Play it Out IV/V

Lay it Out, So You Can Play it Out
pts. 4 and 5, Rehearsal and Marketing

After reading parts 1 through 3 and using the information therein to book and play your first show, you're now officially a professional gigging musician. What to do now? How to fill your days now that you've found your passion?

There are two good answers to these questions: rehearsal and marketing. If you concentrate on these two aspects of your career you will constantly a) get more and different people to come to your shows and b) make sure they come back the next time because you've effectively lowered the chances you'll botch a performance and look like the musical village idiot.

Marketing (to me, not some college prof.) means two things. One, street level marketing which includes print, radio, posters, handbills, newspapers, magazines and generally talking to the average dude or lady about what it is you do and why they should come to your show. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. Second, online promotion which should equal or exceed your level of street promo. A third category which is technically not marketing but really just exposure, involves PR situations such as TV interviews or CD album reviews.

Your online presence is particularly important. iTunes, CDbaby, Amazon, AOL, Pandora, Reverbnation, Virb, blogs, music industry websites.... all these and more should be able to access and publish information about your group, whether or not they actively solicit the information themselves. In other words, if a site has a submission page, fill it out! Pretty soon you will realize that most websites get their info from other websites, and your presence online will grow exponentially.

In terms of street-promo, just use common sense. Make sure your posters are readable from a distance, use color, go above and beyond the clip-art that comes with your word-processing software, and put up two dozen more posters than you think you need to put up.

Overall make sure your presence is properly "branded". All marketing materials should look uniform, so people can recognize your brand with one glance at a webpage or poster.

Do all this, avoid booking shows on nights with competing events, and the people will come. Now all you need to do is practice.

Most musicians have no idea how much rehearsal time really goes in to making songs perfect and executing them perfectly, even songs with heavy improvisation. World-class orchestras (and many bands) get to that status because there is a task-master-type conductor or band-leader cracking the whip every practice. I've had drumsticks thrown at me for missing notes in practice by big, scary band-leaders in New Orleans who have no tolerance for mistakes.

I prefer a more open type of rehearsal where everyone is free to positively critisize each other and the result is not only better because it is the sum of many ideas, but because everyone can be happy and feel invested in the project. The main idea is to get specific. If it sounds like someone is messing something up, go back, figure out what is happening. Correct it and move on.

I really do welcome any questions from musicians about how we at Frogs Gone Fishin' are able to support ourselves as a yound band (in a bad economy).

Next post, The Big Move.

Late Winter Update

Although it's been a balmy 67 degrees in Denver for the past two days, winter is still dormant somewhere over the mountains and will show its hoary face again. The break in the cold seems to coincide with a small break in performing the Frogs have this week. For the first time in a month or so, we don't have at least 2 shows per week. That is, until Monday when we play Sancho's in Denver, that bastion of dreadlocked revelry on illustrious Colfax.

This lull in performing has allowed for other activity to take place around the house and elsewhere, oftentimes leading to more performing, but a deviation from the norm regardless. We get to rehearse intensively, leaving our equipment set up to play "at our our every whim", as Steve put it in an interview the other day. Several of us are sitting in with other bands in Boulder and the mountains. In an extraordinarily weird situation, my sit-in time with our Boulder buddies Springdale Quartet has been lengthened because their opening act, Bill "Kobe" McKay, has been put in jail after a show he was playing near Vail. We get to cook (clean) and sleep on a schedule resembling normalcy.

The down time is refreshing, but not leisurely. For/Sure Production's work pace is at record high, as our artwork and website will hopefully be available to you, the public, in the next couple weeks. Making our artists happy, our venue happy and gathering sponsorship dollars are all of top priority right now, in order to make our festival a success.

Check back in coming days for the announcement of exactly which artists will be jamming out at Mountainside Mardi Gras, and the last couple installments of Lay It Out, So You Can Play It Out.

Television

I got up very early this morning. For the second day in a row, Frogs Gone Fishin' performed for the Vail morning news. Channel 8 and Plum TV (ch. 16) have both been more than accommodating toward our music and have provided ample publicity for the shows we are also playing while in the mountains this weekend. Some of our clips will air time after time throughout coming weeks in the valley.

But it is the very shows which we are on TV publicizing that make the interviews and performances exceedingly stressful. For example, we returned from our gig in Beaver Creek at 3 30am last night, went to sleep for 3 hours before waking up and struggling deeply to drag our hungover carcasses to embark on the 20 minute drive to the TV studio. Once at the studio, our time was characterized by much waiting and anticipation under lights that are so bright, we were told they retain UV properties.

