How To Prepare For A Gig - Ask Zac 94

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we're going to
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talk about prepping for the gig getting
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prepared for the almighty gig the uh
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what we all strive to do you know play
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out and uh and make a good impression
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and get to continue to work as a
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musician
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so I'm gonna hit on uh just the the
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preparation as far as the music the
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equipment everything
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and uh yeah we're gonna have fun
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so while you're thinking about it and if
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you haven't done it already please go
1:39
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all right so first the why so you know
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of course I've I've been gigging since i
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was in my in my teens
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and you know of course you learn a lot
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by your mistakes and so I've made a lot
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of mistakes through the years and it
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always has to do with not being prepared
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and
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not being ready with your gear or not
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ready musically so
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through the years I've kind of developed
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some habits
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and so I'm just going to pass those on
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um
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you know in the last like year and a
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half i have not liked most i have not
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gigged as much
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but i do get you know calls every once
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in awhile so of course i had the uh you
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know gig that i played down on Broadway
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uh earlier this year and then
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just recently i got a call from my
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friend Paul bogart to go play a couple
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casino shows with him in Tulsa
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now
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just to kind of give you a little
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information on Paul
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Paul is a wonderful artist uh
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very much in the
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classic country
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kind of but also
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real cowboy rodeo guy so
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Paul you know is you know has won you
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know trophies and such as a as a roper
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and he's a wonderful artist he's a great
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songwriter
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and
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you know I've had the pleasure of
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playing with him off and on over the
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last you know about 13 years
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so i was his full-time guitar player
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before my children were born
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and then you know when things got real
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serious working for true tone and i had
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children and it wasn't really didn't
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make sense for me to take vacation time
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to go play gigs and also be away from my
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babies i stopped playing with Paul
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and but I've been very lucky in that
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I've been kind of his uh
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his first string backup guitar player
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for the last 12 or 13 years so what that
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means is about every every year or two i
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get to play a handful of gigs with him
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and it's a lot of fun but also it's uh
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it's uh it you know it has its
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challenges because
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it's a lot of material to learn and then
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just fit in
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with the band because usually when I've
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played these gigs there's never been any
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rehearsal at all
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I'm
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basically there to fill the slot that
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the the other guitar player who's a
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professor at Belmont
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uh named nick so when nick palmer is out
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i get to fill in for him which means
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basically i need to just fit in that
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slot
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and basically be him
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and so part of the
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part of being able to do the the gig
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ride is understanding what the
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expectations are and so i kind of walk
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into it knowing that
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you know that's what I'm supposed to do
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so uh
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so i i try to
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get uh you know set lists and i get all
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the music
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and if they have charts i get all the
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charts
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and so i was very lucky in that uh he
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has a lot of
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number charts for his songs and that
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that is extremely helpful
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and uh basically i start diving in and
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really working on the tunes
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now
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this is a casino gig
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uh playing two nights in Tulsa
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and because of that it's three one hour
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sets
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so
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three hours of music is a lot of stuff
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now luckily
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uh you know a good portion of that
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is you know cover tunes so playing
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things like ring of fire working man
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blues you know little sister
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you know
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king of the road roger miller some
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western swing things and stuff like that
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all those things are way up my alley
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and things that i know and things that i
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can easily brush up on and know those
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you know classic licks
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the harder part of course is his
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original tunes
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uh now some of them I've played through
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the years but you know of course every
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year he's writing new material and
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releasing another album so
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I'm always having to relearn
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the you know the the the original
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material and
