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Bands and Professionalism

by: Dave Wilson

By D.R. Wilson

Bands and Professionalism, I view this is a very important topic. There are alot of bands that don't cross their T's and dot their I's. It's for the most part fairly easy to learn your part of the song on your instrument and perhaps your vocal part, but there are many other things to take into account for your live performances. Remember, you're being paid to do a job, and as fun as that job might be it is still in fact, a job. The venue owner or talent buyer is expecting you to come through with a quality performance. To start with, You want to arrive at the venue in plenty of time to set up and do your sound checks. Unless you really trust your sound man, you may want to have a long enough cord or a cordless system so you can stand out front and make sure all is well with the sound. Obviously there may need to be some adjustments when the place is full, but for the most part you should be in good shape.

For the performance itself, every band whether you're doing covers or origional material, your sound and stage presence or lack there of is what makes you and your show unique. Too much time (also known as dead air) between songs is definitely not good. For one thing, you tend to lose your audience's attention and you want to keep your momentum.You can avoid this by having a set list so you know what song is coming up next. You can also purchase equipment with memory that will allow your instruments effects to be up and running at the start of each song. You can have the last note of one song to be the first of the next song allowing you to run songs together in a medley. In many cases a song will start with one instrument so if you play that instrument and you know the timing well enough you can start right in providing the rest of the band is prepared for that. Of course, you want to have some interaction with the audience and each band according to it's personality will have it's way of addressing this. Relax and go with the flow. Just remember people are there for the music not for a speech.

About the author:
Dave Wilson: Booking Agent and musician of 30 years.

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