Playing Live
v1.03
(changes since last version in bold)

by Tarekith

This guide is a (not so) quick overview of some of the aspects involved with playing your own music live. When I use the term "playing live", I'm not only talking about performing your own music as a live pa or band, but also referring to DJing or any combination of the two as well. Basically anything that involves you being in front of a group of people playing music. I'll cover not only some of the technical aspects that you should consider when planning out your set, but also things like how to get gigs, running your own club night, and dealing with groupies (ok, maybe not the last one, you'll have to figure that one out on your own).

Some background about me first, just so you know where I'm coming from and what my experience is. I've been playing live and DJing for almost 15 years, from playing guitar and keyboards in punk, rock, and jam bands to performing solo electronic music of all styles. I've been lucky enough to play in some of the biggest clubs in Chicago, and was once voted one of Shure's "Future Sound Of Chicago" DJs. I was also part of two promotion groups putting on underground events in that area, from long running club nights to 3000+ person raves.

As with all my music related guides, the advice I give here is merely my own opinion, and I'm in no way suggesting that my way is the only way or the right way. I'm just relating some of my experiences and what I've learned over the years, in the hopes that it helps others have some of the same fun times that I've been lucky enough to experience so far. And with that, let's dive in…

Getting Gigs

Before I talk about the actual nuances of putting together and performing a live set, let's discuss actually getting a gig in the first place. While you definitely should have a live set prepped and ready to go before you start trying to get gigs, at the same time if you don't have anywhere to perform it, then this is all a moot point anyway. One common misconception I want to get out of the way right away is that getting a gig very, very rarely has anything to do with how good your set is. Don't get me wrong, it can't be bad either, but having the most kick-ass live music in your town is by no means a guarantee that you'll get a gig.

In general, you're going to be dealing with one of two scenarios when trying to get a gig. The first is dealing directly with a bar or club owner who handles their bookings directly, and the second is dealing with a group of promoters who already is running a successful night at a venue and is responsible for booking the DJs or live acts. Each scenario has it's own advantages, but also a lot of similarities as well.

Most bar owners are pretty busy with the normal day to day operations of running the bar, and usually they aren't necessarily fans of all the music that gets played in their club. Their main concern is how many people will come to hear you play, and how much will they drink. Bars make money selling alcohol, so the more people come to drink, the happier they'll be. Keep in mind that it's much easier and safer for the bar to keep booking DJs they know will bring in people, than it is to take a chance on someone unknown.

Have a CD with a mix on it for the bar owner to listen to, but make sure the music is appropriate to the venue. This is actually a very important topic that I've seen so many new DJs completely ignore. If it's a popular place that doesn't do too many underground type of events, having an evil sounding DnB mix is likely not going to help you get a chance to play. 150 BPM techno does not make most college girls go crazy on a Friday night, not matter how banging you think it is. So make sure you're targeting the appropriate venue or else you're wasting your time. More importantly, you're wasting the venue owner's time too.

It helps to visit the bar a few times (with as many friends as you can wrangle up) before you try and approach the owner about getting a chance to play. This will give you a better idea of the type of music and crowd they have, and show the owner that you have a good sized group of friends who will likely come to see you play. If they know you have a lot of friends who are already 'fans', they will be much more inclined to take that risk of booking someone new.

Remember, you're trying to sell the owner on your promotional skills more than anything, not the music. They likely don't care about how good you are, or how vast your record collection is. Let them know how you plan to promote yourself to get people to come out and see you. If you're lucky enough to already have a few events under your belt, let the owner know about how many people came out to see you at those events. If you don't have a lot of friends or any previous gig experience, you need to start networking and going to different events as much as possible so other people know you. Networking like this leads me to…

Dealing with established club nights. Dealing with a production company (i.e., promoters, other DJs, etc) running an established night is entirely an exercise in networking. Remember, most of the time these people started running their own nights so that they and their friends have somewhere to play. So one of the best ways to convince them to let you play, is to become one of their friends. I don't mean BFF or anything, but let them see that you support their night, that you come out every week and bring other people to check it out too. Like the bar owner, they want to know that you're going to help contribute to their success, not just freeload a gig and then disappear. You need to make them understand that by giving you a gig, they also get something in return.

