Getting first gig
i have just started playing jazz piano in the last two months, but i didn't really have the motivation until i set a goal: playing in the local summer festival. i live in a small town (18,000 people) so there really aren't much gigging opportunities. besides, i really don't need the money (i have a good day job) and i am not sure i will be good enough to play requests. i talked to the guy who coordinates the music for the festival (he owns the local music store) and he said i could send him a cd and he would consider it. he hires professionals to perform, but they aren't all top notch people. i plan on doing solo piano. the trick will be deciding when i am good enough. i want to do it as soon as possible, but if he turns me down once i would find it difficult bugging him about it again. in any case, that is my goal and i having something to work toward has given me more motivation. just sharing my situation.
There are 11 comments, leave a comment.
what have you done with the motivation?
money does not have to be the motivation to gig. musicians often need to gig to push there abilities to the next level and that can be motivation enough. it will be a luxury for you to not have to sweat out whether you will be re hired or not. playing requests is only one very small part of gigging. there is an art to turning down requests that you have to learn just as well as fullfilling them so you might as well get started on that now. i often turn down requests even when i am perfectly capable of playing them for a multitude of reasons ie... i think the rest of the room will really dislike the tune being requested,
i really dislike the requested tune..... i do not like how i play the requested tune....etc... etc... but you can not tell the requesting party any of these things so you come up with ways of dealing with these people that fit your personality. you may just out and out lie and say you do not know the tune... you may just change the subject and tell a irrelavant joke or start talking about politics.... whatever you have to develope your own way of dealing with the situation and whether you know the tunes or not the answer is not always to play it.
you can make exuses to not get gigs for ever. not being able to handle requests is not a good one. not needing the money is not a good one either. these are just exuses that are getting around what ever the real reason is. which is, if you are like 99.9% of all musicians who have not giggied before, performance anxiety. better to admit it and deal with the issue at hand.
i really dislike the requested tune..... i do not like how i play the requested tune....etc... etc... but you can not tell the requesting party any of these things so you come up with ways of dealing with these people that fit your personality. you may just out and out lie and say you do not know the tune... you may just change the subject and tell a irrelavant joke or start talking about politics.... whatever you have to develope your own way of dealing with the situation and whether you know the tunes or not the answer is not always to play it.
you can make exuses to not get gigs for ever. not being able to handle requests is not a good one. not needing the money is not a good one either. these are just exuses that are getting around what ever the real reason is. which is, if you are like 99.9% of all musicians who have not giggied before, performance anxiety. better to admit it and deal with the issue at hand.
hey mark
go for it, if it isnt until the summer then you have plenty of time to get working on aspects of the music, time, voicings, soloing that you may have not covered so far. it sounds to me that if you have only being playing jazz piano for two months and you are already considering getting up to do a festival, you must be a pretty sweet musician! or maybe you just have bags of confidence lol, but thats no harm...look at jamie cullam!
one thing to take into consideration, dont do the gig if it wouldnt do you any favours with the audience, ie, dont play if you arent ready ability wise. it would be good to get someones opinion on this, as our own are often misleading. it wouldnt be a good idea, especially for a first gig, to get up then and then maybe find you freeze with nerves, or you forget the chords to some tunes youre playing...so my advice is to get practicing. lots. listen to solo jazz records, get some gigs before that one, it sounds pretty important- ask around town if they have any bars/hotels with pianos in and try and jam there, doing a festival for your first gig is tough. pick an interesting set list, dont just go and play every tune thats expected, try and throw in some interesting choices, at the same time, dont bewilder the audience :-) abert alyer wont go down well
so get practicing and set yourself a goal each week of what you need to work on. oh yeah, and record yourself :-)
hope this has helped
rick
go for it, if it isnt until the summer then you have plenty of time to get working on aspects of the music, time, voicings, soloing that you may have not covered so far. it sounds to me that if you have only being playing jazz piano for two months and you are already considering getting up to do a festival, you must be a pretty sweet musician! or maybe you just have bags of confidence lol, but thats no harm...look at jamie cullam!
