MY 10 BEST TIPS FOR MUSICIANS! 

When performing at gigs where other artists are performing, stand in the crowd for the other performers. Don't sit backstage. Interact with the crowd and get to know your potential fans and cheer on the other bands/artists. People will remember you for this and will ask for your instagram or where to find your music

dude the thing about learning additional instruments is so true. I'm primarily a singer but ever since I got a piano, I have learnt to sing and play piano together and my work has just exploded with quality. Invaluable.

When people around you start telling you you're awesome find a tougher crowd to impress. Repeat until fame and fortune reach desired level. Cheers Damo!! 🐒

A tip a would give to anyone is to be kind to your public, especially those who wait until the gig is over to approach to you just to tell you how good it was or because they really want to know you and your project. And most importantly, always be humble.

I love this channel! I have my first gig as a solo musician this Saturday and I’m stoked! Thank you for all the tips!

I'm leaving everything to pursue my music and travel the country. Thank you for your videos and shared knowledge sir

Hey Damian, absolutely love your content! You know what would be great? A video on negotiating how much you get paid for a gig. Maybe for different kinds of gigs, like club, support, wedding, event, convention etc. Cheers!

get used to playing with a metronome and recording.

Needed to hear this - and that was just for my day job. Bless you Damian.

You're always so on point! 👍 Thanks for sharing your experiences ❤️

Congrats 1000 !!!

Love the content of your videos - thanks a lot

Awesome content! Thank you!

Thanks Damian. Really great advice!

These are great tips Damo. Keep up the good work

I love you insight and the things you emphasize. They're all about being successful at what we love to do.

Cant wait for the conquering your town video will be so helpful! Great video as always man! xx

My advice pis to persevere and never give up. It is easy to be the last man standing because music is too hard for most when you get serious.

Damo you're a gem. Thanks for everything you share

I know this video gets posted a lot but I swear every time I watch it something new sticks out to me and I learn a new thing!

I usually don't comment a lot of stuff on RU-vid but I juste wanted to say thank you for what you're doing with this channel mate. Thank you for your work, your patience, your dedication and your precious advices ✌️

Best video I've seen on gigging in years. Well done.

Thanks Damian!

Best channel for musician by far.... No joke!!!!

Very useful video!

Great list. Honestly can't think of anything else to add.

Thank you man. Proved hugely helpful for artists like me who are just starting out with music and looking for others like him to Collab and produce something amazing. Thank you so mucj

Wow. Great video.

All sound advice as usual, Damo. Learning to sing is the tip that resonates most with me. I started as a keyboard player and persevered with BVs though I was shit, and eventually started doing the odd song LV. Best thing I ever did. Second best is gigging solo. If you're used to being in a band or have never fronted one it's the best way of learning how to properly interact with an audience if there's noone else to do it or that you can bounce off. Nerve-wracking to start with but you'll gain a massive confidence boost if you persist.

Learn to behave as if fearless. Get ready to go on stage even if its not your gig. Get ready to talk to those strangers, even if there is no excuse to. Get ready to take that risk and go for the face melting solo even if you have never pulled it off before. Behave as if the feelings you feel in those moments mean absolutely nothing to you.

Very Essential Tips.

Love your channel, man! True musicianship content. Very inspiring.

Great tips!

Thank you for your insightful, selfless content!

I agree with all the points, especially with the number 9. Do the jump in a new great city, rich of opportunity, and play, be everywhere, talk, don't have fear! I moved to London 4 months ago, I am from a little city in south Italy. It is changing completely my career!

best advice is i ever heard is... " no grumble, be humble " Aloha Fam! ♥

Nice one Damo... Have to say I have been living by most of those tips. One ive only really just started with is taking RU-vid seriously, which I've started doing by putting out weekly videos which is a song and some stories around those songs. For the past six years I've been playing loads of festivals and I've been asked by so many musicians on how to get into festivals. My top tip for that is TURN UP. I've got into so many festivals, on a blagged ticket or even brought tickets, and most festivals will have an open mic tent or failing that round campfires and playing all over the site. Anyway cheers for the videos Damo... I'm still thinking about what you should make a video on next... Once I have it I will let you know.

Enjoyed this! Great tips Damo.

Great Tips!