Offer to help pass out flyers for their nights, buy one of their DJs a drink after a good set (bribery will get you everywhere), offer to help set up or tear down equipment if they need it. Don't look desperate, but try and convey the point that you want to help and are willing to put in a little work. Trust me, running your own night is a lot of work usually, so they will more than likely appreciate the help! Promoters get a lot of new DJs begging for gigs thinking they are the next superstar DJ, they know when people are serious about helping and when they are merely saying it, so be sincere!

If you do get a gig from a promoter, then more than likely you will be going on early, possibly (likely) the first slot and not the headliner gig you dreamed up. Be happy with that, everyone has to start somewhere! Most of all, remember that you are NOT the headliner and play appropriate music. Early on in the night is not the time to start hitting people over the head with huge tunes, your job is to warm things up for the better known DJs later. Trust me, an opening DJ will make a far better impression on the promoter if they do a good job at this, versus using the chance to show everyone how many bad ass, peak-time tunes they have. If you show that you can warm up a crowd and really get as many people on the dance floor as possible by the time the main performers go on, you're much more likely to get asked to come back and play again.

Again, having a lot of your own friends come out to see you helps a lot here. It's a theme you'll see over and over, having a good core group of people who are into the same thing as you means you can all support each other and work together. In fact, if you do have a group of friends like this, there's one more option for getting gigs that I haven't talked about yet, and this one might be the best option yet…

Starting your own club night

Running your own club night is by far one of the most sure fire ways of getting gigs, though it's certainly a lot of work as well. The secret to doing it yourself is to create a sustainable event, something that people other than just your friends will want to come to. I've mentioned again and again that having your friends come out to support you can be a huge help, but you can't always rely on them to come out every time you play or throw an event. You need to focus on getting new people to come check out your events, and make it so good that they go and tell their friends about it the next day.

But first you need to find a venue. If this is your first time running your own club night (and if you're reading this, I'm guessing it is), then I'd suggest finding someplace small initially. Make sure the location works too, some place near a residential area with a lot of homes is likely not going to go over well when you're playing loud music at 2:00 AM. You don't need a huge fancy bar, some hole in the wall with an already low turnout can actually work well. The owners are likely not used to larger crowds, so the added money you'll help bring in will be good incentive for them to keep working with you. One good night in a dive bar can be a huge boost for the owner, where as 2 or 3 bad nights in a trendy bar can be a huge issue for that owner.

Again, visit the place a couple times with a few friends if you can, then talk to the bar owner about possibly putting on a night there. Discuss what nights work best with the owner, and how often you want to do it. Weeknights are obviously easier to talk them into, but of course it can be hard getting a lot of people to come out when they have to work the next morning. It's not impossible, I've seen it done before, but it's a lot more work, especially if you're one of those people who has to work in the morning!

In my experience, Fridays work best. Saturdays seem to be the day a lot of the larger promoters have their nights, and most of the crowd you're targeting might also enjoy going to those events. Sunday afternoons can be good too, gives people a chance to hear some more good music as they wind down from a busy weekend. Venues with outdoor patios are great for Sunday events, but of course when you're outside you must always worry about the music volume too. Still, most bars rarely have things during the afternoon, so they're more likely to give you a chance if it brings them more money.

The frequency of the event you're throwing is very important too. Trying to do a weekly night can be really hard until you get a good following and good relationship with the bar. Consider doing a monthly or biweekly event at first. It gives you more time to promote, it's less risk for the bar owner, and you avoid that burnout phase that happens when your friends are sick going to the same place every Friday after 3 weeks. As you get more successful and draw a regular crowd, then consider raising the frequency of the night.

In terms of dealing with the owner and the money situation, I've found that keeping it simple works best. Usually the promoter would keep the door charge and the owner would keep the bar profits. Sometimes we would get the owner to pay for half the cost of the sound system rental and flyer printing, but this is something you'll have to play by ear. Usually once you can show the owner that you're consistently bringing in a crowd, they're more willing to help split some costs if it will bring in even more people. Just be honest and down to earth with the owner, and don't over-hype yourself. Let them know you expect it will take a couple weeks for word to get out about what you're doing, don't set their (or your) expectations too high for the first night.

