Much like sex, your live show depends a lot on vibe and momentum. Breaking a string onstage and not having a backup guitar is the equivalent of abruptly stopping in the middle of foreplay to read a chapter of How To Please Your Woman In Bed. Your audience is going to disappear faster than free condoms at a frat party.
The time it takes you to change your string is like dead air on the radio and is completely unacceptable. Worse, it gives your bandmates time to say stupid things on the mic as the audience becomes annoyed and or bored and very possibly leaves.
Further, nothing comes across as more amateur than changing a string on stage - it makes even the best of players look like a total Poindexter.
Can't afford 2 guitars or can't travel with that much gear? Ask the band you're playing with if you can borrow their axe if you happen to break a string. Most guitar players are very willing to do this. In addition, you'll want to tune the backup guitar as well before the show so you don't switch guitars only to discover it is way out of tune or in a strange tuning you aren't used to. It doesn't matter if you're a light player or haven't broken a string in years, the momentum you loose when you have to stop and change a string could easily derail a show. Breaking a string during a set is bad enough, but don't make it worse by not being prepared.
If there is anything most bands regularly hear from their adoring fans it is that they are, soooo much better live than they are on record. While some of this hyperbole just comes from the energy of live, loud music and enjoying it with others, there is many a time a band can bring a whole new experience to fans with their live show. The funny thing is, many bands who are great live do not exploit it and show this fact off to their fans as much as they should. After the jump we will go over some ideas on how you can show off your live skills.
Because you know your own music more intimately than anyone else, it seems only natural that you would experience more intensely the highs and lows of your musical trajectory. Following a bad show it's easy to feel depressed and I've heard some musicians say they even feel suicidal. For many of us, shows are a way to unveil who we really are and get across deep and complex emotions. When that fails to happen it can feel devastating. Maybe the sound guy hated you, or the PA was awful, or you broke 3 strings, or your bass player was nodding out from heroin... it doesn't matter exactly what happened, the thing to remember is that bad shows are going to happen. But also remember that people go see live music because there is an element of unpredictability and they appreciate that. You might have a terrible night where you can't complete a song or you might blow the entire crowd away in a religious-like fervor of holy rock hymns - one never knows. The good and bad thing about your fans is that they usually have a short memory. People are so worried about themselves that they quickly forget trivial things like how out of tune your guitar was the other night. The best thing you can do with a bad show is learn from it. Maybe you should've gotten to sound check earlier or not have had 5 Gin and Tonics before you ever started playing. There is almost always a lesson you can take from a bad show and to help improve your next performance. In general people learn much more from failure than success, and that certainly applies in this case as well.
Drowned in Sound has up a fantastic article on the buzz band Blood Red Shoes, who have dispensed some amazing DIY advice to up and coming groups that you don't get to hear everyday. A fantastic read with great advice like the tidbit below.
"This is a sad fact because there are people around our band, and a lot of bands, who really believe in what they're doing and will work fantastically hard to make things happen. I have a lot of love for these people. A lot of folk in the music industry are not evil contrary to popular belief. Actually they mostly start out really genuine music fans who want to work in a music environment and the issue is actually the system itself, which like everything else under capitalism, is set up so the workers are the ones getting ripped off the most. Nevertheless, no-one will quite feel like you do about your band, nobody will have that 10 minutes of suicidal end-of-the-world depression you get after a shit gig. Or that utter disappointment when you see they've printed your album sleeve on the wrong kind of paper."
This past Saturday was March 6th, which while being insignificant in the
grand scheme of things, this was a big day for Musformation. After two
months of planning, brain storming and research Todd and I officially
started posting to Musformation on a daily basis on 3/6/09. It wasn't a
planned launch as much as a bunch of bugs got fixed, we started giving
out the URL, and we had something to say. The later part of that saying
is a lot of what this site is about. We have something to say.
- How To Pursue A "Corporate Sponsorship" To Get Funding For Your Music
- Band Tip: Spend Energy Making New Fans Instead Of Badgering Your Friends
- Lessons On Building Fan Community From Lady GaGa
- Surround Sound Coming Soon To iTunes
- Getting Paid By SoundExchange - Watch The MetaData!
