Tips for a Successful Gigging

After years of gigging here are a few tips to I have learned that have served me well.

1) Your most important pedal is your silent tuner. Nobody wants to hear you tune your guitar on stage, believe me. Nobody want to listen to an out of tune guitar either. Check your tuning often, in between tunes if you can. I recommend the Boss TU-2.

2) Throw out all broken cables immediately. The cable fairy is not going to come into your room at night and fix them for you. Throw them out because if not you will try to use them again or they will find their way into your setup and fail on the gig. While you are at it, throw out those pens that don't work either.

3) Make a gig kit. It should contain extra cables, strings, picks, wrenches, string winder, flashlight, string cutter, fuses, and extra tubes. At some point you will need one of these items and it's a real drag if you don't have it with you. I have this one

4) Check your gear before the gig. Turn on your amp, plug in you pedals, jiggle your cables, now is the time to fix any problems. One afternoon before a gig while testing my amp the transformer blew out. At least that didn't happen on the gig.

5) Show up on time or early. Nothing is more nerve wracking than rushing to set up because you got there late. Nothing is less professional as well. To quote Woody Allen "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

6) Learn the materiall. It may seem obvious but you'd be surprised how many people skate by without really knowing the material for a gig. I have made this error a number of times, it wasn't pretty.

7) Have business cards. "Hey man! You are awesome! I need someone to fill in for Eric Clapton. Do you have a card? You need a card. This should help.

8) Be cool. Nobody likes a jerk so be cool. People like cool people.

More tips to follow as I think of them.