BRILLIANT

Amazing content Damian! Is there on your channel a video about how to get played in festivals?If not, can you make a video/poscast about that strategy?When to contact festivals, how?How many followers on each social media you should have before putting your foot on the festival registration doors?

Good stuff Damian!!! I think besides not being a dick, being a readily available jack of all trades is the most valuable piece of advice. Keep up the great work!!!

almost the best video ever on RU-vid

Thank you for very good and insightful video. I only play by myself and I don't drive and I don't live in a city. Time to do things differently...

My best tip is to keep grinding. so long as you still love doing it all the hard work will pay off. I'm looking forward to moving from my small town of Dunedin in New Zealand. its like 120 thousand people. My partner and I are looking to move to the UK. I enjoy driving to and from gigs, playing and, Putting content up on RU-vid. Can't wait to see the opportunities on the other side of the world!

I notice that whole "getting good at gigging" too. You can see it, it comes thru.

Nice tips.

being able to drive is huge... even if you don't have a car you can offer to drive if you hire a van etc, really helps when you have long drives too being able to offer to take over driving for an hour or two

Thank you sir

Nice video. I wish you were her in Bogotá. I struggle with exacly these problems. The ordinary latin is very lazy. I´m German. At least I found some fine musicians and I made a CD. Now it´s the task to get better payed gigs and more fans. Go ahead!

to reference a previous video, have a tacklebox ready to fix everyones problems. you need it, i got it. be the musicians general store at every show whether you're playing or not. venue DI isnt working, i've got one.

Prepare for the unpredictable! If the lead singer of a band calls out a last minute song to learn only hours before the gig, learn it. Even if said lead singer or bandmate forgets to learn the song or it gets forgotten altogether, you have your bases covered. Come prepared with a backup of everything. Extra power source for your board. extra cables, extra power cord/extension cord. Extra mics. Extra drum sticks. A backup snare and bass drum pedal. For bassists and guitarists, a backup instrument just in case. You have to play the what if game when you're on a gig. By being prepared, you eliminate the possibility of being in a bad spot if something breaks.

driving is very important in all life situation

Just finished up reading your book. I told my band mates that if they don't all read it by the end of November that I will quit the band . I told them that your book is amazing and a must read for all giging musicians. Thx Damian.

Damian keys. I have never worked a music gig in my life. However, what I would do is put my self out there-“Damian, my name is Leah Saxey. I am grateful to interact with you. I have questions and would like to contact you. I have a lot learning to do but I work hard. Do you want to talk over the phone? I’ll buy coffee sometime. I might be a while before I can meet but I’ll be watching more of your videos in the mean time.”

#10 is THE ONE

My tip isn’t my #1 but I’ve seen most of my #1’s already on the top comments: On nights where you don’t have a gig, help promote/sell tickets for other people’s gigs.

Listen to Damian Keyes! I've been on this journey as a guitar player, song writer, performer, since forever. I wish Damian had been there when I started. Almost all of what he says is spot on. No he isn't paying me to say this. Hmm maybe he should. Ha ha. Thanks Damo.

great video . i agree with everything you say . the wold has many incredible musicians . and mostly luck has been working to make a few of them famous . i think a musician should always have a you tube channel for fans to visit . and to enable new fans to visit and enjoy the music . no one will just watch you play a musical instrument you must learn to sing . doesn't matter if you don't have a great voice . it really doesn't . so be brave .and learn to play a few musical instruments . learn to improvise for songs you don't play well . stay fit and go to the gym .

In all seriousness, I'm always ready to do the driving, set up or arrange PA Lights and do the dealling for the cash, pay everyone and am ready to go anytime. the show must go on. Going the extra mile is the starting point.

Hi Damian, I’m an Italian Cruise Ship Piano Vocalist and Guest Entertainer. I just watched a couple of your videos on YT and I appreciate the tips you gave to musicians. I really love my job , and I have contracts on the ships since many years already, But THIS year (2020) has been a disaster, as you know… And I’ve been at home for long time. But in March I will start work again luckily... So I was just looking for some advices from people who moved to US or somewhere else to get a better life as a musician or singer. I live in North of Italy and actually here I don’t have gigs, cause usually I’m on the ship, I love that job , and I don’t need gigs... But when I’m “off” , at home for a quit long time ,the problems come … and I start to ask to myself if it’s better to move to bigger / better place for music…? What do you think about this? I would like to have a more “stable” life , but I don’t mean easier life…I mean more job , and constantly. How can I achieve that? I know even actors have periods with no job….so for musicians it’s pretty the same. But what’s your suggestion for me? If you can give a me feedback I will really appreciate!!! Cheers from Italy!!!! :)

Damn i was doing so well too. got my driving licence when i was 15, done loads of gigs, practice all the time, turn up on time and that number ten just Too late to fix that one.

