David's Tip of the Day: Joining a Band - Part 9 (Final Thoughts)

You've now completed the steps needed to play your first gig...

1) Charting - This defined the form of each song and the elements (head, hooks, breaks, etc.) that you needed to learn.

2) Listing - This gave you a quick reference of all of the songs and their key elements (key, groove, start, end, hook, head, etc.)

At this point you're now practicing all of the songs each day in preparation to your first gig, or hopefully a rehearsal before the gig (you would think there would be a rehearsal, but it's not uncommon for a harp player to just show up and make it happen, so plan on being ready to perform... you'll be that much more prepared if you do get the luxury of a rehearsal).

If there is a rehearsal scheduled, don't be lazy and wait around to dial in your parts at the rehearsal. Practice is what you do at home to dial in your parts... rehearsal is what you do with others to dial in the ensemble performance of the parts.

Lastly, video record your first performance (or first practice where you schedule to just play all of your songs in order, like a gig) so that you can critique what's working and what's not. Video recording is preferred... this way you can see what happened with signaling if an opening, ending or break didn't happen.