For all you gigging with your AX8's!

Who told people all this nonsense that to perform at a wedding or private parties they have to perform for 3-5 hrs?

Does U2 perform for 3-5 hrs? They perform 15-20 songs for 2 hrs. Instead of learning 50 songs half heartedly, learn to MASTER 15-20 songs where you can play them without thinking at all even under high pressure environments, so your mental cortex is free to think of the BIG picture at hand.

At private events you're not just being hired to perform like a manual labour worker in the background you're there to AWE the crowd.

If you bring your A Game and perform some very EXCITING numbers you can AWE a crowd for 1.5 hrs on stage. Most people's attention span doesn't surpass that amount anyways. I'm talking about interacting with the audience as you perform as well.

Tell them your speeches and stories in between songs. Extend that 1.5 time of playing to 2 hrs or longer through your interactions with the crowd.

Make them feel you are a celebrity. Even if you are not behave like one. Have celebrity appeal. Charisma. Dress the part like a real celebrity whose made it. Get your hair done for the night. Make sure your shoes look new. Wear an outfit that doesn't scream a working musician, but rather a famous musician. Lots of specialty stores in Toronto that cater to ONLY musicians. Work out religiously. Think STAGECRAFT.

All those things go a long way to putting on a good show than just fading into the background playing nonstop where no one even knows you exist.

I bet for a private event like that it's possible to make 2 grand plus tips .. Even $800 in tips. Why not? If you don't communicate and vibe with the audience your tip jar will be empty.

Remember if you charge 2 grand people will think why is he charging 2 grand, he must be good, or maybe it will be a wicked show. And you may make 2 grand. If you charge $100-$500 for a private party you will never be paid $2 grand even if you're worth that.

It's hard to have self esteem as a musician. But do you think U2 only got rich because of their music? Hell no! They know how to put on a show! They are BETTER live than in the studio. Bono interacts with the audience. He vibes with them. The audience and the band feel like they are all ONE (pun intended).

You've got to OWN the performance! Know your music inside and out, but go the extra mile. Don't think of your work as a job, this is SHOW-BIZ!

Sounds like you have it all figured out after all.

Please do your first gig and try all this and let us know how it goes.
 
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Sounds like you have it all figured out after all.

Please do your first gig and try all this and let us know how it goes.

My father died this year at the age of 87. At the age of 85 (with over 50 years experience as a musician) he was still singing like Sinatra at Wedding Banquet halls in front of crowds of over 100 people.

He basically did what most people think is impossible. He performed not only past age 65 (retirement age) but virtually to his death.

Why do I feel the impossible is within reach? I've seen it within my own family, that's why.

I'm going to make it happen. It won't be overnight. But it will happen.

Over the next 3-5 years I'm going to record 15-25 classic hits and solos. I'm going to put them up on YT and practice all of them 6 hrs a day while I still work 6 hrs a day in corporate from home. In 3-5 years that will be thousands of repetitions of just 15-25 songs.

Then I'm going to make my first gig at a private event. I'm going to charge $1000-$1500. If I don't get what I want by an agency I'll go into business myself and book my own shows. I have access to the DIY musicians blog/(contact list) with contacts to over 1000 CEO's in the music industry. Over the next 3-5 years I'm going to contact ALL of them one way or another and ask for an audition (where I get paid nothing). I expect 900 will tell me to F*ck-off, but 100 will give me the chance or will look over my work (YT and BC) seriously. All it takes is 4 out of those 100 to make my name as an artist eventually in this city if not at a much larger scale.

"Most people don't become rich because they feel money is evil." -- Anthony Robbins.
 
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If you look at the history of super groups you will see that 99% of them started out on crap equipment and played their a...s off in hundreds of bar gigs still barely able to make a living out of it. I took them yeas, talent and a lot of luck to get where they are now. The only exception I know of is Pink Floydy, those guys were rich to begin with. The music business is not about what people deserve, it's about creating a product that people like and try to sell it. Millions of professional musicians in classical orchestras are nothing but worker bees trying to make a living albeit years and years they spent into their education.
 
If you did just one $100 gig a week for those 5 years, you’d make money sooner, and learn more about gigging instead of preparing to gig for 5 years just to get a higher paying gig one day potentially while still knowing nothing about gigging that entire time.

5 years to learn 15 songs is a lot of time, maybe too much. Often I have to learn 15 songs in one week or less. Hired guns who sit in with major bands have to learn things that quickly too. I believe you’ve said you’ve been recording for at least 12 years now? 5 years to learn 1 hour of songs seems a bit long with that kind of experience.

I would highly suggest you find an open mic and perform a few songs there very soon. You’ll learn a lot very quickly doing that.

The plan you’ve laid out seems unrealistic and a bit overboard just to play live music. You can go to an open mic this weekend probably and start right away if you really want to play music professionally.
 