My best tip apart from what you said would be to be versatile with the genres you can play. If you know rock, great, get to learn the blues and jazz, maybe a little bit of metal too. If you know more than one genre, then you can get a lot more gigs. Jack of all trades but a master of none is better than being the master of one

This advice is “where the rubber meets the road”

When I heard the final advice of not being a dick, it reminded me of a gig I had with my band in the beginning: We were to play at a rock bar about sixty kilometers from our city. It was a newcomer-event and we drove all the way somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The bar was quite nice and the staff especially the guy at the soundmixer were awesome. But the first thing was that we were set to play as the last band out of three. So the soundcheck happened about 4 p.m. but we started playing somewhere around midnight. We ate something, drank a couple of beers and coffee and since we consider us as stoners, well, you know what we did. I think people didn't quite accepted us smoking weed outside. Anyway, there was another band with their own photographer. He was quite strange and even though he tried to talk with us, we had absolutely no connection to each other. He started to mock the first band with comments like :"I hope your drummer isn't as bad as that guy on the stage" and things like that. So my drummer was quite pissed and started to mock about that photo-guy, unfortunately in front of the band he supported with his work and especially in front of the photo-guy's girlfriend. If looks killed, my drummer would be plain dead. And lastly there was my bass-player and my guitarist: they both are the most weirdest, yet funny human-beings I've met before. But my bass-guy tends to insult him for fun in certain situations. Yet, if you don't know these guys, you could feel embarassed by their behaviour. So when the first band finished one of their songs, my bass-player was in the middle of a silly argument about fries with my guitar-player. Right on the last chord he yelled "asshole" and everybody in his surroundings was looking at him in shock. And if it wasn't even the worst thing, he added "cunt" and earned some looks of disapproval from a girl who later on turned out to be the vocalist of the second band. As we finally got on stage, the crowd that was at the bar to enjoy the evening straight up left the bar as soon as we hit the first notes. Only a few stood to see us. And when we played our show, one guy from the audience came up to the stage and told us that the sound was aweful. It turned out that someone from the previous band turned off my guitarist's amp which went cold and caused this mess. On our way home we all agreed that we never again behave like dicks on our concerts.

My #1 tip for Musicians is don't underestimate the power of social media. We're living in a new age and people don't just want music anymore. They want personal content that makes them feel like they're a part of your story. Open up to your fans and let them into your life, then in exchange for that they will give you support and it forms a very organic relationship. Also connect with them, reply to comments and shares always!

Drummers: 1) Arrive early to be set up and only bring what you need for the size of the room. 2) Learn how to use a DrumDial (or tuning device) so your drums are tuned consistently for every gig. 3) Bring appropriate dampening for bass drum, toms, snare = keep sound guy happy 4) Learn to play to a click (if appropriate) so the set list grooves. Make sure to rehearse with it first. 5) Accept help carrying but be careful with the help packing. - Good luck!

Damian, what do you reckon makes for the best kind of first video for someone who has yet to upload anything to youtube? Is there anything you recommend starting out with or avoiding all together?

Been there done that!!!! Take carpet too your gig's! Because wooden floors suck the low end out of your sound! Example: Put carpet under your Drum kit, Amps & Speakers if they are not on stands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carpet roles up! Carpet, Second Hand is FREE!!!!

Be dependable, be early always, be a sport.

I'd say don't follow trends, make them

Man. I wish I had the courage to step out. I'm 21 now and I feel like I'm losing time. But the risk of failure and being laughed at or even bullied is so high.