In terms of the door charge, don't get greedy, it just backfires on you in the end. Plan on charging as little as possible to cover any promotion or sound system rentals. Bringing in a bigger name DJ at this point will likely not help you, so you probably don't have to factor that cost in. Try and arrange a couple drink tickets for each DJ/performer and you should be good on that front. Also, now is a good time to contact other promoters about swapping DJ slots. You offer to let one of their DJs play one night, if they offer to let one of your DJs do the same at one of their nights. Networking.

I've found that $5 door charge works well for a smaller night, any more than that and it's hard to get people who might be only curious through the door. Be prepared to lose some money the first few nights, it helps if all the people throwing the event pool some money for just this situation. Remember, the key is get a place to play, not to make a lot of money! At least not at first, being a successful promoter and a successful DJ rarely go hand in hand.

If the bar doesn't have their own sound system, you might need to rent sound for the night. Keep it simple, and don't rent more than you need. I've seen too many people put WAY too much sound into a smaller venue, when all it does is leads to ear fatigue and drives people away. This is an important point I can't stress enough, don't make the music too loud early in the night. When people first get to the club, they're likely talking to people they haven't seen all week, or catching up on the day's gossip. Give people a chance to unwind and get a couple drinks in them, catch up with friends, etc, then start turning up the music slowly as the night progresses. The opening DJ will always want it louder, but it's your job to make sure they keep it a little lower, even if that makes you the unpopular guy at first. If they throw a real fit, just mutter something about early evening noise ordinances as you walk away, works every time.

It's pretty rare that people show up to an event and start dancing as soon as they walk in the door (especially early in the night), so you've got to ease people into it. This also goes along with the music choices you play early on too. Put your most commercially-minded DJ friends on early, and you'll get more people dancing and wanting to stay. Just like you plan out your sets to build in intensity as they progress, you need to plan out the entire night's music this way too. Of course if you're putting on a techno, dubstep or DnB night and are only focusing on a specific genre, then this might not apply.

And now I'll let you know about the #1 thing you can do to make your night successful:

Drink specials

Nothing gets people to come out to a new club night better than cheap alcohol. Talk to the bar owner and see what you can arrange. Even something as simple as half priced drinks for the first hour makes all the difference, I've yet to see anything work as well as this. $1 beers works great too, even if it's crappy tap beer, for a dollar no one cares. If you're able to arrange something, put it on the flyers, tell your friends, post it on Myspace or Facebook. Let me people know that if they show up early, they'll get discounted drinks. It gets people to your night early, they get relaxed quicker, and chances are they're likely to stay longer after a few drinks too. Some bar owners can be hesitant about it, but I've yet to see this one go wrong when you promote early enough.

Ok, enough about venues and places to play, let's switch gears and actually talk about preparing and playing your live set.

Prep Work

There's probably at least a hundred different ways to play live electronic music, all of which perfectly valid, so I'm not going to go too much into the specifics of HOW you should play your music. I've done everything from hardware based live sets, to a laptop set, to some combination of of the two over the last 15 years. I've taken studio songs and prepped them to work live, and I've done sets where all of the music was specifically written to be performed in a live setting.

Regardless of which method you use, or which tools you use, the key to having a good time and making a good impression is planning, planning, planning. You want to remove as many unknown variables as possible from the set, so that you're not surprised when things go bad. I'm not saying take out all spontaneity mind you, but you want to be prepared in advance to handle anything that comes your way.

In terms of gear, only use gear that you not only know well, but that you know won't fail you at the worst possible time. Hopefully it won't fail you anyway, I guarantee you that for some cosmic reason, if things are going to fail, they'll do it mid-set or 5 minutes before you're supposed to start. Still, have a good comfort level with your live gear, know how it works, know how to back it up and recall all the settings and parameters (and carry copies of these with you!), and know how well it works with everything else you plan to use. A week before a gig is not the time to buy a new synth or soundcard hoping it'll work ok.

One of the best pieces of advice I can pass on is to not make your sets too complicated. When I was doing hardware based live sets early on, I had an entire table full of hardware I would bring out to each gig. It looked impressive and gave me a lot of control, but set up was a hassle, finding space at the venue was a hassle, and there was a greater possibility for something to go wrong or get hooked up the wrong way. Similarly, when I first started using software for live sets, I was trying to run 16 channels of audio in my sets. In the studio it was easy enough, but on stage in front of a room full of people, it became a lot to mentally manage.

