Hittin the Road with Your Band 7 Must-Read Tips

Hittin the Road with Your Band 7 Must-Read Tips Suzy S. Were stoked to hear that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have announced an upcoming U.S. tour especially since they havent hit the road here since 2007.   So far just six cities have been released, kicking off in Charlotte, NC, on January 25th will you be part of the crowd? If youre in a band yourself, touring is a great way to get your name out there and of course, do what you love best play music!   But its also something that takes a lot of planning.   Take a look at these 7 essential tips to consider before planning your tour!: 1. Make sure you have written at least one album. Not a couple of songs, an entire album; youll need a lot of songs for your shows. Plan on having enough material to play a 45 minute to hour-long set, plus one or two encore numbers (think positive you want those encores!). 2. Save up money for a few months. Each person should have enough money to pay for his/her own food on the tour and the band should have some money to get started off with you will need gas for the van, some upkeep money for oil, transmission, brake fluids, etc., and sundry money for sundry needs maybe one of you will get a cold, and need some NyQuil or something. Its best to be prepared with more than you think youll need. 3. Come up with a route or plan for your tour. Plan which town/city you would like to play on which days. Try to plot a route that makes sense, i.e., try to make a circle rather than playing in one city one day, traveling 150 miles to the next city the next day, and then doubling back to play back in that same starting city the day after that! Instead, try to book two shows in City #1, a day apart, and then travel on to City #2, 150 miles away. Make sure all of your band members are available during the entire time allotted. 4. Search for contacts in each city you hope to play in. The best contacts are local bands that play in the area and venues. Send the band/venue/promoters in each city a message asking them to check out your band and let them know that you are interested in playing a show with them/at their venue on such and such day. You cant always get a show on the day you are looking for and sometimes have to change your route or find a different venue to play at.   Of course, make sure you arent playing on a night when another, bigger band is in the same town. (i.e. If you are an AC/DC tribute band dont play in Denver on the same night that AC/DC is in Denver, because no one will go to your show). 5. Write up a contract for promoters and venues. You dont need to hire a lawyer to write it up, just use common sense. Make a form with spaces for venue name, address, phone number, load-in time, sound check time, show time, and pay. This works both as a means of making sure you do not get screwed over, and also is useful as an itinerary. That way you have a contact sheet for every show and know when you need to be there, and other important information.   Send these contracts through e-mail or regular U.S. Mail to each venue or promoter you have arranged a show with. Have them fill it out and send it back. Keep all of the forms they send back for use as an itinerary and also to make sure things go the way they were agreed on. 6. Make up a flyer for each of the shows with the venue name, show date, address and what bands are playing as well as start time and send them to the venues/band/promoters you are playing with. Sometimes promoters or other bands do this for you and send the flyer to you. Either way, make sure it is up on your MySpace and website, if you have one. If youll be playing a large number of dates, you may want to make a template poster with a big blank spot to write in the date, time, location, and cover. Make sure your website is on the flyer, so you dont have to write it out. 7. Get merch made and CDs pressed. If you only have a demo or a three song EP you can still get them pressed and labeled packaged inexpensively. You can also do it yourself; it doesnt really matter, just as long as you have them available to sell/give out on tour. If someone hears your band and likes it but cant get a CD, odds are they will not remember you. Make sure to include your band name, a track listing and a website/MySpace URL so that they can find you online. Start planning these things and youll make some great headway on organizing your bands tour.   However, you may also want to keep one thing in mind: Plan for making zero dollars. Most bands just starting out are lucky to just get a gig with a bigger name band they rarely get paid. You do it for exposure (to get your music out there) and because you love it not because you have to make a lot of money doing it.   But keep doing what you love and who knows?   Maybe RHCP will open for YOU someday! Like these posts?   Sign up to receive daily updates right to your inbox!   Click here to subscribe.

Difference Between Online Tutoring and Traditional Tutoring

Difference Between Online Tutoring and Traditional Tutoring 0SHARESShare Elder generations always wonder about, how different is online tutoring in comparison with one-on-one traditional tutoring? This is not an apprehension but it is a valid question that deserves a convincing answer. This is even true for the parents of children who were tutors themselves before they retired from school/college. They too wonder at the same question. There doubts are: How would online Organic chemistry tutoring work on the internet? Or how would online basis accounting tutoring work? Well, this blog partly tries to answer this query and partly appreciate the concern of the parent community towards their children.  Let us note the difference between online and traditional tutoring Which one consumes most time? Tutoring, be it online/traditional will be long hours if the tutor is not efficient at Tutoring. The core of the tutoring job is at knowing the subject so well that you want to sing it to the student and then the student starts liking it and singing out. Singing is a metaphor to being familiar with the subject to a level where the student gets comfortable with it. Once the student reaches this level, he will make his own targets and achieve them sincerely. Which one is easier to follow? What would you like me to tell you? Well, nothing is as easy as it looks! But let’s get to the basics of it â€" Its online tutoring so the student does not have to travel to the house of the tutor or the tutor does not have to travel to the student’s house. This way both student and tutor are at best capacity during an online tutoring session. How do we know that the child needs tutoring? Does your child often look anxious, when the subject of school and college crops up in the presence of a group or during other times? Have you seen the child ignore talking about homework often? Your child needs extra attention and this can be done through online tutoring. What kind of an environment are we talking about? Elderly community may wonder about the quality of online tutoring offered. In earlier times, it was more of respect in face-to-face tutoring. Not much has changed with High Definition clarity video chats and great mass of information with online tutors in the form of CD/ and DVD. [starbox id=admin]