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of course
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learn new original material
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so what i do
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is i get charts and i start listening to
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these songs like crazy so i start i want
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these songs to be kind of second nature
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where i can hear them in my head all the
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time so that when he calls the tune
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i can hear that intro in my brain
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okay
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then
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I'm looking at the charts
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uh if there's not a chart I'm I'll make
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a chart which sometimes it's actually
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better to have to make your own charts
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because you know it makes you really
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listen more intently
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another thing that i will do
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is uh of course more recently I've used
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this fender mustang micro which is
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really neat because you can stream
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stuff from your phone into it so that
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way i can have my headphones in
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and late at night you know when the kids
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are asleep and and stuff like that i can
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i can keep practicing on the songs at
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night that's really helpful so
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you know this has been a uh a wonderful
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tool so all of Paul's tunes are on
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Spotify you know because they're
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legitimate albums
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and then i can just play along with them
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and uh and and figure out the parts that
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uh
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that i need to play
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now another aspect of this which you
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have to find out from the artist or or
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your the client
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is what is the actual instrumentation of
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the gig going to be okay so that has to
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how many players are there going to be
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what parts do i need to cover
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also you have the additional kicker of
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you know kind of part of that is
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are we going to be playing with tracks
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or not so
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some of you probably aren't familiar
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with this but in Nashville circles
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and probably new York and la2
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it's pretty common to have
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additional tracks going on so you might
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have a five piece band but then there
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might be some additional
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uh acoustic guitar
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steel guitar
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some background vocals things like that
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maybe some shaker and different things
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like that and
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so you need to to know
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are there gonna be tracks and if there's
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tracks then you need to know all the
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kickoffs you know how the kickoff is
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gonna go on the track because it's gonna
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be coming through your ears
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and all of a sudden you're gonna hear
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you know better with my baby
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one two three and then you just have to
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just have to kick it
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and if you mess up
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they have to turn the track off or it's
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going to be a complete train wreck where
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the the track starts running against you
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know what everyone else is playing
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so
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again you have to find out what
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instrumentation is going to be there
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because you know you're hearing these
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tracks
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and again when i say tracks i'm talking
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about the original recordings you're
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hearing the original recordings
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and you're learning that and you're
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looking at the charts but then
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how many instruments are actually going
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to be on the gig well
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i was very glad that i asked that
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question because
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i found out that
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normally he runs as a five piece which
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means drums
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bass
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acoustic guitar
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fiddle and electric
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well
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there's not going to be a fiddle player
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on this run so that means it's drums
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bass acoustic guitar
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and me
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okay
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so that leaves
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the artist who's playing acoustic guitar
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is is having to you know carry part of
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the chordal aspect i am too and there's
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not another lead instrument besides me
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so that means i've got every kickoff and
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every solo on every song all night so
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for three hours
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you know
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it's uh it's on me so that that puts you
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know more pressure but also it's good to
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know that beforehand instead of running
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into the gig and all of a sudden
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thinking the fiddle player is going to
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kick off this song and then all of a
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sudden you realize there's no fiddle
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player and you haven't prepared
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beforehand so
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very important that you find out
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you know
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who who's gonna be there and what parts
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am i covering
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okay then you also have the the question
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of are we using monitors like wedges are
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we using in-ears because of course if
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you're using in-ears you need to have
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your in-ear monitors uh
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you know you also need to think about
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your equipment and the venue it's like
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what size venues are these how big are