You only have two hands, so don't create so many options that you need to micro-manage a set just to pull it off. I've personally settled on an 8 track template for both my hardware and software sets. Any more tracks than that and I feel I've got too much to keep track of, and that I'm not spending enough time focusing on the important sounds. Any less than that and I feel a little too constrained.

An important way to help you relax and keep all this manageable is to develop a consistency in how you prep and layout your sets. For instance, in all my songs, I always know that track or channel 1 is the kick and snare, track 2 is percussion, track 5 is the bassline, track 6 is the lead, etc. Whatever layout feels best to you is fine, but this way no matter what song you're performing, you always know which track corresponds to which sound. It's one less thing to keep mental tabs of, and it allows you to quickly move around the set while minimizing accidentally tweaking the wrong thing by mistake.

Keeping things manageable not only applies to track layouts, but how you end up tweaking your sounds. Do you really need access to all 138 parameters of your bassline synth? (and maybe you do, I'm not saying you don't). But if you don't need that much control, consider using macros or assigning only the 8 most important parameters to your controller. Give yourself the ability to control a sound, but don't leave yourself so many choices that you get bogged down in the little stuff that likely will not go over well in a live setting.

When you're performing in front of people, "simple" and "obvious" are the key words to keep in mind. Time will go by very fast once you actually start your set, so you want to keep things moving and dynamic, not get bogged down in small tweaks that people might not notice. They want to see and hear you performing NOW, so if you're going to be doing something in your set, make sure it's something everyone can pick up on and easily hear.

Along the lines of time going by fast, plan to have at least 20% or more of material than you think you need given how long your set is supposed to be. You'd be surprised at how in the heat of the moment on stage this whole concept of keeping things moving and dynamic takes care of itself. When you start seeing people reacting to what you're doing, you tend to do it more and quicker, and before you know you're cruising through your set much faster than in your practice sessions. Bands have known for years that they generally play at a faster tempo live than in the studio, you get excited, your heart rate gets up, and before you know it you're doing whatever you can to make it more exciting, consciously or not. So, if you're scheduled to play for an hour, have an extra 10-20 minutes of material ready to go just in case.

As I just mentioned, you definitely want to practice your set beforehand too. Don't just start the set and make sure everything is sort of working, go through the entire thing as if you were really playing live. Do it a couple times even. This will let you work out any bugs or kinks in the set, and maybe adjust the track order if you discover that the pacing of things is off.

How you pace your set is a personal thing, but make sure it works for what you're trying to do. Having a really fast song in the middle of a slower set might not be the best way to order things. And just like when you send out a demo to a record label hoping to get signed, make sure that the first song you start with really grabs people right away. There's nothing wrong with a long intro build up, just make sure you're grabbing people's attention and making them want to stay and listen to the rest of your set. Forcing people to stick around by putting them to sleep does not count.

Don't just practice the set however, you also want to practice setting everything up and tearing everything down. Pack your gear like you were going to a gig, and then set it up in another room (someplace besides the studio where it always is). Better yet, ask a friend if you can bring it over to their place and try hooking everything up to their home stereo. Ge yourself into a situation where you can't just reach behind you for a cable you forgot, so you REALLY know what you need to bring with you.

Practice tearing down the set up too. Sometimes you'll need to get everything broken down and out of the next act's way as quick as possible. I find it's better to break everything down and then go mingle, to make sure you don't forget anything when you're scrambling at the end of the night as the club is closing. I highly recommend getting in the habit of not just tossing everything in a wadded up ball into a bag either. Coil your cables, pack your gear properly, double check that you have everything. Consider labeling common items like cables and power cords too.

Aim to keep your gear footprint as small as possible. Not all clubs will have a dedicated table for you, so could you set up in a DJ booth if need be? Do you have a portable table or keyboard rack you can bring in case you need it? Could you set up in the dark? How long will it take you to set up? Could you do it while a DJ is in the booth finishing his set? Will you have access to a power outlet?

These are all things you need to think about and plan for. Ask the promoter what you're going to be plugging into, will it be a DJ mixer or a house mixer, and how many channels will you have available to use? Ask what kind of mixer it will be, and learn what connections and controls it has. Download the manual or images of it's back panel online so you know what type of cables to bring. A little research up front will save you a lot of headache later!

