You gotta love how bands promote their gigs in social networking sites in facebook, and other places online. When bands & solo artists promote their gigs, a lot of them like to write a little something about it. Just their way of getting people excited so they can come out. I understand their marketing ways but there are certain ways of doing it, and yes it does matter. People take what bands write seriously. Make no mistake about it. They really do.

Before you write something when you promote your gigs, whether in facebook, your website, newsletters, etc., where ever, please re-read what you write a couple of times before hitting that “Post” button. Ask yourself, “Will people like what I wrote”? When you want people to take your show advertisement seriously, then you got to leave your ego out of things. Try not to make your write up about the gig too negative and be careful not to try and sound much like an egotist.

Instead of saying stuff like: “Come on out to this kick ass show, we got a great set planned and about to melt some faces.”. (which I see bands write stuff like this often)

How about saying stuff like: “Have no plans this weekend? If not, it would be cool if you could come out and hear us.” (See how kind and courteous that is? It’s not rude and demanding. Asking people if they want to come out, instead of begging is a better way to do it.)

Or even better, don’t say anything at all and just post the gig information or flyer alone.

You have to be careful and not try to turn people off with your advertising. Don’t always think that your shows are going to be great. You need to let the music speak on it’s own, and let the fans tell you that your shows are great. You NEVER tell the public that you’re about to play a great show. Too many bands make this mistake these days.

This is how I always promoted my shows over the years. How are you going to play a great show when you haven’t played it yet? Whenever I get a gig, I can never tell when I’m gonna play a great show. I just go to my gig, play it, get it over with, and let the feedback come to me. I understand that bands want to try and make themselves look good by saying they’re about to play a killer show, but the people will make you look good if you don’t say things like that.

Letting the music speak on it’s own is pretty important. I always took it seriously.

Kev

So you’re a musician wanting to be part of your local music scene. You want to get recognized for your talent and become part of the musicians community. No matter how good of a person you are, or how good your music is, chances are, you will come across a handful of musicians who are going to be critical about you. They will criticize who you are as a person. They will criticize your playing or singing, and musicianship. They will tell you what’s okay and what’s not okay to say. They will also not be afraid to tell you whether or not they like you or your music. If they feel that your talent is not professional enough or you have lack of success in your music, they will constantly look at you as a music fan, instead of a musician. You want to move forward and get heard like everyone else, and you keep getting other musicians trying to put you down and destroy your dreams. Like always, you will come across a bunch of huge egos who will think they’re better than you, and they will act like they’re know it alls.

I’ve dealt with all kinds of bullshit, I’ve explained above. I’m just speaking from experience here. I hate the way this is myself. It’s pretty dumb. I wish all musicians would stop the criticism of others and support everyone, but it’s obviously not going to be like that. A lot of musicians out there are pretty anti-social to those who don’t have the same success as they have or if their musicianship is not on a professional level. If you have lack of success in your music and struggling to get recognized, you will get accused of being an amateur/hobbyist, kind of musician.

With me? I never cared who’s bigger than who or who’s more talented than who. I’ve always treated musicians the same. I treat them all as real people. Congratulations if you have success in music and I’m sure you are a very talented musician but… that doesn’t make you a better person than everyone else.

If you want to be part of the local musicians community, you want to look after the musicians who respect you in return and look after the ones who believe in you. They will be out there, the ones who will support you, every step of the way. You’re still the same old local resident and a local musician. The reason I believe musicians think it’s okay to be critical of others is because they believe their criticism is right. That’s how they got where they are. They speak from experience. The last thing you want to do is listen to the criticism of other musicians. Do not get feedback of your music and don’t take advice from anybody. No matter how established they are. They want to act like know it alls ’cause of their skill and success that got them there. Hard to explain, but I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

If you need feedback on your songs, I wouldn’t just throw my songs on the internet and have other musicians comment on it ’cause that’s gonna do nothing but get mixed responses. If you want to make sure your song is good enough, don’t make your song public yet. Send your songs privately to other people you know well and can trust, he/she will let you know if it’s good or not. This is what I plan to do from now on before I put my future songs out there publicly.

The thing is, music is not about pleasing other musicians. It’s about pleasing yourself and the fans who actually like it. You need to concentrate on your music and getting it out there to the people who do like. Don’t worry about other musicians not liking you. It’s your own music career, that you need to worry about. If you’re having a tough time trying to be accepted in the local musicians community, fuck it. As long as you’re proud of your music and love what you do, that’s all that should matter.

I’ve always had a mixed reaction in the local musicians community. I have some musicians who respect the hell out of me and there are some that hate me. Don’t worry about it. The key to moving forward and becoming more successful in music, is not listening to anybody at all. Just be yourself, play the music, and that’s it. It’s all about believing in yourself. If musicians and other people want to hate, let ’em hate. The more they hate, the more it proves your success and your popularity. All the hate I got over the years, is part of how I got myself out there to begin with, lmao.

Kev