Be nice to the sound person

5:17 sums it up 😂

I guess the guys giving thumbs down on your video must be the non-drivers you mentioned. As for my advice to anyone that wants to pursue music as a career - two tips: 1. Persevere. Don't let the small things derail you. 2. I recommend learning more about distribution. Create music with your pals, or by yourself, polish it up and distribute it through Distrokid, TuneCore, etc. This is not going to make you a lot of money, but it will help your fans at gigs take you more seriously, as well as give them a place to hear or purchase your music on their favorite streaming services. They say for about 1 million Spotify plays, you'll earn about $5000. But look at it this way, getting your music out there via distributors (and supporting it through rigorous gigging) will pay off, as these distributors don't just focus on Spotify. Your music gets put out to worldwide platforms including Deezer, iTunes, Apple, Google, RU-vid, Amazon etc. Also, this snowballs into learning more about PRO's like ASCAP and BMI (you have Google, research) to protect and understand your royalty and music rights, radio airplay, and more. These are all part of being a professional musician, not just gigging. Take your passion seriously, but not yourself. Like Damian said in the video, don't be a dick. Have fun, that's what rock n roll is all about!

I got a great gig just by being respectful to a stranger.

I'm a songwriter and sometimes I have to take a break from gigs to refresh and enjoy my own songs. Is this a bad thing? I don't like to gig so consistently I can't increase my repertoire. Especially if I've been playing the same music for too long

I can't disagree with anything here. One thing I would say, though, is if you're playing in a band, have a contingency plan for if *any* member falls ill on the day of a gig. At one of the biggest (in terms of who we were playing with) gigs I've ever played, our drummer called me at lunchtime saying he had a stomach bug and just couldn't play. I was on the point of saying we had to cancel, but instead we rendered drum tracks from our album (which were not mixed well, but that's life) to play as a backing track and dropped a track from the set and played without our drummer. It was either that, or cancel a gig in a major city we had never played before and disappoint a promoter. Basically: be prepared for anyone to drop out at short notice and have a plan to handle that without cancelling. It won't be the best performance you do, but the kudos for not cancelling and being reliable is worth the less than ideal performance imo.

✌✌

👌

Learn to be comfortable speaking to your audience. Prepare what you are going to say and practice it!

Last year I subbed, you had 10k, congrats on 60k subway sandwiches in a few weeks.

I had 2 gigs and l did go to the 2 gigs can you give me tip on how to get more gigs

5:14 kinda disagree (unless i'm missing something). But Music is often open for interpretation and if you're going to play a song you enjoy and you happen to play it differently than the composer so be it. This is where the term "arrangement" comes into play. There are extremely popular and familiar song arrangements that were not performed by the original artists. The ones covering the songs played them differently and made them "better"! So Learn the songs well, but then play them how you want them to be.

Best tip for inspiring musicians... Don't quit your day job...

1 And enjoy the videos.

Is a bike okay as well, It's still illegal for me to drive XD

Best tip mate! Don't be a dick, 2nd best, get that car! 3rd best give ea band member a portfolio with contact details, and tabs and lyrics to first 3 songs. 4th tip! Give them backup parts! Make sure they are involved even if it just one lyric yelling 'but!'

Damien, haven't you already done this video like, 30 times?

My #1 Tip for Musicians would be learn to DO THINGS YOURSELF. Too many young or even mature artists spend years upon years waiting for success to drift their way so they can pluck it like a low hanging fruit. It takes YEARS of blood, sweat and tears to succeed in this industry and find stable ground, so quit making excuses.

I thought this was obvious but the guys in my previous band apparently didn't know: Learn some fucking music theory. Nobody cares about your finger tapping and sweep picking if you can't play on time and in key. Even if you can play it perfectly with tabs, hearing "I'm playing a Cmaj7, Em, etc." makes collaborating easier than "I put my fingers here...". It is astounding how many guitarists can memorize these crowd pleasing songs but act completely clueless when I say "12 bar blues in E".

"You're making it sound shitter" 😂😂😂

Don't get drunk before your gig. Haha

Most Valuable doesn’t even mean “best at your craft.” It means most Valuable. That’s what I got out of this. Be the most valuable player they can think of. “That dude will save/make us money/time/headaches.” Here’s your card: “[Your Name] -Headache & Money Saver.”

Learn to drive... And please learn to drive manual (standard transmission/stick/European Shift)... As well as manual transmission... Never know when the best available vehicle is going to be standard transmission... Or when someone is going to lend you a vehicle with standard.

best tip: run an event

good advice and true true true but also makes me quite anxious and i feel like that kinda leads to a burn out.. still we are artists and just humans and not robots..

#12 - think of them not you and #13 - look at the big picture

first

Practice!...🤣