Musicians Guide To Booking Gigs
Having your own show is an exciting thing and you should feel extremely excited if you are at this stage. Here are some things to do pre show to make sure things go as smooth as possible and that you will be booked again by any venue to perform.
1. Know Your Draw
On of the first things a venue will ask before booking you for a gig is how many people come out to your shows? If this is your first show, a good way to judge would be to see how many active fans you have. When you write on your Facebook Page, Twitter, or send out emails to your email list, do people respond?
2. Have Your Set List In Order
It's one thing to know the music, but winging it on stage is not the best thing to do. Your performance should be tight. This does not mean you cannot change things up once you are on stage, but having a basic outline of what you will be doing is essential to not embarrassing yourself when you can't decide what song to do next.
3. Get To Know The Place
What type of crowd is usually there and what genre(s) do bands or solo artists usually play there? Having the answer to this question will help you determine if it is even beneficial for you to book a gig with any particular venue. If you are a pop artist, performing at a venue that caters to country music or rap is probably not going to get you very far.
4. Know Exactly What You Will Need
is it indoors or outdoors? Does the venue supply power? How many mics will be needed on stage? Is there a drum set there for your drummer or do they need to bring his or her own? What type of sound system is there?, etc, etc. These type of questions will keep you from scrambling at the last minute.
5. Practice
After all of the above has been done, make sure you practice your performance. You want to be so familiar with your set list that your entire draw and the venue are impressed.
