Being a Musician and working on your material in the cozy, protected confines of your home – gives you a place to write, and develop your band’s chops without any added pressures or interference. But what’s missing is actually getting out there and playing at local jam’s. As well, musicians seem to be petrified of playing with others and screwing up in public.

Players are worried about being shown-up by other musicians. What I usually suggest is that you get out there into what I call the insecurity zone and play something you know first – just to get in front of a crowd, then playing something you’re not so familiar with, and with another player – and if you do make a mistake play right through it and move on to the next riff.

The reason I say this is because so many players make mistakes and don’t attempt to play past it, and “fret” over the mistake and virtually stop playing. Your playing doesn’t have to be perfect, just practice on your tone and note playing.

Becoming accomplished Players:

Your mistakes if done right when you move on to the next chord can become an element of the song. One of the main reasons bands or individual musicians never get on stage and make that next move into club work is stage fright, and being seen as a band that has terrible chops or ability to just play in time.

Stage fright shouldn’t be a consideration in your ascent to being a bar or a touring band. As far as a band’s chops go, that’s more important than being afraid of being on-stage in public. A healthy dose of stage fright can propel you and your band into playing their best. Part of getting your music out there is to get it critiqued by a well known musician who plays your style of music. Don’t get a recording engineer to listen to it. Have that invidual go out to listen and watch you on-stage – and submit a CD as well so they can give you a good idea of what to work on in your shows and on your recordings. Now back to the trembling mounds of flesh that you are.

Getting Started On-Stage:

Start by going to local jams with your whole band and by yourself as well. When you go with your band-mates, bring your guitars and a good practice amp which you can pick up at a pawn shop for approximately $100.00. This way you have an amp and guitar set-up to your specs, not some one else’s, and can play it well. This way you don’t have to lug around your SWR, Crate, or Ampeg which you should use in your shows anyway. Next, you should ask the musician running the jam if it’s all right if your band plays a tune or two.

Jams get your band’s name out there, even in a very small way. Get your band members to go on-stage during the jam by themselves with other players to get a reference on their feel, playing ability, chops and how to transfer that to your live and studio work. Keep on working your band’s repetoire, and write songs as much as you can, and practice other artist’s material, if that’s your bag.

Write – and rehearse enough material for at least one set at a local club. At this point, approach a number of clubs that book your style of music, and see about opening for a known band.

Opening for a band can sometimes get you more work than just booking your band early in the week by themselves. And act like professional Musicians, no matter what stage in your career you’re at – because you don’t know who’s watching you.

Even if you’re opening up for a headliner, or playing an early in the week show at a club for nothing – it’s still a fantastic way to get your band out there and work to become solid musicians. This way you’re learning how to promote your act and eventually get paid as working musicians. Next, you have to write up a band – bio and start developing a press kit. One way is to go on-line and look for articles from the best in the music Biz (Taxi) which is an A&R Specialist – Artist and Repetoire business for musicians.

These people have some of the most knowledgeable music industry veterans on staff, and can show you how to come up with a solid Bio and Press Kit – Just go to Taxi.com.

Start getting interviews with local college radio and print writers. Start your own web-page as well and write articles on the band yourself. It sounds rather ludicrous, but it’s a good way to do it yourself, and you can even interview your band members on their music careers, interests and goals.

One other way to get a following is to interview other musicians and write articles on different areas of the music business and get local music writers to help with content on your band website. This sounds like a lot of work, but if you love music enough you will do what’s needed.

At Canadian Guitar Player we specialize in interviewing musicians and writing articles on various topics of interests to musicians, which can be set-up as part of a band’s press kit.

DIY promotion and Making it work:

Getting a 3 song CD out there to promote and sell is also important… Like I said at the beginning of the article, your best 3 tracks with your strongest one first. As far as the recording goes you can do it on a 4 track or 8 track mixed on to CD. Also make sure to rehearse before going into the studio because no one likes to do 100 takes just to get it down right. Having all your instruments set up right so you don’t have to do any overdubs or editing is important.

Doing a soundcheck so no signal bleed happens between your singer and the rest of the band doesn’t give off feedback, or horrible sounding final mixes is also imperative. So make sure your mic’s are set up properly and if you have the money buy some solid Shure 57’s or 8’s to help in that process. By experimenting with mic distance from the amps can help in figuring out the best sound for the recording. So some pre-recording is in order just so you don’t have to keep on going back and getting frustrated by it all. If you know a musician locally who has done his own recordings and can help you, use their knowledge to help you along the path. It’s not always the top producers who will know what you need. Also, keep reading tips from Taxi.com and magazines like Guitar Player and Canadian Musician to help your recording, and becoming the great musician and band you know you can be.