Make sure it's ok for you to get to the club early to set up and do a soundcheck if possible. If not, see if there will be an issue with you playing a CD or something while you set up. This is a great time to meet any sound engineer that might be there too. Let them know about your set and what your requirements are, discuss any connection issue or monitoring concerns.

Speaking of the CD, I think it's important to have a backup plan in case things take a turn for the worse. Some live acts have a CD player cue'd up with a song in case their laptop crashes, some people do the same with an iPod. The point is to have something ready in case the unexpected happens and your gear stops making noise, or needs to reboot. You don't want the audience sitting there in sudden silence, so either you or the sound guy needs to have something prepped and ready to play at the press of a button. I used to use a custom song I made from computer crash noises and old sci-fi movies I sampled where they talked about system crashes. Sort of tongue in cheek play on the situation.

Part of being prepared is making sure you're ready for anything you might run into once you get to the club. Here's a list of things I'd consider essential to bring with you, just in case:

- Small flashlight. Like I mentioned before, sometimes you'll need to set up or troubleshoot in near dark, so keep a little flashlight with you and easy to get to.

- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)/Power Strip. The mains power in clubs can be dodgy at best, especially if they're running lighting rigs on the same power supply. Plus, you'll be lucky if you get access to more than one free power outlet as well. Most office supply stores carry small UPS's for home computers for about $40. These will not only provide you with cleaner power, but they also have a battery back up, and usually a few outlets. Not the lightest things to carry, but even the smallest ones are more than good enough for most live rigs. At the very least, get yourself a power strip with as many outlets as you know you'll need, don't rely on the promoter saying they'll have one.

- Extension cord. At least 20 feet should be sufficient, just in case you don't have access to a close outlet, or find that an outlet further away is less problematic for some reason.

- Adaptors. I don't know how many times I've seen a live act show up to a night I was running and been unable to plug into a DJ mixer or house mixer because they didn't have the right cable. Go to Radio Shack or some other cheap electronics store and get as many kinds of adaptors as you can. 1/4" to RCA, XLR to 1/4", mono to stereo, whatever. Get as many kinds as you can think of, they don't need to be good ones, but something is better than nothing. Make sure you can plug into anything you need to in order to do your set. At the very least, by having these things on you there's a chance you can be the guy who saves the day when some other person has this issue. Great way to make friends and a good impression on a promoter.

- Extra cables. Bring an extra cable (or two) for every cable type you'll need in your set. Be it audio cables, mic cables, power cables, midi cables, USB or Firewire cables, you name it. Like I mentioned earlier, if something is going to fail, it'll happen right as you're setting up, so don't leave yourself high and dry because you can't connect your gear all of a sudden.

- Something to damp any vibrations from the sound system. This is especially important for those of you using laptops. Hard drives spinning at thousands of RPMs do not like the vibrations from big speakers! It's stopped many a set right when things were getting good. There's plenty of dedicated laptop stands for DJing out there, though I prefer CoolFeet from Blue Lounge. They're small, cheap, stop vibrations, and they allow your laptop to get some airflow under it for cooling. Just high enough to raise a laptop above a turntable spindle too, in case there's nowhere else left to set up. If you don't want to buy something to solve this issue, I've also had good luck using a piece of carpet foam too.

- Back ups of your gear data. If you're using hardware, bring sysex back ups of all your synth patches, sequencer settings, samples, you name it. If you're using software, burn DVDr's of all the audio files, a copy of the installer for your software, a copy of your template set and preference files. You never know, so have everything you need to recreate your set on another computer with you.

- Gaffer tape (duct tape). This can be a life saver to keep you from tripping over cords and pulling things out mid-set. Besides, MacGuyver carried it and look how well it helped him!

Setting up

Ok, so now you've got all your supplies ready, you're at the club, you're ready to set up and do your gig. All that preparation is about to pay off. At this point, there's really not much more preparation you can do that's going to help, it's all about minimizing stress and nerves so you can actually have fun and enjoy the experience.

When at all possible, I always recommend trying to arrange to set up your gear before the club opens. Give yourself some time to get acquainted with the venue, set up your gear, do a sound check, and generally make sure things are working and you have everything you need before the local stores close. Speaking from experience, it's very hard to find a store that sells a 3m MIDI cable at 1:00 AM.

