Oh yes the wonderful world of performing live. The Thrill, the Buzz, the Excitement, the Missing of the Last Bus and Spending your Meager Earnings on a Taxi-Ride Home! Hmm :> ... better read on.

Making money as a guitar player or musician in a covers band has never been traditionally easy. (Ask any Mum!) But with the affordable technology available today, there are ways to drastically cut overheads and expenses, come out of the gig with a good profit, and maintain a high quality sound. It is possible to gig and make money on a regular basis.

How?... here's few tried n' trusted alternatives I and my fellow band mates - hi + thanks 2 yez all - u know  who u are ;-) have used successfully ... includes the beautiful and true story of the Lilo Queen...

• #1 Use High-Quality Backing Tracks, like this one Bittersweet Symphony.mp3

• Vox 1 / Midi - Drum Programming / Bells (recorded on location in Geneva, Switzerland;) / Biog and Demo Packaging / Artwork - Gerry Hoey.
• Vox 2 / Recording / Mixing / Guitars / Bass / Demo Masters / Ordering at the Bar - David O'Toole.

Altho' there's nothing like the real thing such as blasting it out with rockin' combo, sometimes push comes to shove and the bills have to be paid.

• Bittersweet Symphony: The original of course written and recorded by big UK band The Verve. Mix a quality backing track with live, versatile musicians and you're away. A recipe for a cookin', well-rehearsed and extremely tight 1, 2 or 3-Piece. The higher the number the more mouths to feed and so on.
• #2 Super-effectively promote the band yourself by using your PC to design and produce high quality demos/for sale CDs, promo-packs, flyers, logos, posters, band-website, and whatever else you can dream up to get high paying gigs. There's so much under your control!
• #3 Designate different duties to individual band-members. Cut out the middle-men! Keep the Money and the Peace!
• #4 Give your Band some Visual Impact!
• #5 Make sure all members are on the same wavelength. ie This a serious professional project, and the main aim is to earn some serious wages (and have a bit of fun of course). Explain clearly to potential partners what your aiming for, make sure you're all on the same wavelength.

Follow these methods and you will make top wages and get the gigs you want! See you in part 2 soon, where we look at some gigging standards and setup tips.

Thanks to Musicians Friend for the great images and help - these guys are the biggest online store for muso's.