These days, the internet seems to be a great tool to get your music out there and be heard as a musician. The internet can be a wonderful thing and musicians seems to be obsessed with it more than anything (that includes me too). I’m just amazed at the large number of unsigned bands and artists in social networking sites that a lot of them are terrible at putting themselves out there. Not only that angry rants could destroy your music dreams, you can still destroy your career even if you’re a nice person.

When you want to put yourself out there, you must be careful with everything you do. The kind of photos you’re putting up there for the world to see. You must look at how you write to your fans. A lot of musicians have the worst writing skills I’ve ever seen. A lot of musicians like to be funny and humorous a lot with their fans. A lot of them like to write offensive and inappropriate jokes, some of them even using cuss words and swearing. You see a lot of, “Come to this show, bitches”, “We’re going to rock the fuck out”, “We’re going to get ourselves wasted, and have a blast”, etc. Okay, you get my point. A lot of bands seem to be putting that stuff up in their status’s, when they have a show coming up. In my opinion, this is just me, it’s a bad idea to write stuff like that. Why does it make you look foolish?

It’s because you’re adults. Maybe like around 30 or 40. When you have a show coming up that involves alcohol, they act like high school teenagers at a house party or something. This post isn’t aimed at any band in particular. I’m talking about, all of them. Bands really got to be careful how they put themselves out there. Every move they make. Everything they do online. Everywhere they go.  They have to be responsible and take everything seriously.

When you want to promote a project or show, you must be a professional about that too. Just focus on plugging in your project in a more appropriate manner and more people will be interested in it. You can be a nice person all you want to be, people are going to still get pissed at you about how you put yourself out there. Don’t spam people to death and don’t over do with plugging yourself way too much. That can also kill your career.

Use the internet responsible, don’t fall for scams and pay to play schemes that a lot of bands seems to be falling for. Be careful with entering for contests and be careful of accepting opportunities over the internet. All this stuff can kill your career, if you’re not careful.

Use the internet good, and you could have a good career on a positive note.

Kev

A lot of bands and musicians mistakenly believe, you need to play bar rooms all the time, to get your music out there and be heard. That’s not true. You don’t really have to play shit hole bars & clubs, if you don’t want to. It’s really all up to you to decide on what type of venues to play in. To those that know me, would know that I prefer to play small cafes and diners more, than the bar gigs. Why do I hate bars so much?

Well, for starters, I hate the loud noise over the music. Too distracting and annoying. Plus, I don’t like being around too many drunk people. The way they talk to you being drunk is pretty nuts. I enjoy talking to people more when they are sober. As you can probably tell, I’m not the partying type anymore like I used to be.

I prefer the cafes and diners more, where people can sit and actually listen to you. It’s more quiet and calm. I prefer performances like that.

If I get a band someday though, that might be a bit of a problem. Most cafes and diners don’t like loud rock bands. I’m sure there are large venues that don’t involve alcohol that will welcome loud rock bands, those venues are hard to find. I just like quiet and intimate performances more. Most bands enjoy performing in front of a bunch of drunk people, but live performances don’t always have to be that way. This is why I mostly liked to perform at small places like the Cafe Lena, Flavour Cafe, Slow Jed’s, and places like those.

With the band thing, I don’t really want to be a bar band. I want to find places where people can sit and listen to you. We’re not going to be a party rock band where you can dance your ass off all night. I’m planning to be a rock band that plays art. Nothing wrong with bands wanting to play bars, they play where ever they want to play, but do you really want to be looked at as a bar band when you would rather be performing a bigger stage?

You can get a better reception from the fans when performing at venues that doesn’t involve alcohol.

Kev

I know that there are going to be plenty of bands & acoustic solo musicians that is not going to want to read this post, they’ll get mad at some of it, but the truth needs to be said. If you don’t want to be looked at as one of the most hated bands or artists, or if you don’t want to look like a bunch of amateurs, then you should read this post. I’ve been guilty of some of these mistakes myself, so I can speak from experience.

Here’s the list in no particular order:

• Stopping a song or starting over if you make a mistake – If you forget chords, forget lyrics, or if you keep messing up your rhythm playing, then that’s a sign that you need more practicing and rehearsing. Stopping a song or starting over is probably the worst thing a musician could ever do. It’s okay to mess up songs. It happens all the time. Everyone does it. Just don’t stop the song. Keep playing right through it by making stuff up both the music and lyrics, that way nobody would notice if you’ve made a mistake. It’s embarrassing when this happens, right? Sure is. I’ve seen musicians do this before and even I’ve done it a few times. Never again.
• Not having back up for an instrument, amplifier or P.A. system – I’ve seen bands and musicians stop gigs & cut them short ’cause their equipment goes out. This is why you should get an extra one for back up.
• Playing your instrument out of tune or singing out of tune – Playing in tune is important. It’s no joke!
• Performing while sick – The show must go on sure, but don’t be afraid to cancel or postpone the gig, if you’re not feeling well. There are too many musicians that perform while sick. You shouldn’t. If you’re ill, you could play a sloppy performance, and you don’t want to look sick on stage, right?
• Tuning on stage, in front of the crowd – Wasting time tuning is probably the worst thing ever. When you want to tune, do it early before the gig. If your instrument goes out of tune during the performance, unplug the guitar and then tune with an electronic tuner. Nobody wants to hear musicians tuning for ten minutes or more. If you have a song that is in an alternate tuning, like I said before, bringing more than one guitar will help cover up that trick, and will take lesser time in between songs.
• Responding to hecklers or confronting the audience walking away – It’s very rare that I see this but it does happen. If you’re getting, “You suck” from the crowd or walk aways, just ignore it and still play the gig. I’ve had people walk away from my performances all the time. I maybe a little disappointed, and sad when that happens, sure, but never say anything about it. Just keep playing for the people who stuck around to see you. When you respond, it’s a pretty childish thing to do.
• Being rude to the soundman during soundcheck before the gig – Yeah, doing the sound before the gig may sound annoying and frustrating, but don’t have a negative attitude if you can’t hear your instrument. There’s a very good chance, he could turn the sound off on ya and you could get kicked off the gig. Even if he can be rude or be a prick to you first, you don’t be mean to him in return. Just be a professional. Yes, there can be rude soundmen out there. I’ve seen it.
• Dressing terribly on stage – The way you dress is pretty important. Dress the way that fits your genre of music. You don’t have to dress fancy and nice at all of your gigs. Only dress fancy and nice on special occasions. If you play a gig at a fancy restaurant or night club, that’s when you want to dress all pretty. At bars, you can wear pretty much anything. At cafes and diners, keep the clothing casual.
• Not bringing in a crowd – If you’re just playing to the owner only, of course, this could be the biggest mistake a band or artist ever make. I love those bands that complain and whine that nobody showed up. Well, hell, I wonder why? It’s probably because they aren’t promoting enough and not inviting people! Don’t blame the venue or the booking person. It’s your job to bring in an audience, not theirs!
• Sucking, or playing terribly – If you’re booked a gig, and then play a bad show, then you need to stop gigging for a while, and practice more. This is pretty much the reason, I stopped gigging for a while to improve my talent.

There you go, I could probably come up with even more, but those ten are the most common.

Kev