When it's time to do your sound check work with the sound engineer or whoever is in charge of the sound rig to get your levels consistent with any DJs playing that night. Typically live sets (hardware or software) are not as loud as your typical DJ is, so it helps to plan for that in advance. In the case of software-based based live sets or DJ sets, some people will recommend using a limiter on the master channel to increase the loudness of your output. I highly do NOT recommend doing this, especially with DJ sets. Those songs have already been limited as much as possible, and adding another limiter might make them sound louder at first, but it also makes them sound a lot worse too. Using a limiter as a safety net to make sure you don't clip whatever PA you are plugged into is fine, but I do not recommend using it merely as a volume control.

It's far better to address the volume issue other ways. If you're plugging into a DJ mixer, I'd say just turn up the channel gain knob, or the volume fader for that channel. If those are already turned up all the way, the next place to look is if the DJ mixer is plugged into a house mixer. If so, turn up that channel. If not, try turning up the amps. I've never been in a situation where using a limiter on the master channel was the only option for making a laptop louder. It should be an absolute last resort.

Preparing for how your studio built live set will translate in a club with much louder speakers is always an interesting experience. In a really well spec'd club, you will likely not have to worry about anything. They have professional sound guys on hand to make sure everything is set up to perform at it's peak already. On smaller systems this is not always the case. Sometimes the bass bins will be way too loud for your material, and you might need to use an EQ on your master out to compensate. Occasionally the PA might be set up as mono only, and some of your sounds rely on wide panning for effect. This is why a soundcheck is so helpful, it allows you to anticipate and deal these issues in advance.

Keep in mind that things sound a lot different in an empty club than when it's full of sweaty bodies though. You don't want to correct problems that might not be problems by the time you do your set. In general an empty club will have a much brighter sound, and a lot more slap-back echo since all those people aren't there to absorb the sound. So if things sound too bright during your soundcheck, just wait until you play before making any major adjustments. At least you know it MIGHT be an issue and can listen for it later. Remember you should only be making small EQ adjusts if any at all. Don't adjust things 'just because', only make adjustments or use plug ins/processors because there's a real need that you can hear.

If you don't get a soundcheck however, don't stress too much though. Most of the people there will not spot even 5% of the things you think are major issues. When things are out of your hands, it does no good stressing over them, just make the best of it and move on. Always do the best you can regardless. I read a story once where at Hybrid's very first live gig, the monitors stopped working right before they went on, and they were forced to guess what they were doing based on all the practice they had done earlier in the week. They made do in a bad situation, and no one was the wiser.

Performing

Once you're all set up and all your gear is tested and working, it's time to relax.

Well, at least try to relax, it's not always that easy I know. If you're staying at the club until your set, avoid the temptation to have a lot of drinks. One or two might be ok to chill your nerves, but only if you know that one or two will do little else to you. The last thing you want during your set is to be too drunk to do it right. Save the partying for afterwards to celebrate a job well done. In the meantime chat with friends, meet people in the crowd, talk to the promoter, just try and have a good time.

About ten minutes before you're supposed to start I recommend going by your gear if possible and double-checking everything. Make sure all cables are tight, all your sounds are loaded up, all your gear is on and set to the right song, and your laptop is plugged into the power supply (seen a few guys forget this part by mistake, oops). This also lets your ears get a little better acclimated to the sound of things where you're going to be performing. This is also the last chance you have for a bathroom break, take it if you need it.

You're likely all nerves by this point, and tense as can be. I find that a quick stretch before I play helps me to relax a lot, so it might be worth a couple quick stretches to help you relax and not look so nervous on stage. The last bathroom break is a good place to do this and not look like a dork :-)

And then, it's time.

The lights go down, the last DJ ends his set, and you step up to your gear ready to change the world. You look at the crowd. They're looking at you. You look down at your gear and get ready to press Play. You notice your hands are shaking a little. You look back at the crowd. They're still looking at you. Waiting.

You press Play.

There's really not too much to tell you at this point, it's your set, you should have practiced it and know what you're doing, it's up to you at this point. I do have a few tips though:

- Try and smile, look like you're having fun. Even if your terrified inside and shaking so bad it feels like palsy, look like you're relaxed and having a good time. If you make a mistake, chances are no one will really notice unless it's major. If it is major, don't frown, look pissed, etc, just smile and keep on going. The moment is over the second it happens, so don't let it affect the rest of your performance. Like it or not, it's the small mistakes that make a live set different from a recording. Those slight imperfections that let people know you're actually doing something, and not just stand up there miming the whole thing.

