John Wicker.com

I’ve played with a lot of different people and in a lot of different places over the last few years, and it seems like there are some common practices that people follow when they’re playing out. It kind of sounds strange to think of rock and roll having a set of rules, but if you want to play with someone more than once, and especially if you’re going to be playing with them a whole lot, here are some tips for getting along, getting paid, and getting asked back to play again. The first part of this series part one is already online.

Be Nice
If you hire someone and they treat you like shit or act like an asshole, would you want to hire them back? Of course not! That applies to the bar owner or whoever is paying you, and it also applies to your band mates.

As a musician, you’re at a show to have fun and be adored, but you’re also there to do a job. Handle the audience with respect, make announcements if you’re asked to, talk up how great the bartenders and the waitresses are every chance you get. Pimp the drink specials or the appetizers, or offer up a toast if you can– anything you do to increase sales for the owner will get you moved up the list of bands to invite back, and if you make friends with the employees you’ll have an in there as well.

Requests
Take requests if you can, and if you can’t play what they want, tell them you’ll learn their requested song for the next time you play there. Offer up alternatives. “Hey, we don’t do Brown Sugar but we do Honkey Tonk Women– how’s that?” When you play the request, mention the name of the person that asked for the song.

And when it comes to making dedications for particular songs, bring up stuff that a lot of people will identify with– play songs for all the baseball fans, or all the redheads, or whatever. Whenever I play “Some Kind of Wonderful” I ALWAYS dedicate it to the ladies in the room, or all the blondes, or something. Play one song for the blondes and then do the next one for the brunettes. If you have a big crowd, you can even make up events to celebrate. “We’ve got a special couple here tonight celebrating their seventh anniversary. They wanted us to play a love song.” Anything that gets an audience to applaud and be happy is going to go a long way towards ensuring they enjoy the show, and that’s a good thing.

Birthdays are a special opportunity– learn “Birthday” by the Beatles or some other appropriate song so you can whip it out at a moments notice. Be sure to announce the birthday before or even during the song, and play it up any way that you can– the person with the birthday will either love it or get embarrassed, but their friends will eat it up. Either way, you’ll be remembered and you just might find the birthday person turns the tables on one of their friends at one of your shows later on.

Build a Fan base on Nice
A following is built one person at a time, and being cool to the people that come to see you and the folks that hire you goes a long way. Personal connections, whether they’re based on an actual interaction or on an emotional reaction a listener has to the music that you play, are the way to build a fan base.