You need to understand the fundamentals of performing live. The only way to do that is to perform live. Get out there and play some gigs - even if it’s for free. This will open your eyes to so many situations that you’ll encounter that cannot be explained. Right now, you think you are a superstar (who amongst us doesn’t have a little touch of that I guess), but playing live will teach you so much - even if you don’t make $1500 bucks a night.
Good luck.
Pauly


My father died this year at the age of 87. At the age of 85 (with over 50 years experience as a musician) he was still singing like Sinatra at Wedding Banquet halls in front of crowds of over 100 people.

He basically did what most people think is impossible. He performed not only past age 65 (retirement age) but virtually to his death.

Why do I feel the impossible is within reach? I've seen it within my own family, that's why.

I'm going to make it happen. It won't be overnight. But it will happen.

Over the next 3-5 years I'm going to record 15-25 classic hits and solos. I'm going to put them up on YT and practice all of them 6 hrs a day while I still work 6 hrs a day in corporate from home. In 3-5 years that will be thousands of repetitions of just 15-25 songs.

Then I'm going to make my first gig at a private event. I'm going to charge $1000-$1500. If I don't get what I want by an agency I'll go into business myself and book my own shows. I have access to the DIY musicians blog/(contact list) with contacts to over 1000 CEO's in the music industry. Over the next 3-5 years I'm going to contact ALL of them one way or another and ask for an audition (where I get paid nothing). I expect 900 will tell me to F*ck-off, but 100 will give me the chance or will look over my work (YT and BC) seriously. All it takes is 4 out of those 100 to make my name as an artist eventually in this city if not at a much larger scale.

"Most people don't become rich because they feel money is evil." -- Anthony Robbins.
 
Thank you all for your laughs, giggles, and good advice. I will take some of it and also use some of my own decision making to come up with a gameplan made for me. Just for the record I'd rather be the big fish in a little pond than swim with sharks.

P.S. I realize not everyone like's U2 so although I'm a huge U2 fan I'm going to expand my portfolio to many other famous artists that have created great music.

Cheers! D
 
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Dunning-Kruger in full effect. 🤦‍♂️

GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon


Cyborg Cola GIF by Abel M'Vada
 
@chris
@Purplestrats
@ChristThePhone
@fcs101

My Redsound Elis 8's came in and I'm in heaven right now with them. Awesome sounding.

I've got my first gig Wednesday Dec 14th and I'll be using my Redsound frfr's at the gig along with my AX8.

I've decided I don't really need my tube ac10 and complete pedalboard anymore , so I'm going to put them for sale. The money could be used for other things or reinvesting in new equipment like an FM9 a few years down the line. Not really interested in picking one up now.

Really interested in quality time on the guitar as opposed to fiddling too much with my AX8 anymore. Miss the key component of real success in music. Lots and lots of practice!
 
Nice! I never had stereo monitors myself except with IEMs so this must be a great sounding setup. It'll surely be a lot of fun. And yes, the AX8 is a rabbit hole.
 
Nice! I never had stereo monitors myself except with IEMs so this must be a great sounding setup. It'll surely be a lot of fun. And yes, the AX8 is a rabbit hole.

Yeah in the last 3 months on this forum I've spent more than 70% of my time fiddling with my ax8, hardware setups, recording setups, AX8Edit with all its features, and the FAS forums. Less than 30% of my time has actually been spent on the guitar!

I am at the stage now where I'm doing well enough with the AX8 , got all my custom preset patches to work etc and can concentrate on practice 80% of the time and reduce my time fiddling with the AX8 down to 20%.

I've only got a short amount of time to record all my tracks for performances over the next few years, plus I'd like to gig a few times a week starting NOW to build experience so I can get private gigs down the road.

I don't have the luxury to fiddle with the AX8 too much anymore, and it's one of the reasons I definitely won't be upgrading to the FM9 or AF3 in the near future. I love those systems but once you get into it , it's a rabbit hole you'll descend into like a Fractal Fanatic instead of a guitarist!

Remember FAS systems are just tools. At the end of the day we are all musicians. FAS or not. :)
 
@ChristThePhone

Let's talk a little bit about performing cover music.

How much does it cost to stream it live form a home studio per song? Also how much does it cost to play it in a bar?

On average how much do you dish out on sync licenses per cover song compared to how much you make?

I want to focus exclusively on cover music so I need to know if it's worth the investment.

Say I have 15 excellent rock classic I wish to perform. How much is the sync license for each of them and is it an unlimited performance license or do you pay per head who attends your show or who watches your live stream?

All key points to know to avoid legal penalties / infringement.
 
@ChristThePhone

Let's talk a little bit about performing cover music.

