by Steve Smithion

Created on: October 21, 2008

Your first gig is a major milestone in your life as a musician, just like mastering how to ride a bike is as a child, or getting a piece of work published for the first time is. So as this is such a significant event for every musician, it's worth getting right.

Many try and fail when it comes to walking out on that stage for the first time, whether it means just simply a poor performance or the full blown bottles being thrown at you. Hopefully you won't join this collection of muscians - providing, of course, that you follow these steps.

Practice:

You need to have regular practices as your gig is approaching, this is obvious. But what's not so obvious is how you should practice.

The first thing you need to do is arrange the band in a performance format i.e. not in a circle facing each other. Bands that are new to the world of performing often do this and it limits stage presence greatly - the audience doesn't want see your back. Once you've settled into this new formation, play your set list as if it were a real gig. No stops if anything goes wrong. No three-hour breaks to fiddle with your amplifier settings. Just play! It's what performing live is all about.

The ritual:

Every band has their own warm up ritual. It maybe be having a band chat or just playing your instrument for a bit before going on stage. It's like a lucky charm. You have to do something though as you will focus to much on what's ahead and start panicking.

Performing:

When it actually comes to being on stage in front of a crowd, you need to know what you're playing, when you're playing it and... I can't think of a third one. But you get the idea; you should be able to play your set in your sleep. Then, once you can do that, you have to think about stage presence. This is what scores you the marks. You can play absolutely rubbish but still get that crowd going if you're enjoying yourself and it shows in the performance.

The key things to remember when performing are: eye contact - making connection to one person in the crowd (without staring at them!) really livens the atmosphere, I don't know why but it does and; copying the pros - don't, it makes you look stupid when you go over the top with stage dives and whatnot - if you're going to do it fine, but you have to be careful to not cross that border between genuine and fake.

Speaking from experience...

My first gig was a little over a year ago, and I remember clearly, down to the last detail, what went wrong and what went well. As a whole, the gig was a success, which came as surprise as it was just me, my guitar and a drummer, so we were limited to a really basic set list. I don't know how I quite pulled it off (only what I've described above), but I hope if you follow my advice you will join me in the near future, revelling in the success of your first gig.

Learn more about this author, Steve Smithion.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.