YOUR FIRST GIG

TAKING THE FIRST STEPS INTO LIVE PERFORMANCE? MAKE IT SO YOUR MAIN FOCUS IS PLAYING!

PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE!

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, and if this is your first time getting up and playing in front of people, you don’t want to be sweating about the small stuff. But you should probably consider it ahead of time! Take some time a week or two before your gig to think about all the gear you’re going to need to perform. At the bare minimum, that’s going to be your guitar, an amp and a tuner.

Set up and run through your set, writing a check list of everything you need as you go. Treat your dry run like the gig where you won’t be able to borrow anything or reach into your drawer to grab it. Go through it with a fine tooth comb and consider everything you need to perform your songs. That’s plectrums, a strap, guitar cables that work, batteries or pedalboard power supplies, cases to hold it all together and an extension cable with enough sockets to plug everything in. This way when you come to pack for the real thing, you’ll have everything you need.

CHECK YOUR GUITAR

Chances are that during your practice, you’ll have noticed any issues with your gear. Twitchy jack sockets, scratchy pots, strange buzzes or anything else that shouldn’t be there will only be amplified when you’re playing at gig level. If you can fix your guitar yourself then do it; if not, get it booked in with a decent guitar repairer. This goes for your main guitar and any others you might need to switch to throughout your set, even if they’re backups, which brings us to…

SPARES

Things can – and, at some point, will – go wrong at a gig. Patch cables seemingly get stage-fright and strings decide to show you up by choosing the exact moment you take a solo to give up the ghost. You can combat this with rigorous checking beforehand, but you also need to be ready for when your rig decides to go dead on you. That means spares. A spare guitar (if possible), tuned and ready to go is an excellent solution, but you should also pack some extra cables, strings, batteries, plectrums... If it’s easily lost, broken or has a limited lifespan, double-up!