How to get a properly paid gig (Part 4)

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PREPARE (cont.)

1. The music (continued)

Bands do not tend to spontaneously create themselves - they are usually created by one or two founding members. The following refers to how the person, or persons, starting a commercial band (in the sense that we have been considering in this series) might proceed.

Choose songs

You may have already picked the musical area from which the repertoire of your proposed band will be drawn. Make a comprehensive list of the songs played by your target act, or that comprise your target style. The first list should include everything, not just the songs you are considering doing. Next try to rank the songs in the order of public popularity. Obviously huge hit singles will be near the top but also refer to audience reaction you have seen during your research, sometimes obscure album tracks can become cult hits.

Remove any songs that are impossible to recreate live (if any of these are really popular you might consider the use of sequences, effects or other technology to find a way to do them live. There was, for example, a quite successful three piece Beatles tribute band that had no drummer so used drum sequences. Their name was Where's Ringo?!). From the remaining list, choose the top 35. This is just a rough guide, gigs are often three half hour sets, two 45 minute sets or one long set of about 90 minutes. All of these comprise 90 minutes playing time. The average pop song is 3 minutes, 3 into 90 gives you 30, add the other 5 for emergencies, songs that lose favour and so on. 35 numbers is a reasonable starting repertoire size.

Learn songs, work out lineup

Listen, listen listen!! Get to know those songs inside out. Listen for the little extras like percussion parts and background synth lines. Recreating these subtleties are the touches that can make your performance stand out as something classy.

From your listening make a list of the players that will be required to recreate the songs live. Obviously some decisions will have to be made about what is reasonable, particularly if the original used a choir of Tibetan monks! Keep in mind that the bigger the band the less money each musician is likely to receive.

Choose your role, and practise!

Now the tough question. What will your role be? You may be a good singer and an average guitarist. If the repertoire requires some flashy guitar chops you should just bite the bullet and accept that there is going to have to be a "gun" guitarist and you should be relegated to playing the simpler 2nd guitar parts. Uncontrolled ego at this point (in fact at any point in the process!) can destroy the whole project. If your listening tells you that you will need to do a lot of work before you can participate in the proposed band then start working…Hard! …and for goodness sake do the work before you call a rehearsal or you may find your rehearsal room door clogged as prospective participants rush to get out! In any case start practicing your part and don't move to the rehearsal phase until you have it down… perfectly!

Work out timelined strategy

While you're doing all that practice you will need to develop a realistic strategy. Your previous research should have given you a good idea of the likely suitable venues for your band. Now research further, find out which agents control entertainment in the target venues, try to find out what sort of money the venues pay, make a list of what you should have in your promo kit (we'll look at this in detail later). Now write down the phases of your campaign and projected timelines. For example:

Recruiting players - 3 weeks
Initial Rehearsal Period - 3 months @ 2 nights per week
Photo shoot - 1 afternoon
Preparation and recording of demo - 1 week
Mixing and Duplication of demo - 1 week
Appointments with agents - 3 weeks
FIRST GIG

This list is by no means exhaustive and is, if anything, overly optimistic. The point is that you need to know exactly what you are going to do and when. You should also have a set of indicators (what management types call KPI's - Key Performance Indicators) that will tell you if the project is going well, needs adjustment or should be abandoned. A simple example might be: "Three new songs to be learned per rehearsal". Be prepared to adjust your expectations when you get hit by the reality truck.

Do a budget

Now is also the time to start working out a budget. This does not have to be a fancy piece of accounting but a realistic estimate of how much money you will have to spend. Since there is no guaranteed source of income yet you should try to keep costs as low as possible… in fact minuscule! Learn to be money miser even if it doesn't fit with your dreams of the rock'n'roll lifestyle. As a general rule:

If you have to choose between a solution that costs money and one that is free - always choose the second.

This is only a general rule since some essential things will cost money (the rule should NOT be used as an excuse for illegal practices!) but it should put your head in the right place.

Tune in next issue for more.

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