one thing to take into consideration, dont do the gig if it wouldnt do you any favours with the audience, ie, dont play if you arent ready ability wise. it would be good to get someones opinion on this, as our own are often misleading. it wouldnt be a good idea, especially for a first gig, to get up then and then maybe find you freeze with nerves, or you forget the chords to some tunes youre playing...so my advice is to get practicing. lots. listen to solo jazz records, get some gigs before that one, it sounds pretty important- ask around town if they have any bars/hotels with pianos in and try and jam there, doing a festival for your first gig is tough. pick an interesting set list, dont just go and play every tune thats expected, try and throw in some interesting choices, at the same time, dont bewilder the audience :-) abert alyer wont go down well
so get practicing and set yourself a goal each week of what you need to work on. oh yeah, and record yourself :-)
hope this has helped
rick
if you establish yourself based on your own thing,"getting requests" for anything other than your own material won't be a factor.......
and make sure not to "set yourself up for failure" by letting your whole approach to self-promotion depend on whether or not this one potential employer decides to give you a shot....
thanks for the comments. i am planning on trying to play next summer, so i have a whole year and a half. i am already a very good classical musician, and i think i am getting a pretty good start on jazz. i don't know if this could really be called a 'gig' since i may not get paid for it (i don't really need the money). but i am just itching to get a chance to perform in front of other people besides just friends. the thing i found motivating was work up fewer pieces well instead of dabbling around with a little bit of everything. at this point i am mixing memorizing solos with a bit of improvisation. because my goals are different than some peoples, i will be trying to work on 1 1/2 hrs of music really well at first, instead of learning to play anything in any key. if all i did was just perform once a year, that would be fine with me. i have complete confidence that i could perform without freezing, as i have performed classical music in front of many people. i am also confident that i can sound good. the only uncertainty is how improvisational i will be able to be, but i won't know that until next year. like i said, the guy in charge of booking acts is the one i have to convince, and he asked me to send him a cd. i should also mention that while there are some bigger name acts, there is also small stuff being performed all over town, even at the library (where they are having a craft fair). so its not a big thing, but at the same time for someone just getting started any performance of any kind is a big thing.
for some reason refreshing the page made it send the message again.
i should also mention that the reason i may not get paid is that i know some of the performances are volunteer. for example, there is a volunteer community big band that is performing. this is a small town (18,000 people) and we don't have any bars (no this isn't utah). there is a restaurant that has performances, but it is only bigger names where people pay a $10-15 cover charge (they just had the "red elvises". anyone ever heard of them?). you never know where things will lead though. i can't really go out of town much, as i have a job and family.
what tunes are you working on?
this is what i am thinking of working up. some of these i've just thought about and haven't really started on:
caravan: i've got this introduction based on the beginning of the hungarian rasphody #2 by liszt, which then transitions into a fast swing.
lulu's blues: by gene harris. going to try to play it like gene.
night in tunisia
stolen moments
softly as in a morning sunrise (done with stride base. thanks scot)
greensleaves (reharmonization by vince guaraldi)
linus and lucy (vince guaraldi, with an added funky intro)
take 5 (i have this idea of transitioning between two different base vamps during the solo)
reel ghan (i have this idea for doing a scottish reel, which transitions into jazz. kind of like itsbynnereel by michael brecker.)
preachin' to the choir (an idea i have for a piece that transitions from a soul feel, to swing, to funk).
blue rondo a la turk
over the rainbow (i have this neet arrangement by george shearing)
four (miles davis)
brotherhood of man (oscar peterson)
it don't mean a thing
caravan: i've got this introduction based on the beginning of the hungarian rasphody #2 by liszt, which then transitions into a fast swing.
lulu's blues: by gene harris. going to try to play it like gene.
night in tunisia
stolen moments
softly as in a morning sunrise (done with stride base. thanks scot)
greensleaves (reharmonization by vince guaraldi)
linus and lucy (vince guaraldi, with an added funky intro)
take 5 (i have this idea of transitioning between two different base vamps during the solo)
reel ghan (i have this idea for doing a scottish reel, which transitions into jazz. kind of like itsbynnereel by michael brecker.)
preachin' to the choir (an idea i have for a piece that transitions from a soul feel, to swing, to funk).
blue rondo a la turk
over the rainbow (i have this neet arrangement by george shearing)
four (miles davis)
brotherhood of man (oscar peterson)
it don't mean a thing
don't refresh the page from your browser- use the "refresh" link in the upper right hand corner of the page.
we were talking about stuff like this recently in another post. basically, don't worry too much about what you are going to play, just make sure that your tunes are like friends that you continually get to know more and more about.
we were talking about stuff like this recently in another post. basically, don't worry too much about what you are going to play, just make sure that your tunes are like friends that you continually get to know more and more about.
If I'm not back in 24 hours, call the president.
Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.
Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.
by Scot Ranney on 03/22/2004, 08:50
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