- Music Business Reality - You Need Smart Management And A Smart Label
- Root Music Is A Great Way To Make Your Facebook Page Look Fantastic
- Why Attending Your Mastering Session Can Hurt Your Record
- RockBand Network For Unsigned Artists Has Launched
- Exercises To Improve Your Controller/Button Timing
- Initial Reports On Rock Band Authoring Is DIY Is A No Go
- Scratch Off Record Covers Are All The Rage - See The New MGMT Cover In Action
- MP3Cut Is A Website To Edit MP3s/Make Ringtones
- Mistakes You Shouldn't Make When Writing A Press Release
From our initial conceptualization of Musformation, the idea was to help create an open community with spirited dialogue and a constant flowing ideas instead of attempting to be the final word or end-all-be-all site of musical elitism. We are musicians and producers who write about our real world experiences that are our own personal reality. But we also want to hear from you. We have a loyal audience, a great set of consistent commentators and a very intelligent readership that always surprises us. Agree with us, disagree with us, love us, hate us, but give us your own take. We love links, articles you've written, ideas and anything you've got. It's been an amazing run so far and 2010 is looking even better. Keep it coming, ya'll. 
- Recording/Mixing Tip: Don't Get Lost In Overdubs And Double-Tracking
- 7 Ways To Inflate Your Mailing List
- Using Shuffle To Improve Your Mixes
- BroadTexter Can Help You Text Your Fans When You Come To Their Home Town
- Engaging Your Fans Through Creative Contests
- Band Tip: Get To Soundcheck EARLY!
- GigLeader Is Another Site Where People Can Search For Your Band For Potential GigsWhy SoundCloud Is Great To Get Your Music On To Blogs
- Band Names Are Running Dry, How To Avoid a Generic Name
- TuneCore Now Offering Ringtone Uploads And Free Software With Tutorial To Do So
- ReverbNation And AudioLife Go Public With The Reverb Store
- Gain Studio Is Studio Management Software
- How To Setup A SoundCloud Remix Contest
- SellABand Will Reopen Under New Ownership
- Is Your Client Dense? You Still Have To Make It Work!
- Innovative Album Packaging - Scratch Off Album Art
- Aphex Twin Outdoes Himself Again - Embeds His Face In A Spectragraph
- Musformation, FanBridge, ReverbNation and MusicGlue all offer way to trade free songs for an email list.
- TweetForATrack not only will have fans Tweet out a message about downloading a track from you, but will also capture an email address from your fans.
- Stores like Nimbit and Bandcamp will capture your customers email addresses for you.
- Make a email list sign up form available on your website and your Myspace. FanBridge and ReverbNation both have fantastic widgets to do this with.
- Offer giveaways only to mailing list members, like guest list passes etc. Announce them on Facebook and Twitter so your fans hear about them and sign up for the mailing list.
- Take credit card payments at shows through services like Square, which will capture your fans email addresses.
- Get a Netbook with a email list signup and give away something like a sticker, button or patch to anyone who signs up for your email list at every show you play.
Instructables has up a fantastic tutorial on how to make a multi-voltage power supply for your guitar pedals. A great learning experience and one that can be rewarding on your wallet to get rid of all those spare $9v battery purchases.
Hey Everyone,
First off thanks for baring with us through our growing pains. As the site grows, the internal gears get cranky and need some oiling. Jackie as always did us solid and tweaked out some of the problems with RSS, Commenting and the site crashing. Thanks so much for baring with us and as always if you have any problems please email us here. Sorry for the trouble and as always thanks for the support.
First off thanks for baring with us through our growing pains. As the site grows, the internal gears get cranky and need some oiling. Jackie as always did us solid and tweaked out some of the problems with RSS, Commenting and the site crashing. Thanks so much for baring with us and as always if you have any problems please email us here. Sorry for the trouble and as always thanks for the support.
Music Radar has up a fantastic article on the process that goes on behind one of the groups that is influencing a great deal of the musicians in the world today, everyone's favorite indie band Animal Collective. The article gets into great detail on some of the bands intricacies and creative thoughts and is a great read for anyone looking to
If you are in the type of group that is constantly looking for more paying gigs by any means necessary, GigLeader may be a great site to setup a profile on. Providing a list of groups indexed by location and genre, promoters are able to search their database to find talent for a wide variety of gigs. Check it out.
Bands are not often known for being timely, but there is one area where being early can really come in handy: soundcheck. Not only will you get a chance to meet with the soundguy and make friendly, but you'll also be able to discover what the room sounds like, what the strengths and weaknesses are of the soundsystem and most importantly, it will allow you the time to find a way to fix any kinks in your sound BEFORE the show. Further, if you do your soundcheck early you'll also discover if you're missing any gear you might need to run out and purchase or if your gear is acting up you can perhaps borrow someone elses. You might be hungover, tired from a previous show or your singer might be more interested in being out on the town searching for tail, but bands who get in a good soundcheck always sound better. Find out what the very earliest time you can get in the venue and get setup. You'll sound better and be more relaxed when it's time to hit the stage. Remember that music fans rarely ever blame the sound guy or the venue, they just assume the band sucks. Make no assumptions about a venue or it's soundsystem - find out for yourself by getting an early and thorough soundcheck. While many electronic artists out there seem to be phoning it in for their live show, Edison really takes performance to the next level. In the above clip he shows off his custom Monome and Novation Launchpad and then tells us exactly how he does it all. For more awesome performance footage check here.
