So I talk a lot about acting like a true professional in local music when you’re a gigging musician. How do you act like a 100% professional?

Here’s a step by step instruction, you bands out there may want to consider this:

• Be polite & friendly to everyone – There are too many bands at shows that are rude and some musicians can’t be friendly to people at all. Being polite, courteous and positive to everyone is important. People may enjoy your music but they want to like you as a person as well, don’t forget that. Being friendly to fans, booking agents and club owners. Getting to know them and making friends with people in music is a good thing.
• Show up early at your gigs – Believe me I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen lots of bands & solo acoustic acts show up real late at gigs. It happens all the time. If the club owner books you to show at 7:00 p.m. for soundcheck for example, show up an hour early. Why is it important to show up early? It impresses the club owner who booked you and he/she would want to book you again.
• If you need to cancel or pull out of gigs on the last minute, let everyone know before doing it – I’ve had plenty of musicians who never showed up at my gigs without not letting everyone know beforehand. This happens all the time. If you need to cancel out of your performance for your own reasons, let your fans and the person who booked you know about it.
• If you didn’t get a big crowd at your show, deal with it – I’ve had many bands & solo acts complain and whine about the dead crowd. If you get a dead crowd at your show where no one showed up at all in the audience, perform the gig and play it like it’s a great show anyway. A good attitude is a must have.
• If you didn’t get paid, deal with it – I’ve had many musicians complain to me about not getting paid enough out of the admission money from the door. If you don’t get money, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll make money at other gigs. Music shouldn’t be about the money anyway. It’s all about the love of playing.
• Don’t be critical of other bands on the show – If the band on your gig sucks,  then keep the opinion for yourselves. Live music is supposed to be fun and a positive experience. I’ve had too many musicians tell me that this performer sucks get them off the stage. It’s rude and I don’t care to hear other peoples opinions.
• Do everything the club owner/booking person tells you to do (even if you don’t like it) – The booking person who booked you to play the show is like your boss at a day job. You must follow orders. If you’re playing too loud, turn it down. If your set is too long, cut it in half. I’ve heard too many. If the club owner prefers your band to use their equipment and not your own, do it.
• Leave your egos out the door – This is a major turn off for me. Believe me, I met plenty of ego-maniacal musicians at the gigs. You’re no bigger than other musicians on the gig, you’re just the same as us.
• Promote yourself – Promote yourself on the internet whether in blogs, facebook, myspace, reverbnation, etc. Promote yourself in your hometown by posting flyers at stores/restaurants/diners, not everyone uses the internet.
• Take your music career seriously – If you want your music heard by as many people as possible, and want to become a successful band or musician, concentrate on your music only and nothing else outside of that.
• Ignore your critics & your haters – You’re not going to please everyone with your music. You’re going to get your share of nasty critics and haters writing a bunch of crap about you online. Ignore it all and don’t respond to any of it. You only care about your music and not giving a shit what other people have to say about you. You should be thankful and glad that you have haters because it lets you know that people are paying attention to you, good or bad. There are certain musicians around here who would reply to almost every negative thing written about them. Don’t be defensive of yourself ’cause you’ll never win.
• Just enjoy & have fun – If you don’t have the passion for music, then why bother doing it? I’ve seen plenty of musicians who don’t have the true passion for music. I’ve seen some who are just in it for the money, not for the love of music. Don’t treat music as a job, think of it as another life.

That’s about all I can think of. If there’s more, I’ll edit them in. Enjoy this list.

Kev