Category Archives: Gig Essentials

Collection of articles around the topic of ‘gigging’ (i.e. performing live).

Performance is about putting on a good show

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I don’t suppose any of you ever wondered if Yngwie Malmsteen was a magician what he would be like? Probably not then.

Not that I actually had this thought however having caught the guest act on “The Magicians” final, a BBC television show, my question was automatically answered.

Showmanship

OK in reality, it was not Yngwie Malmsteen but Hans Klok, the world’s fastest magician. Within five minutes he was completing illusions one after the other (I think it was twelve in all as he broke his last record) with his glamorous “Divas of Magic” assistants popping in and out of various boxes, covered by a variety of veils and curtains. Throughout his set I couldn’t help but smile when I made the connection: Yngwie – fastest guitarist; Hans – fastest magician.

Strangely enough, I realised it wasn’t just the coincidence of speed or the Scandinavian background (though Hans looks a lot more like Dolph Lundgren than Yngwie) which made me join the dots, rather it Han’s presence which really reminded me of Yngwie. It was the combination of his long hair together with his air of confidence on stage, his stage presence, in a word “showmanship”.

When starting out we often cite our references, guitar heroes and the like to give us a general idea of what is acceptable in terms of playing. However when we get to actually play live we can forget that the on stage performance is also a crucial part of the show. The right presentation or packaging can make all the difference and I encourage you to consider how to use it to compliment your materials! With the exception of the technical fanatics, turning up to a gig to watch a two hour show where the musicians resemble trees may appear worthless no matter how much you are into the music.

Thus it becomes a question of what more value can you give your audience so that they will find your performance an enjoyable experience and want to come back to watch you live again and again rather than just buying your CD or MP3 download once and being done with it.

So the next time you are to perform live, think of what other elements can be incorporated to embed into your. For starters here are a few ideas, and they don’t all have to be lavish!

  • Grooving with the music (opposite from standing still like a tree throughout)
  • Confidence in your playing – without coming off as being cocky (unless that’s the image you’re going for)
  • Smoke machine
  • Lights, preferably changing and semi automated
  • Interaction both on (with other band members) and off (with audience) stage – remembering that interaction isn’t just limited to the lead singer, don’t limit yourself this way
  • Stage placement – look up NLP spatial techniques to use spatial anchors
  • Free gifts (ones that don’t break the piggy bank)
  • Projection of video or images behind the band
  • Costumes
  • Dance moves (minding the cables and stands around the stage)
  • Stage fan (the ones which blow air towards you not a person)

Feel free to add any more of your own ideas below. Oh and yes, going back to the magic show I was also happy that world class magician genius Jason Latimer won the final and series too.

Good luck, have fun and catch you next time.

Emergency Strapping – Add to your Gig Inventory!

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If you’ve become a seasoned “gigging” professional, you probably have your own list of must haves, your toolbox of faithful items which you gather for every gig you play. But have you ever considered adding Gaffer tape and a pen to this?

Picture this, you’ve set up your gear and are about to go up on stage, but pull out your acoustic only to realise that the pickup-jack/guitar strap pin has fallen out. You try pushing it back into place only for it to drop straight out. What do you do?

Emergency guitar fix

This dilemma was exactly what singer-songwriter Laura Williams faced moments before her set in Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury Festival “Women Fronted Bands” special. Luckily, the sound guys had gaffer tape handy from the stage and mics set up and after a bit of “Matt” engineering, we were able to get her guitar in working order for her to play. You’ve heard of the pen being mightier than the sword, and in our case it certainly the case being handy as our equivalent knife. So with this emergency and Laura not worrying about glue residue left on her guitar body, this is how we did it:

  1. Cut 3 strips of the gaffer tape, 1 long piece & 2 shorter pieces.
  2. Use the pen tip to pierce a small hole in the middle of the long gaffer strip.
  3. Use the pen to enlarge the hole further to fit the jack guitar strap side (but not so big that the entire jack easily went through).
  4. Feed the jack belt pin side through the hole in the gaffer tap.
  5. Place the jack into the guitar body and fix the tape to the guitar body. This has now secured the jack plug in place.
  6. Place the guitar strap over the newly tapped belt pin.
  7. Finally, use the two shorter gaffer strips to tape the strap to the guitar body.

Job done! And as you can see from the video, Laura was able to play the gig. So if you have any similar last minute guitar surgery stories, please share them below.

All the best,

M

An alternative way of getting gigs – even at the Notting Hill Carnival

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As if it is written in stone, as a band once you’ve got your demos done, one of the main ways to go about getting yourself or your band heard is to approach venues (this can be via email, Facebook, MySpace, etc) which offer live band music and persuade them to add you to a slot of an upcoming regular night they hold.

