It’s been many years since I played live for the first time, but now I truly grasp what people mean with the phrase “paying your dues”. There’s just so much to learn in a gigging scenario that you can’t learn anywhere else. In my opinion, it’s one of the best things you can do to gain experience in this industry.
I was always interested in what it would be like to play with a full band. I ended up meeting someone who said he was in a band that was looking for a lead guitarist. I jumped at the opportunity, even though it wasn’t exactly the type of music I was interested in playing at the time. My first gig ended up being with this band. Nothing as easy as walking into a band with gigs lined up.
I remember arriving at the first gig for sound check, and we set up our gear. I didn’t have any pedalboard at the time, so there was quite a bit of connecting that had to be done. After plugging everything in, I switched on my amp, strummed my guitar, and of course, no sound. With stress levels on the rise, I frantically scouted my setup for any connectivity issues, only to discover the problem being a minor issue. I thought to my self, “this is rather stressful”.
Once each member had set up their equipment, we embarked on one of the songs from our repertoire for a soundcheck. When the whole band started playing together, I was unable to hear any sound coming out of my amp. “How can this be”, I thought, as I was running an even louder volume that I normally would at rehearsal. It was like the sound would leave the front of the amp, and then completely disappear into an invisible barrier. It was then and there that I decided that I need to be be able to play my parts with no audible reference if I wanted to continue gigging. It was when I truly started to understand the art of playing live.
The truth is, sound can be an issue at a fair share of your live performances. At the end of the day, it depends on the musicians, the equipment (the source) and very importantly, the sound engineer. Of course I was expecting it to be perfect at my first gig, with the ability to hear each member clearly. I should have known that with the lack of a professional sound engineer that this won’t be the case. But to be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as it was!
Nerves were a bit of a issue before the gig, although to be fair I was quite young at the time. Thinking back, there were so few people in the audience that I don’t really know how I was as nervous as I was. But maybe this is due to the fact that I now really enjoy playing live, and look forward to the experience. Nerves aren’t always a bad thing, although it’s the first few times that you play live that nerves will be the biggest issue. A beer or 2 before you play can definitely help you to loosen up a bit.
One particular issue I remember having was that the band didn’t quite “feel right” in comparison to the backing tracks that I was used to practicing with. It was only later that I came to learn the importance of your drummer (and rhythm section as a whole) in making the rest of the members comfortable. A good drummer these days is hard to find!
Do you have anything you want to share from your first time playing a gig? Let us know in the comments below.
