You’ve just landed your first gig and the excitement is running high. But don’t rest on your laurels and coast along to your big day. Put in some preparation to make sure that you’re ready to play at your best and able to fully capitalize on the opportunity.
Practice In front of a Rehearsal Crowd Before You Play to Paying Customers
You can be note and pitch perfect when it’s just your band rocking out in the garage, but once you get on stage in front of a crowd, stage fright can hit and anxiety and adrenaline can cause your guitar player to ruin the riffs, and your vocalist to sing off key, forget the words and look like a deer caught in headlights.
The best way to prepare for playing in front of the crowd that matters, is to play in front of a crowd that will give you a pass when you mess up.
You’ll still be nervous playing to a crowd of family and friends in your backyard, but the point of the exercise is to experience those feelings and become comfortable with them. This way they won’t surprise you and throw your debut performance off track, ruining your reputation before you’ve even got started.
Get Your Merchandise Ready
As new musicians, you will most likely have to play your first gigs for free to enable you to generate enough buzz to find a venue that will pay you for your performance.
These early gigs will furnish you with invaluable experience but you can also earn some coin at the same time. All you need to do is have some copies of your CD available for sale and be sure to mention this fact during your gig, especially at the end. If the crowd enjoyed your show, some members of the audience will be happy to pick up your album.
You can order professionally produced bulk copies of your CD from Copycats Media starting with as little as 100 units. Have the sleeves printed with your artwork and don’t forget to include your Facebook page details so that people can connect with you, find out about your next gig, and share your awesomeness with their circle.
Recruit Some Friends to Pump Up the Energy
Crowds are predictable. Once a few people begin jumping up and down and having a good time, others will join in. If you can talk some friends into being the starting pistol that gets the crowd buzzing then your gig will go down a storm. You’ll play better and your nerves will evaporate when you start to soak up the energy from the crowd. So, ask the most extroverted people that you know to come along and support you.
Plan a Number That Invites Crowd Participation
If you’ve already got a number with a cool hook for the chorus that you can feed to the audience, then that’s great, just remember to tell the crowd what to sing along with. If you don’t have a track that lends itself to a sing along, then see if you can modify one of your songs to fit, because the more audience engagement that you have, the better your gig will turn out to be.
Above all try to have fun. Don’t be sullen and distant on stage. It’s not cool and it won’t endear you to the crowd. Show some love and the chances are good that your audience will show some love right back at ya!