TV personalities are unbelievably caffeinated and energetic in the morning. They have to be to compensate for the sleepy interviewees who stumble in for the morning show. I suppose the guy from the winery, showing off his new vintages in the segment before we played, went to sleep sometime before 3 30 last night. Nobody ever said bands are supposed to be morning people.

After two morning news performances, two interviews, and a raging show last night, I figured writing a post this afternoon would help me comprehend the last 24 hours, move on and take a nap with all this TV business behind us for now...

..Until waking up at 3pm to drive over to our last interview of the weekend, before loading-in for the show tonight. I suppose sleep can wait.

Play It Out pt. III

Lay It Out So You Can Play It Out
pt. 3 Read the Crowd so you'll Please the Crowd

So by now you've undoubtedly followed the advice in my first two Play It Out segments and not only overcome the mental obstacles blocking your path to a new music career (and new life), but booked your very first gig, as well. 12 days into the New Year and you're practically a new man!

I'd like to spend this post talking about reading the crowd who has shown up to see you execute your meticulously practiced performance. You might say to yourself, why haven't I talked about your meticulous rehearsal, or how I promoted so well to get all these people here?!? I'm assuming that if you want to play gigs you probably practice a lot anyway, and most promoting is done initially by word of mouth that will occur between you and your friends naturally. That said, the next segment will be about both practice and advertising (and all the other musician-type stuff you'll do in your ample spare time during the day).

I want to start with reading the crowd because it is an art which takes the longest to perfect (I certainly haven't) out of the many skills that playing in public requires. After all, once you've practiced concentrating on keeping time and playing that bridge section just right, selecting which drumsticks to use for which song and which songs to play at all, peering out from behind the cymbals just to watch people dance might seem futile or pointless at best.

At first, it will be. After many shows of practice however, musicians can learn to remove the visual/auditory barrier which can, at first, hinder playing. If this barrier is removed, music can then flow out of you in a manner that is fueled by the audience and in turn, fuels their energy to keep dancing or listening.

While all of this can be accomplished by watching people's feet or hips, it's also important to observe the overall mood of the entire room. If your audience looks tired from the 20-minute jazz-funk-metal odyssey the band just embarked on, they are! Play something slow and simple next. Refresh their ears. Most importantly, put yourself in their shoes on the listening side of the equation. If you think things are getting boring and monotonous, you're probably right.

We'll get to the rehearsing and marketing stuff soon. Just watch those hips for now and in the words of the Isley Brothers:

"It's your thing, do what you wanna do. I can't tell you, who to sock it to."

Play It Out pt. II

Lay It Out So You Can Play It Out
pt. 2 Obstacles

The primary obstacles to starting a music career are mental. Most aspiring musicians can’t imagine putting in the amount of time and effort necessary to “make it”. The biggest problem with that way of thinking comes with the definition of “making it”. Many people assume “making it” means playing sold-out shows in large amphitheaters or stadiums, money and widespread fame.

By that definition, most of the musicians we know and love have not “made it”. Of course that depends on the style of music you prefer; Top-40 listeners will certainly enjoy some artists who play stadiums and end up making money off of touring and merchandise, but most artists do not enjoy revenue from their record label (it’s better to run your own) and during these economic times, touring and selling records becomes tough. “Making it” then becomes providing for your self and family and expecting a steady income, even if it is not an enormous sum.

If the aspiring artist is willing to adjust his conception of what “making it” means, and is willing to treat his career as a nine-to-five like any other job, great results can come about.

Once our aspiring artist’s attitude is adjusted toward realistic success, he is then ready to tackle the very real problems associated with the transfer from his current career path, to a musically oriented lifestyle.

If our musician is a student, she can quickly enter the “real-world” of gigging regularly and selling recordings and merchandise after finishing her studies. If she is currently employed, she may have to spend some time gigging and working intermittently, in order to save enough to make the full-time switch to music.

After that switch however, a musician’s success will be directly proportional to how hard they work at what they do. They must eat, sleep and breathe music everyday: write, promote, book, market, advertise, rehearse and polish, not to mention playing the gigs themselves.

For those who choose this path there is great reward. The first step is the hardest. There are many decent resources regarding different aspects of the music business and how to promote and protect yourself. Everyone should copyright their material and most recording artists should consider joining a PRO (Performance Rights Organization) who will make sure you receive your royalties if your music is played live or on the radio.

Get out there and lay it out, so you can play it out!