How much does it cost to stream it live form a home studio per song? Also how much does it cost to play it in a bar?

On average how much do you dish out on sync licenses per cover song compared to how much you make?

I want to focus exclusively on cover music so I need to know if it's worth the investment.

Say I have 15 excellent rock classic I wish to perform. How much is the sync license for each of them and is it an unlimited performance license or do you pay per head who attends your show or who watches your live stream?

All key points to know to avoid legal penalties / infringement.
Here in Germany we usually don't have to care about the legal aspects. All we have to do is to provide a list of songs we play and the proprietor of the venue has to do the rest ( getting in touch with the GEMA). The cost of such an event depends on the size of the venue and the number of guests, and of course the songs played. It's a bit awkward but comparatively easy from a bands point of view. We don't stream, though. That could be another can of worms.
 
@ChristThePhone

Let's talk a little bit about performing cover music.

How much does it cost to stream it live form a home studio per song? Also how much does it cost to play it in a bar?

On average how much do you dish out on sync licenses per cover song compared to how much you make?

I want to focus exclusively on cover music so I need to know if it's worth the investment.

Say I have 15 excellent rock classic I wish to perform. How much is the sync license for each of them and is it an unlimited performance license or do you pay per head who attends your show or who watches your live stream?

All key points to know to avoid legal penalties / infringement.
licenses are the responsibility of the venue, either live, or online.

for livestreaming, you can generally cover any song live, but you cannot have it recorded - known as a VOD or Video On Demand after the stream is done. also you cannot use any of the original recording in the performance. you'll see MANY people do this on Twitch, for example, but they aren't supposed to, and many have been DCMA'd for it. for Youtube, they have a better recorded-video policy where the cover song is flagged as belonging to the original artist, and they get any ad revenue you might make. you still cannot use any original recording on YouTube livestreams, and streams have been taken down while on air for it.

i asked all the Performance Rights Organizations years ago if it's possible for me, the streamer, to get a blanket license, and the answer was no. it is solely the venue or hosting website that must get them, and i as the performer can never buy anything like that.

live gigs are a bit different, assuming the venue has the license. you can play the original recording, but this is usually reserved for break music.

as musicians, as far as i know, we cannot obtain any license to perform in a venue that doesn't have the correct license. you can try to perform there, but the venue could get a big fine if a PRO finds out.
 
This is all fantastic advice!

Here I am considering streaming cover songs and realizing I may have to dish out hundreds or thousands for each one for sync licensing!

But in bars , I would also assume private events the venue would provide the licensing for all my songs?

Do they have a general sort of license that covers all cover songs of original music or do some bars only provide licensing for certains songs and artists?

I am on YT and long ago my site got taken down.. I got very angry. They said you as well as MILLIONS of others are doing covers of original music. But later YT changed their policy to monetize (c) music cover songs instead of taking down so many people's channels.

Nowadays no one cares on YT if its a cover song. It just gets monetized for ad revenue.

You know what's really scary anyone with YT premium can download all your music! Isn't there a way to protect this from happening aside from making your video private?

Anyways my original question was do I need licensing for cover songs. Now if I do covers of 15-20 different artists will it cost the establishment more in licensing that 15-20 songs from one artist like U2? I prefer doing many artists as not everyone likes U2 here in Toronto which as you all know is the most multicultural city in the world.

They like hearing a variety of music here form different genres to artists to songs.

I'm glad to hear in a bar I wouldn't need sync licensing. If I do live streams and don't get sync licenses for my cover songs I'm sure I could be fined or taken down or even worse. That's just for performing them, not even selling them. Yes I do have licenses for my cover songs on bandcamp for digital downloads and streaming of the songs.. It was a bitch to buy as I didn't even make my money back in sales.

But for performing covers I wasn't sure if I needed a sync license to stream to the world and apparently I do. So screw streaming. Gonna get good at playing and find me some establishments.

Once again PRIVATE events also pay for the artists cover performance sync licensing or only bars?
 
But for performing covers I wasn't sure if I needed a sync license to stream to the world and apparently I do. So screw streaming. Gonna get good at playing and find me some establishments.
Again, you don’t need a license. You cannot get a license. The website is responsible for it. Twitch and YouTube have the licenses for live streaming covers. Twitch does not have licenses for recorded videos. YouTube recorded covers sends the ad revenue to the rights holders.

For venue gigs the venue has to have the license.

Both streaming sites and venues buy a Blanket License which covers most songs, because it’s impossible for them to track what songs every performer in the world is doing. So you don’t need to verify every artist you cover for gigs or livestreaming.

There are rare exceptions, which are impossible to know about ahead of time. I personally do not cover any Disney affiliated songs, for example, because in the past they’ve changed their policies a lot concerning rights and licenses. But general “radio music” is covered for sure with the blanket licenses.
 
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