The first alternative route I heard about came from hearing the Dixie Chicks story (before they upset various people around with a passing comment made in a UK gig of theirs many moons ago). They played wherever they could – building up their initial a fan base in supermarkets around the US.

With the internet, personal MP3/ Apple Players stunting CD sales, rock bands everywhere have heightened the emphasis on being a live act again. Thus getting the opportunity to play to large audiences is an ever increasing challenge.

However this weekend at the Notting Hill Carnival, I came across a very unique idea which I thought was brilliant.

This young group of lads had taken it upon themselves to set up a gigging platform on the balcony of one of the buildings within a carnival shortcut route (quite possibly one of them lived there), a relative quiet spot for the spectators to relax a bit (the ones who weren’t following the lorries set up with DJ equipment). With a guaranteed crowd turning up, plus the fact there would be lots of loud music in the area (so no problems with having to deal with noise complaints by neighbours), people celebrating, alcohol and food what more could they ask for – a happy partying crowd for free! I commend these chaps for also arranging to have a video camera and photographer document their set and as cheeky as it may be, can now claim to have played at the famous Notting Hill Carnival. It was great to catch part of their set as I walked by though would have been even better if they had a large banner pinned up so that by-passers such as myself would know who they were and could look them up on the web afterwards.

Taking advantage to take credit for having gigged at the carnival

I think the lesson learnt from this demonstration of pushing the boundaries is to remind ourselves that the traditional “get a gig in a live venue” routine is not the only way to get heard and sometimes it is worth considering every opportunity, opportunities that are often right in front of us all the time without us even knowing it at the time.

Please feel free to comment and leave on other gig seeking ideas you’ve come up with and used. Many thanks, have fun and good luck!

What to you do when a venue has a sound/noise limiter?

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The set up

Picture this – you’ve got a gig booked to play in front of a large audience, a fantastic opportunity to get your songs or playing known to a new crowd. However the venue is not a traditional live music venue but however does have a live music license so no problems right? Well everything looks good to go so you arrive with your band to set up on stage. You perform a back line check (i.e. each individual musician plays a bit to make sure everything is on and working) and all seems ok – so far so good. Then during your sound check as a full band, out of the blue the power goes out. The dilemma begins!

So what’s the story with sound limiters?

With Health and Safety and Noise Pollution laws in the UK becoming ever tighter, it is inevitable that some gigs will be within venues with limiters built into the mains power circuits. The sound limiter (or noise limiter) has the job to sense the current sound levels within a room and trigger an electricity shut down should it trigger above a certain volume. The power circuits for ceiling lights are normally kept separate on another circuit so you shouldn’t generally experience horror movie style screams from the crowd however for the uninitiated, in the heat of the moment it can be confusing looking like your equipment has just died.

Illustration of Sound from Sound Advice

Further info and image linked from: http://www.soundadvice.info/index.htm

Back to the main point…

I was recently at a wedding and watched as the band Red Rocket hired to at the reception experienced the dreaded power cut limiter phenomena. The groom, being a bass player himself (of rock covers band Metro Gnomes), had had his fiancée (now wife) arrange it so I would be sat with their other musicians friends. Watching the frustrations the band go through sparked a discussion amongst our table where we shared our experiences and ways to get around it. Now whilst I’m not advising in anyway whatsoever you actually do any of this (and therefore do not take any responsibility should you use any of them), here’s a brief list of what we came up with:

  1. With this idea I won’t be able to write it out directly (as it goes around what the purpose of the limiter unit is designed to do) but a hint would be to consider that the sound limiter may only shut down a specific electric circuit in the room.
  2. Dampen the drum kit using spare heavy materials to stuff into the kick drum cavity and have the drummer play lighter so that the other instruments volumes can be set lower – though this can have dramatic impact to the playing of a rock drummer who will most probably find showing great lengths of restraint an annoyance. (They are after all rock drummers for a reason!)
  3. Again, with this idea I won’t be able to write it out directly (as it goes inhibits what limiter unit is designed to do) but consider what you could do if you knew where the sound sensor was (without thinking of turning it off as in most cases it is tied directly into the mains circuits).
  4. Similarly test having the guitar amplifiers and drums facing different directions, preferably facing away from the sound sensor, or even changing EQ settings. In the case of the wedding reception, they found a large dry wipe-board and placed it in front of the kick drum. So it was the lower bass frequencies which set off the sound limiter.
  5. And of course the final point, check in advance if the venue has a sound limiter installed in the first place! Just like wanting to check out fire safety restrictions and fire exits etc.

WORD OF WARNING be mindful that should anything happen, if you have done anything “drastic” you may not be covered. A good source of general information is the Sound Advice website. I hope you found this article useful and if you’ve had similar experiences and used other work-around, please feel free to share your comments and views.