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the stages because you might be thinking
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well I'm going to take my
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stereo amp set up and I'm gonna have
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them you know and they sound so sweet
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when i get them you know eight feet
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apart and angled in at me
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well that stereo setup might not sound
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so great when the amps are inches away
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from each other on a very small stage so
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that's another important question to ask
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is you know what are what are the venues
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like you know am i going to be using
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in-ears or wedges
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and those help you know tell you
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you know what you need to take so let's
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kind of that's kind of transitions us
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into equipment
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so for this gig with Paul bogart um
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I'm you know fortunate and basically i
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need a telecaster i need a telecaster i
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need a simple pedal board and an amp
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which of course is straight up my alley
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so
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one
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uh with the tele
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I'm going to take this you know 57
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esquire but also I'm going to take a
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backup guitar because no one has time
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for you to change a string if you bust a
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string on your one guitar
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and
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you're going to make everyone look bad
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so you have to have a backup guitar it
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has to be in tune it has to be on the
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stage it has to be ready for you to just
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grab and plug in and go now you also
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have to have extra strings and picks and
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all that sort of thing
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also you know for this gig
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i need uh capos and slides so because of
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that you know I'm gonna have an extra
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slide and an extra capo why because
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these are the things that you are most
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likely to leave on stage someplace
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and then you get to the next show and
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you don't have it
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so you've got to have an extra capo
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you've got to have an extra slide
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because those things are essential for
13:01
this
13:02
okay
13:03
amp
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I'm not i haven't just haven't landed on
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which amp I'm probably either going to
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take this vox amp
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or the or my old 65 deluxe reverb you
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know but then
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then that for the main slot but then I'm
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going to take a backup amp so i may take
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the tone master the blonde tone master
13:22
deluxe that may be the backup amp or i
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may take the vox and the deluxe reverb
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one of the others so I'm still you know
13:28
kind of figuring that out but again
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no one has time for your amp to go down
13:34
and it doesn't make any sense for me to
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you know bring extra tubes or speakers
13:38
and stuff like that i mean you might do
13:39
that if you're on like a big tour
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but you know there's no time for that
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you know so I'm just gonna have two amps
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so if anything goes wrong you know i
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just plug in from one amp to the other
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and i will have the other amp on the
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stage I've checked it during sound check
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it's ready to go all i have to do is
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move you know the input jack from one
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amp to the other and move the microphone
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from one amp to the other and then we
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can keep going
14:05
because no one has time for you to
14:06
troubleshoot anything
14:08
you cannot troubleshoot anything on the
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gig
14:11
ever
14:12
you can't do it okay
14:15
pedal board wise
14:16
you know I'll you know I'll have you
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know probably the moss torsion
14:21
and a delay and a tremolo pedal maybe
14:24
one or two other things and then as a
14:26
backup
14:28
for that
14:29
because if anything goes wrong with your
14:30
pedalboard again
14:32
you can't troubleshoot it on the gig
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so
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you know in the short term
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i would just
14:39
run to the amp but also i will have a
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backup overdrive
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and a uh that has a battery in it
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and a backup delay pedal that has a
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battery in it like an analog I'll
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probably take like my boss dm2
14:53
and I'll have those that if anything
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happens i can just grab those put them
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on the floor because that's all i need
14:59
to be able to cut to
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cover what you know what's on the show
15:03
it's like i have to have an overdrive
15:05
pedal and delay is really nice to have
15:07
to fatten up things so
15:09
so that's just part
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of you know being responsible and being
15:14
you know professional is having all your
15:17
gear in order you know i will make sure
15:20
that everything's intonated well
15:23
that there's nothing wrong with either
15:25
of the guitars that I'm taking of course
15:27
I'll have plenty of strings plenty of
15:29
pics
15:30
and uh yeah and that will make
15:33
the show go smoother and then i will
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prepare like crazy try you know knowing
15:39
the tunes backwards and forwards I'm
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when I'm not practicing the tunes I'm
15:42
listening to the tunes in the car so
15:44
when i go down to true tone
15:46
when i go to the office when I'm riding
15:48
around by myself I'm listening to those
15:50
songs because i want them to be as
15:52
second nature as possible because
15:55
you know Paul is a friend and a
15:58
wonderful artist and
16:00
i want to be a good experience for him
16:02
and me and for the other guys in the
16:04
band because also it's stressful for
16:06
band guys when all of a sudden you've
16:07
got a fill-in player so think about
16:10
having the same guitar player in your
16:11
band for years
16:13
and then all of a sudden there's going
16:14
to be a new guy and there's no rehearsal
16:16
or anything you're going to get a sound
16:18
check and then you're going to get to
16:19
play two shows
16:21
so that's what I'm walking into
16:23
so but I'm excited and uh it's it's
16:26
gonna be fun
16:27
and uh yeah and so I'll do a uh
16:31
I'm gonna try to shoot you know some
16:34
footage if i can you know sometimes
16:35
casinos are funny about those kind of
16:37
things about filming and everything but
16:39
I'm gonna try to shoot a little you know
16:41
maybe with my iPhone or something like
16:42
that so you can see some footage of me
16:45
you know playing with a band
16:47
and uh you know we'll put some of that
16:49
in a uh a follow-up episode and i think
16:52
i think that'll be fun so
16:55
all right so they're kind of my uh keys
16:58
to uh to being prepared which is
17:00
basically belt and suspenders
17:03
and uh being prepared musically and
17:05
being prepared with your equipment so
17:07
that uh
17:08
yeah yeah so that Paul is happy with me
17:11
and uh and i continue to get called to
17:14
play with him all right i hope you
17:16
enjoyed this episode and I'll see you
17:18
next time bye