How to Get Gigs as a Musician
If you are anything like me, you might have also dreamed of starting your own band or solo act and somehow never actually gotten around to starting! So this blog is for you! There are so many tiny details that go into getting your first gig, let alone gathering a group of people who 1) like the same music as you, 2) are talented, and 3) have enough time to want to start a band. It is daunting! If you have told yourself, “Oh I couldn’t do that, I’m too old/young/beginner/not good enough!” let me tell you are unique and your music WILL connect with someone and could make a big impact on their life. So, focus on having fun and don’t worry about what other people think!
My best-case scenario small gig looks this: you get invited to fancy parties, wineries, weddings, etc that you would never normally go to (expecially for free!), you get to chat with awesome people you would never normally meet (and you have a fun chat topic since you are in the band!), you get free food/wine etc, AND you get paid to play songs you love! What is bad about this?! Tell me!
*This blog contains affiliate links but all opinions are my own!
Free Gig Gear checklist!
Stay organized with this short and sweet checklist!
So anyway, I thought the barrier to entry was a lot higher than it was and when I finally just started somewhere, I wished I hadn’t waited so long!
In this blog, I will be breaking down exactly how to do this because YOU are talented enough and ready to do this!
Find Your People
The first thing you need to do is find people for your band (unless you are a solo act). This was weirdly hard for me because I had a lurking fear that people wouldn’t want to be in a band with me or that the people I was meeting wouldn’t have the same vibe/ like the same style of music as me. My band consists of my sister and my husband which sounds like a no brainer for band members. In reality, my sister had no experience singing in a band setting and had just done choral music (which doesn’t really set you up for stage presence haha), and my husband, who played bass but in different genres.
That being said, we weren’t exactly an obvious band fit! My sister and I had joked about starting a sister band for forever though and finally got a SMALL gig at a Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood during 2020 (so like noooo one was there). We were actually horrible and forgot a ton of stuff BUT we had fun! For our first bigger gig (we played at Luke Bryan’s stage at a brewery), we bought my husband a cajon at Guitar Center and convinced him to play (how hard could it be). He did great! So I tell you this little story to say you could find band members either on Facebook (like a musician finder page), word of mouth (going to see someone at a show and asking them to play is always good!), or maybe the people for your band are closer than you think. People’s talent and stage presence can always grow, but personalities will stay the same, so to me, that was most important!
Put together and practice your set
So once you know your band members, you can create a rough set list! I’ve learned everyone has a lot of opinions about this (what a surprise ;) ), so make it as good as you can and don’t hold on to anything too tightly. For a cover gig that’s 2 hours, you will need about 30-40 songs. We started with hour-long sets, and anytime we would get a longer gig, we would cram and learn more songs (maybe not the best way to do it!). We do a mix of covers and originals, and usually all original sets for us tend to be 30-45 mins! I’ve learned that having more upbeat songs is better, and if you are doing a cover, putting your spin on it feels better than just copying everything about the original song! Also, we don’t use an iPad (which, depending on your style, might be necessary), but for acoustic pop, I don’t like relying on that because it tends to mess me up more than help!
Make your music “resume”
You do not need a huge Instagram following (case in point, The Rivalry has like 300 followers and we post rarely!), but having materials to show you are not a horrible musician and are a fairly normal person is important! I would suggest creating the following:
One video of your band playing a full song
Have a little photoshoot (you can get a friend with a good eye if you are not super committed yet!) and make sure you have a photo that venues can put on a poster or their site etc.
Start an Instagram and put a few posts up
Creating a short band bio
If you have recorded music, great, but you don’t have to have this to get most smaller gigs
Here’s a photo I took of my parents’ band Way Out West- aren’t they cool?
Here’s my sister and my very first photo (trying to be artsy by this pink wall!)
Obviously, the more of these and the more professional they are, the better, but more importantly, do the best you can starting and learn on the job!
Put together an EPK
Here’s our EPK that uploading now I see it needs to be updated! :D
Otherwise known as an electronic press kit, this one-page document is basically your band's resume. Here you can put your bio, links, and any “claims to fame” you have. Here’s ours! In the beginning, we didn’t really cool gigs to put on there, so we left that part off. We made ours in Canva, and let me know if you want a video or blog showing you how to make one like this!
Email venues
Finally, brainstorm all the venues you’d want to play and email or Instagram message them. Attach your EPK and say a little bit about why you want to play their venue/why you’d be a good fit! Remember, at the end of the day, as much as we are artists, we are being hired by a venue because they think it will make them more money, so I like to focus on why we would fit their vibe (aka bring in business)! We keep an email template in Google Drive, and will personalize it before sending. If you want to play a ticketed venue, these do sometimes make you sell tickets/ are trickier to score if you don’t have music recorded, so a good strategy could be reaching out to bands you know and see if they need an opener!
Done!
Didn’t I tell you it wasn’t too hard to do?! From here, practice as much as you can and try not to get too nervous (I’m sure telling you not to be nervous will magically make all your nerves go away). After your first gig, everything will feel way less scary, and you’ll already be planning your next show!
Are you thinking of starting a band? People who have bands, do you have any advice for the beginners? Would LOVE to hear from you below! Thanks so much, as always, for reading!
