you wait three weeks to call him back, all he will remember is the headliner, whom he spent more money on. Be diligent in this area, and I promise you will play more shows.

7. VISIT. NOT CALL. There is nothing wrong with calling a club or bar in your area that you want to try and play at. There is everything wrong with not going and following up in person. I call a club only to find out who hires the bands, and when he/she will be there. Then I show up in person. Plan to sit for a while. Often times these people are very busy, and it can take some time to see them. However, if you call and ask for the club owner, and he is busy, someone will take a message. If you call and ask when he will be there, and then show up, he will most likely see you. The more often you sit in front of a club owner, the more likely you are to play at his club.

8. PRACTICE MORE THAN YOU PLAY. If you are fortunate enough to be gigging five nights a week, then practice even more. If you play a two-hour show, practice three hours before it. Don’t just play songs. Play sets. Practice what to say and do between your songs. While this seems like a waste of time, your overall live show is what people are going to remember, not how quickly you changed from an Am7 to a D7sus4.

9. VALUE YOUR EQUIPMENT. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard (and thought myself) that I need a better PA system, or another guitar pedal, or a new brand of strings, etc. Be content with what you have. It has performed at every gig you’ve had so far. Don’t be always looking for something to “improve your sound”. While some great equipment exists out there don’t spend your time finding the fourteenth pedal in your collection. Spend more time learning the songs you play. Good music that sounds poor will always get a return call before bad music that sounds better. Focus on the music. Ignore the part of you that says you will sound better if you buy _________ (fill in the blank). I can’t tell you the money I’ve wasted on crazy pedals. What acoustic guitarist needs an envelope filter anyway?

10. ALWAYS WRITE A SET LIST. I have seen this point proven. I know a great musician who can’t get gigs because, although he is talented, he sets up his PA and then waits on requests the whole night. This guy knows a million songs. On the rare occasion he gets requests from the get-go, his show is great. If the club is unresponsive to someone they don’t know who just sits and asks what they want to hear, he doesn’t come back to play at that club. Bad way to operate! Write a set list and stick to it. If you get requests, then honor them if you can. Otherwise stick to what you do best.

11. MARKET YOURSELF (I know, there were only supposed to be ten!). You are your biggest fan, right? If you’re not, re-evaluate your situation. I have had some great gigs playing to only fifteen people. My philosophy is that if fifteen people saw me on Thursday night, then I need to tell fifteen people about my next show on Monday. You are your best salesperson. Sell yourself to others. Post flyers. Go to the club on a night off, and talk to patrons. Sell yourself. No one else will.