If you are traveling the country trying to do the vocals for your record whenever inspiration strikes you can meet some very acoustically unfriendly environments along the way. This plan for a DIY vocal booth is a cheap and small way to cure some of these ills if you want to record in hotel rooms and nasty crash pads on tour. Check it out here.
- WaTunes Announces Marketplace To Sell Music Directly To Fans
- Ian Rogers Of TopSpin Talks Staying In The Newscycle
- The Bizmo Launches Hit Or Not Facebook App To Test Your A&R Skills
- The World's First Remixable YouTube Video?
- Walmart Will Allow You To Sleep In Their Parking Lot On Tour
- Guitar Intonation Intricacies
- YouTube Launches Automatic Playlist Generator/Music Discovery Tool Disco
- Giving Superfans With Tattoos Free Admission To Shows
- Tips From Consumer Reports On Keeping Your Van Running For Less Money
- Facebook Album Downloads/Sharing Start To Heat Up With Angels & Airwaves And GBC
- Merch Strategies - Don't Just Give It Away, Get An Email Address
- The Jamie Thomas Ruling Shows 1 Illegal Download = 3 1/3rd Dead Relatives?
- The Lessons From Public Enemy's SellABand Fail And How To Do Crowdfunding Right
Anyone who has seen live music knows there is nothing worse then a shoe gazing anorexic sitting in front of the crowd strumming a guitar. However, some of you too-cool-for-school types don't seem to care and do this anyway. If this is the case, one way you can actually entertain us is using a slide show. Thankfully, Instructables has up a cheap way to make a slide projector out of an Ikea lamp. That way you'll have more money to spend on girls jeans!
One of the biggest pains of being an active band is dealing with the costs of getting around. Thankfully Consumer Reports has published a fantastic article that sorts the marketing drivel from reality and tells you may ways to save money and be more realistic with your auto upkeep. Check it here.
Many bands are giving tons of stuff away for free at shows - buttons, CDs, stickers, etc. However just like on the Internet there is a much smarter way to do this. Grabbing yourself a $200 netbook and getting fans email addresses can both up your show attendances and your future sales, and most fans are more than happy to give their email in exchange for whatever you may give them. When people talk about music being free in the future, start to smile and realize you can at least get a lasting relationship with a fan out of the deal.
We at Musformation don't always have the kindest things to say about the corporate giant that is Walmart. That said their low prices keep many bands surviving on the road and they also are kind enough to allow your touring band to sleep in their parking lot when you need to doze off for a little while. Seeing as Walmarts are always just a stone's throw away from one another, nearly every one of them will allow you to sleep in their lot, which can come in really handy on the long drives. If you are unsure which Walmarts do and don't allow this you can call in advance or just look for signs that prohibit overnight parking upon arrival.
Once upon a time in the 90's the band Rocket From The Crypt used to employ a pretty cool idea that got them a lot of attention. Any fan who got their logo tattooed on them would get free admission to their shows. Not only did this encourage some people who wouldn't normally do this thing to go for it, but it showed that the band was extremely important and helped to build their buzz over time. If a fan is loyal enough to go this far they very well may deserve some love?
- Announcing Musformation Services And Consulting!
- MUST READ! - TopSpin Explains It All - Selling Records in 2010
- Using Fortune Cookies To Get More People To Listen To Your Music
- Re: Using Fortune Cookies To Get More People To Listen To Your Music
- Spreading The Word - Give Out Free Stickers In Exchange For A SASE
- Getting Good Publicity Is A Discouraging Battle If You Don't Know What To Expect
- The Ultimate List Of Music Licensing Companies
- Nimbit Tells All With Stats On The New Might Mighty Bosstones Album
- Google Goes To War With Nearly Every Social Network With Google Buzz, But How Does It Affect Music?
- Ditto Music Now Links To Billboard SoundScan
- BandJob Is A Place To Shop For Music Based Graphic Design Work
- Getting Good At The Art Of Shameless Promotion
- ReverbNation Has New, Versatile And Very Good Looking Widgets For You
- PayPal Announces Virtual Terminal - Take Credit Cards Over Wi-Fi!
- Akron/Family Launch Website To Showcase Covers Of Their Song/Free Show Admission
- Bandcamp Goes Music Community
- The Management Secrets Of The Grateful Dead
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