Canadian Guitar Player Magazine has always been diligent in DIY promotion and can set up bios and press kits for a nominal fee. You’ll want to learn all you can in this business we love so much. So never settle for the status quo and always keep on asking for the best from your band mates as well. First of all, get all you can out of the local scene before starting to get bookings out of town, because media promotion is essential before you hit the big cities like Toronto, Montreal or New York. In the next article on getting the band out of the basement, we’ll delve into the services of booking agents, coming out with a CD release, and learning the nuts and bolts of being a working musician.

Written by – Mark Grove – CGP
www.taxi.com Your A&R specialist’s

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Have you sent your demo to record labels more times than you can count, but you just can’t seem to get a bite? Sometimes, you can do everything right when you send your demo to a label, and still nothing happens. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of things you could be doing wrong that are putting the brakes on your music career before it can even get started. If you can’t even get the labels to pay attention to you long enough to turn you down, check and see if you have commmitted any of these deadly sins of demos. If so, repent and correct that dangerous demo behavior, and you may end up with that deal you’ve been after.

Homework? Uh, We Had Homework?:

When someone asks you what your band sounds like, you say Joy Division, but when you are sending out demos, you’re addressing envelopes to Jay-Z.

A label has to be into your kind of music to have any interest at all in releasing your record, so make sure you investigate the labels that you approach with your music. That doesn’t mean that every label you like should get a demo, either. The right labels to start with are the ones who work with bands who have a similar sound to you.

The TMI Effect:

Does your promo package come with a band bio that can only be described as a novella? Does your demo have 25 tracks on it? Then you are guilty of weighing down the record labels with too much information. Short and to the point is the golden rule of promo packages and demos. If your package looks like it will take a week to wade through, the label is likely to send it straight to the bin. How much info is too much? Here’s a hint – if your band bio mentions your childhood, you’ve gone too far.

Track Listing Trials:

Somewhat related to the previous idea, your demo itself should be short and sweet – a couple of songs, ideally. Obviously, then, picking the best songs is crucial. Instead of thinking about the songs of which you are most proud, think of the songs that grab you instantly. You want to stack your demo with songs that have strong beginnings, because you only get a few seconds before someone pushes that “next” button. Don’t pick the “growers” – the label is unlikely to take the time to let the growing occur. This idea holds true even if you insist on filling your demo with loads of material. Don’t think that a label is going to take the time to listen to 15 songs just because you put them on there. You still need to front load your demo with the big bang songs if you want the listener to push on through the rest.

Rules Were (Not) Made to Be Broken:

Many labels have rules about demos that you absolutely have to follow if you want to make it through the door. In fact, many times these rules have to do with getting permission to send a demo in the first place. The labels are not trying to be mean to you – receiving unsolicitied demos can land labels in legal trouble if they’re not careful, when someone who sent them a demo suddenly claims that the label ripped off their songs. Demo policies can usually be found on label websites. Respect the rules.

Is There a Song Here Somewhere?:

Don’t, don’t, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need to shell out big bucks to have a demo professionally recorded before a record label will give you the time of day – not true. Your recording can be low-fi, but it does have to be audible. If your demo is more white noise than White Light/White Heat, try again. There are plenty of relatively inexpensive music recording software programs out there that can help you turn out a perfectly fine demo on a budget. And, of course, old school though it may be in this digital age, many a record deal has been signed off the back of a four track recording. Strike the right balance between spending wisely on your demo and turning out a recording that clearly contains some music.

You’re Still in the “Development Stage”:

You can’t expect every song you write to be a home run, and when you are just getting started, you may be turning out a few stinkers while you’re finding your voice. Hey, it happens. If you’re having a hard time judging the label-readiness of your songs, grab a few of your most honest friends and get the lowdown from them. It helps to hold off on sending things out to record labels until you feel like you have some songs that are album ready. If you start slinging out demos every time you hum a few bars, the labels will start dreading your packages. However, that doesn’t mean that you should let a few thumbs down messages from labels stop you from sending out demos in the future. Just be sure that you are putting your best foot forward on every demo you send to a label.

Getting the right demo to the right label at the right time takes a lot of hard work and even more luck. Finding that deal is a process, so settle in, and keep honing your skills while you’re searching for that perfect label. In the meantime, however, you can increase your odds of getting label attention dramatically by avoiding these big time demo don’ts.

Written by Heather McDonald

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: http://www.music-career-guide.com

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