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Tips For Answering “Musician Wanted For Live Band” Ads

Frank Brought His Own Drums And Cords To The Audition

I’ve played in a lot of live bands over the years and I’ve answered my share of “Musician Wanted” ads as well. Finding auditions are always an interesting process and I’ve always learned something going through the band audition process. Today I’m going to give you a few tips for when you answer a Musician Wanted Ad before you set up an audition.

Let me start off with a little story. One time when I was about 18, my bass playing friend and I were at the local music store looking at musician wanted ads. We picked one out that said something to the effect of “Wanted, musicians to form rock band. Need guitar, keyboard and bass player.” So naturally we gave them a call. The guy on the phone said “bring all your equipment and come to our practice studio at this address.” We asked what constituted “all our equipment” and the guy said “microphones, amplifiers, mixer, speakers…whatever you have”. Luckily, we didn’t have much but we loaded up our beat-to-crap microphones along with our beginner guitars and amplifiers. We then set out to find the address of the practice studio. (more…)
New Special Offers Page On Live Musician Central

Check Out The Live Musician Central Special Offers Page

   Hi everyone, I hope you’re all having a rockin’ New Year! As you know, Live Musician Central is commited to helping you find the best equipment at the best prices for your live band . Both Musician’s Friend and Music123 offer special discounts to Live Musician Central readers but I don’t like to bombard you with advertising all over the front page. For that reason, I would like to announce a new page on Live Musician Central called Live Musician’s Special Offers, Discounts and Coupon Codes.

   I will be listing limited time offers from Musician’s Friend and Music123 on the special offers and discounts page. These offers usually expire very quickly so you need to check the page often if you’re looking for discounts on specific types or brands of music equipment. The offers rotate regularly between guitars, drums, basses, live sound and studio equipment.

   I hope you find the page easy to use and that it can be of some benefit to you. -Matt-
Sunday Funnies – Wedding Dance Fail Video

Okay, I don’t know if this video is funny or terribly tragic. The reason I’m posting it up on Live Musician Central is because the song the band is playing seems so wildly out of place at a wedding. I do have to admit I laughed pretty hard when the stupid girl in the red dress causes catastrophe but I did feel sorry for the poor bride at the end. So like I said, the vid is a mixed bag.

I really want to know though, why is the girl in red dress so out of control? Is it the song driving her wild? I doubt it. Is it excess alcohol? Possibly. Is it sheer jealousy induced craziness becuse her best friend just got married? Most likely! (more…)
Neal Schon Plays Journey’s Lights On A Fender Stratocaster

It’s well known that Journey’s Neal Schon plays primarily Gibson Les Paul guitars both in the studio and when the band plays live. Well, there’s one Journey song that you just can’t get the right tone on without a Fender Stratocaster. That song is “Lights”, so there you go all you Gibson Les Paul fans out there. Let’s face it, the Fender Stratocaster has a delicious, bluesy sounding neck pickup.

In this video, Neal Schon is demonstrating his parts on “Lights” while playing a Fender Stratocaster. It looks like he’s using an early 90’s Strat Plus with Lace Sensor pickups and a Floyd Rose double locking tremelo. What’s doubly cool in this video is the fact that he’s looping his rhythm part and playing lead over it. I don’t know if he does that live or not but it sure sounds cool here. (more…)
Tips For Playing Live Band Gigs In Cold Weather
Matt's band "In Stereo" plays outside at the 2002 Winter Olympics

It’s the time of year when many live bands will have opportunities to play outside in some cold weather. I know I’ve played outdoor New Year’s Eve gigs, gigs on outside decks at ski resorts and some sweet gigs outdoors at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. For a live band, it’s essential stagecraft to know how to deal with cold weather. I’ve played in temperatures well below freezing and I’ve learned a few things along the way. Here’s a list of things you’ll want to consider when playing outdoor winter gigs. I’ll discuss each in more detail below:
1. What type of stage will you be playing on?
2. Will there be any stage heating?
3. What types of clothes should you wear?
4. How can you keep your hands warm?
5. How do you care for your instruments in the cold weather? (more…)
Sunday Funnies – Prairie Dog Attack

Have you ever seen a clip of something that was so stupid it was funny? Well, this is one of those clips. It’s a clip you may have to watch more than once to get laughing because the first time through I’m sure you’ll be thinking “What the hell?”. Second time through, you’ll be laughing. So check it out and I hope you like this weeks Sunday Funnies on Live Musician Central. (more…)
Top Content On Live Musician Central For 2009
   Well we’ve made it through another year and I hope all you live band musicians out there have had a good one. I know it’s been an interesting year for me. I’ve played some great gigs and I’ve had my share of problems in my live bands this year. All in all I can’t say it was the best year of my career as a live musician but it hasn’t been terrible by any means. Probably the greatest thing I did this year was start a live band project with my three oldest sons. Stay tuned and watch for my sons and I to be playing a gig very soon.