- Look at the crowd, often. It can be nerve-racking at first, but you want everyone to feel like they have a connection with you, like you're performing for THEM alone. No one wants to watch someone staring at their sequencer all night oblivious to the people in the club. Make some connection with that hot girl (or guy) in the front row. Watch and recognize when people seem to dance harder or look more interested, and play off those moments. Extend them.

- Likewise when people look bored or the dance floor starts clearing out all of a sudden, hurry through that section of the set and get people's attention again. This is what DJs refer to as "reading a dance floor", and it's a skill that takes practice. In time you can tell the vibe of the room before it ends up an empty dance floor, and then make adjustments to get past those moments before you lose people's interest.

- One of the best things about playing live is getting to hear your own tracks (or other people's tracks if you're DJing) really loud. But it's a double-edged sword too as well all know, do it enough, and you won't be hearing anything again. Turn down the stage or DJ monitors some, the point of them is to make sure you're hearing your music coming at you, not from a reflection off a back wall. Also, consider ear plugs too, you'd be surprised at how much you can still hear while still protecting your ears. You might not think they look cool, but neither do hearing aids.

- KEEP DRINKS AWAY FROM YOUR GEAR! The last thing you want is that cute girl (guy) dancing next to you to spill a beer all over your $2500 laptop. Even if no one is near you when you're playing, bass makes things vibrate and move, and before you know it that beer that was safely in the middle of a table is suddenly teetering over your gear. Put it behind you or on the floor where it won't damage anything if it does spill.

- On that note, don't drink so much you can't finish your set. By all means, have a few and enjoy yourself, but save the sloppy rock star antics until you're already rich and famous. Ditto the drugs, stay well within your limits. You might think you're tearing the place up, when the people on the dance floor are being subjected to sloppiest playing imaginable.

- Try and keep some track of time if you can. Like I mentioned previously, your set will FLY by so fast. Make sure you have time to get that last huge track in, or that you're not running out of material before your time is up. Use a watch, or the laptop clock, but don't get caught out when you run out of time unexpectedly.

- Be courteous to the guy going on after you. You were likely thankful the guy before you ended when he was supposed to, pay that same respect forward to the next guy. If you see them getting ready to go on and you know your time is done, end your set and give them the time they deserve too. Ditto for the bar owners if it's the end of the night and they're announcing last call. If they ask you to stop, then you stop.

Whew, long night huh? Hopefully the set went well and all that preparation paid off. Likely after a few minutes of playing you relaxed and started having fun, and by the time you're done all you can think about is "when can I do this again?". It's addicting, I know.

Still, the night is not done yet, there's still a little work to be done. The first thing you want to do is break down your gear as quickly and cleanly as possible, to make room for other DJs or performers. Again, you practiced this, so there should be no surprises, but do double-check that you have everything. If you're going to be sticking around the club after the set, KEEP YOUR LAPTOP WITH YOU. Don't leave it on stage, in the club office, or in the DJ booth, put it in your car or carry it with you. This is where 95% of DJ laptops get stolen, don't risk yours that way.

Finally, work the crowd as they say. Mingle with people and pass out any promotional material you might have. Business cards or stickers with your website on them are a great way to capitalize on a set well done, and help to build your fan base. Sometimes when your set goes really well, you might find groups of attractive members of the opposite sex following you around and buying you drinks. These are groupies. Deal with them as you will. :-)

Last but not least, make sure you profusely thank the promoter who gave you the gig. Let them know how much you appreciate it, but don't start bugging them for another gig yet. If they liked you, they'll remember you and you'll be back soon. If not, give them a few weeks to forget how bad it was before you ask again!

On a more personal note, if this guide (or any of my other guides) has helped you in your music making, please consider a small $1 donation via pay pal to the email address below. Even a dollar here and there really helps me and my family out more than you can realize. Thanks, and I hope you find this guide useful.

Tarekith
Tarekith@Gmail.com
Tarekith.com

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Feel free to pass this document on as you see fit, though I ask that you do not modify it from it's current form, and give proper credit. If you see any errors, please let me know so I can correct them asap.