10 WAYS TO GET A GIG

The ways people get gigs are as long as they are wide. A couple tips for you to chew on if you are interested in a professional career as a musician:

1. **MOST IMPORTANT** Make friends – real friends. Your friends want to help you succeed because they care about you.

2. When starting out in a new town, get out and play as much as possible. Even if they are small gigs. Major touring and studio musicians do the small gigs all the time.

3. Because it is your friends who help get you gigs, become friends and play with musicians that are going places. Then, you go places together. For instance, I will hire guys for my recording sessions that are most likely able to get other gigs and sessions. After we have proven to ourselves that we work well together, hopefully they will refer me to other gigs and sessions they get. Work with, and surround yourself with people that are going places.

4. When you get the opportunity to refer another musician for a gig of which you are already a part, take it. For example, when the group you are playing with is looking for a guitar player, step up and refer the guitar players that are your friends. Hopefully, your guitar player friend will return the favor.

5. Usually you don’t get work by calling management companies, record labels, booking agents, etc. However, keep an eye on these companies as they know when new albums are going to be released. If an artist you would like to play for is releasing a record, they are most likely going to support the album with a tour. There is no set time limit, but tour preparations can start several months before an album release. Work through your contact list to find out if anyone knows if there is an audition to get on the tour.

6. Try to get involved with playing at your local church. The larger the church, the harder it might be to get involved, but it is still possible to get on a sub list. Don’t go to church to get a gig, that is not why people go to church, and it is a turn off to see people walking around trying to get a gig at church. Instead, make friends at church, and then take them out to lunch or coffee.

7. Realize that most of the time you will work with people that you have affinity with. People want to work with those that are at the same life stage as themselves.

8. Become friends with other musicians that play the same instrument as you. When they can’t do a gig or session, they start calling their list of friends. The true pros never turn down a gig. If they double or triple book themselves they take the highest paying one, and get someone else for the lower paying ones. You want to be on their list of players to call.

9. Rarely will someone hire you, or refer your unless they have played with you, or heard you play. Another reason to get out and play with as many people as you can. Another option is to take lessons with well known musicians. They will get to know how you play, and might refer you to the gigs they cannot take.

10. God is going to carve out a special place in music history just for you. It will be your special place that belongs only to you. You are the only one that played on THAT gig on THAT night. Trust in the fact that God cares enough about you to create this special place for you.

www.advantagemusicproduction.com

-Jared Ribble is VP-Operations for Reel Loud Records, Co-Owner of Advantage Music Production, and has professionally drummed for Grammy and Dove Award winning artists. Jared and his wife reside in Nashville, TN.