   I figured to celebrate the end of 2009 here on Live Musician Central I would post up a list of the most viewed content over the year. It’s no surprise that my custom programmed Fender Cyber-Twin SE preset patches take the top honors. I’ve been programming my own effect racks for almost 20 years and I used that experience while programming my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier. It stands to reason that every post associated with my Cyber-Twin SE amplifier downloads would be in the top viewed categories as well. So I decided to include the Amplifier Preset Downloads page at the top of the list and fill out the rest of the list with other topics that were the most popular but not related directly to the Cyber-Twin SE preset patches.

   The following list is the top viewed content on Live Musician Central for the year of 2009. I’m glad that so many people have visited and I hope that you’ve all found something useful here on Live Musician Central. Here’s to a fantastic and excellent 2010!

Top Content On Live Musician Central For 2009
B-52 Matrix 2000 Powered Speaker System With Subwoofer

B-52 Matrix 2000 Speaker System

As you know, it’s crucial for your live band to have the right equipment in order to play a gig. The most important thing you need when playing a gig is a good P.A. System. You can buy yourself a complete P.A. package or you can assemble a P.A. by it’s individual components. The three main components in a P.A. system are a mixer, amplifier and speakers. Today I’m going to talk about a speaker system that has it’s own built-in power amp, the B-52 Matrix 2000 Speaker Sound System.

There are a lot of advantages to buying the B-52 Matrix 2000 speaker sysem. One of the most overlooked pieces of equipment when assembling a P.A. system is the amplifier that powers the speakers. I’ve seen a lot of musicians who are just starting out purchase a very nice speaker package with a mixer and totally forget to buy a power amp for them. That’s why it’s so nice to have the amplifier that powers the speakers built right into the speaker system itself. (more…)
Sunday Funnies – Axis Of Awesome 4 Chords

Some of the best music has been written over very simple chord progressions. It’s something that listeners don’t think about beyond the occasional “that song sort of sounds like…” comments. But it’s can be pretty funny when songs are strung together that use the same chord progression. In fact, it’s the basis for mashups to take songs using the same chord progression and mash them together.

I found this video by Axis Of Awesome funny because of the way they linked these songs together and because their performance is over the top but not to the point of becoming stupid. I hope you enjoy it on today’s Sunday Funnies! (more…)
Fill Up Your MP3 Player With 50 Albums Under $5

   Hey all you live band musicians out there. I know a lot of you recieved brand new MP3 players for Christmas and I’m sure you’re itching to fill your new player up with some excellent music. Today I’m going to give you some ideas about what to load on your new MP3 player.

   First of all, check out the Live Musician Central subject category called Live Band Set Lists. I’ve put together complete Setlists for you to download and load on your MP3 player. You can use these set lists as a source for song selection to learn in your live band. You can also keep these set lists on your MP3 player and use them for break music at your gigs. It’s always a good idea to have a lot of proven songs on your player at gigs so you can fill some audience requests while your band is taking a break.

   Another great way to fill up your new MP3 player is with this current killer deal from Amazon.com. Amazon is making 50 complete albums available to download for the low price of Five Dollars apiece. That’s a great way to get some new music to enjoy on your new player.

   Amazon.com MP3’s have several advantages over iTunes. First of all, you don’t need any special software to download the music from Amazon.com. Amazon’s MP3’s are all ripped at a high quality 256kbps so they sound incredibly good. They are also all DRM free so you can load them on as many players as you would like.

   Amazon.com also has a lot of free MP3 downloads that you can get so you can check out some new music for absolutely no money. You just can’t getting music legally, for free! So today, I’m recommending downloading some great music from Amazon.com that will work on any MP3 player including Zunes, iPhones and iPods.