fabz
05-20-2008, 1:08 PM
So, it's just you, your guitar and 10 or so songs that you have written about whatever and now you want to play them in a public place so that people can enjoy your amazing art.
First things first. "He who humbles himself shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be humbled." The faster you understand that your music might be good, it can always be better and you need to continue to write and play as much as possible.
Secondly, how to about getting booked. Do you have a recording? A myspace? A lot of people hate myspace because Fox owns it now, but many venues want to hear your music and postage is damn expensive. But what about that awesome recording? Did you do it yourself? If you did, toss it. Unless you really know what you're doing and you've got thousands of dollars in recording equipment that stuff you recorded on GarageBand can be used as a musical notebook, but if you really want to sound good and really get some place, go to a real recording studio and spend the real money. Ask to take a tour of the facilites before you hand over any money. Ask what kind of mics they have. They should have Neumann mics and some other really nice stuff. Talk to the engineer, make sure he knows what he's doing. Ask how long he's been doing things. I know your buddy has an 8 track with an SM57 and some other stuff, but in this case, the more money you spend and the more time you spend on the recording the better it will sound and you'll be a lot happier.
Thirdly, now that you have all of your songs recorded and your happy with the product now you can go forth and multiply! Put that shit up on myspace and take some advice from the dudes at explosm and cram it down your friend's throat. Post it everywhere. (My personal music is on like three myspaces that get hits daily) Post the entire recording. Do a mediafire.com link and give it away. That's right. I know you just blew $250 on a recording, but give it away. If you give it away people might actually listen. If you make them buy it, no one is going to want it because they have to buy that CD.
Next! Getting Booked! Check your local craigslist for gigs. People are always posting for bands and shit. Just get the RSS feed and look at it all the time. Ask other bands if you can open for them. This actually really works well. If people know that you are looking to get booked they can search for you and your music, so on and so forth. Be ready to tell people how many people can come to your show. People want to know if you can bring 5, 10, 15, people? Be honest. Don't tell people you're bringing 30 people and 5 people show up because then you look like a douche and the venues will be pissed.
So now you're getting booked. People are coming to the show and the word is spreading like wildfire that you're awesome. Now what? Continue to write and record. Come out with new stuff, get more shows, get more fans, get that friend list on myspace into the thousands. Invite total strangers to shows. Make friends, suck dick, do coke, smoke Js.
First things first. "He who humbles himself shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be humbled." The faster you understand that your music might be good, it can always be better and you need to continue to write and play as much as possible.
Secondly, how to about getting booked. Do you have a recording? A myspace? A lot of people hate myspace because Fox owns it now, but many venues want to hear your music and postage is damn expensive. But what about that awesome recording? Did you do it yourself? If you did, toss it. Unless you really know what you're doing and you've got thousands of dollars in recording equipment that stuff you recorded on GarageBand can be used as a musical notebook, but if you really want to sound good and really get some place, go to a real recording studio and spend the real money. Ask to take a tour of the facilites before you hand over any money. Ask what kind of mics they have. They should have Neumann mics and some other really nice stuff. Talk to the engineer, make sure he knows what he's doing. Ask how long he's been doing things. I know your buddy has an 8 track with an SM57 and some other stuff, but in this case, the more money you spend and the more time you spend on the recording the better it will sound and you'll be a lot happier.
Thirdly, now that you have all of your songs recorded and your happy with the product now you can go forth and multiply! Put that shit up on myspace and take some advice from the dudes at explosm and cram it down your friend's throat. Post it everywhere. (My personal music is on like three myspaces that get hits daily) Post the entire recording. Do a mediafire.com link and give it away. That's right. I know you just blew $250 on a recording, but give it away. If you give it away people might actually listen. If you make them buy it, no one is going to want it because they have to buy that CD.
Next! Getting Booked! Check your local craigslist for gigs. People are always posting for bands and shit. Just get the RSS feed and look at it all the time. Ask other bands if you can open for them. This actually really works well. If people know that you are looking to get booked they can search for you and your music, so on and so forth. Be ready to tell people how many people can come to your show. People want to know if you can bring 5, 10, 15, people? Be honest. Don't tell people you're bringing 30 people and 5 people show up because then you look like a douche and the venues will be pissed.
So now you're getting booked. People are coming to the show and the word is spreading like wildfire that you're awesome. Now what? Continue to write and record. Come out with new stuff, get more shows, get more fans, get that friend list on myspace into the thousands. Invite total strangers to shows. Make friends, suck dick, do coke, smoke Js.