Gigging mistakes most sax players make (and how to avoid them)

Unfortunately, we see sax players making the same mistakes on gigs over and over again.

To help you avoid making these gigging mistakes, we’re sharing our pro tips in this podcast episode.

So if you are guilty of making some of these gigging mistakes, or if you’re starting out playing gigs on saxophone, stick around because this is going to help you.

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes. It would be great if you could share this with other sax players too!

Today I’m joined by Joel from the Sax School tutor team.

In this episode

In this episode we’ll talk about:

• Common gigging mistakes we’ve seen
• Preparation before the gig
• Getting organised for the gig
• Clear communication
• Presenting yourself
• Reading the room

And stick around for our question from a Sax School member about reading jazz sheet music.

Making gigging mistakes

Nigel: So, Joel, I don’t know about you, but no one ever actually taught me all these things. I kind of had to learn them along the way, and made plenty of mistakes myself. How about you?

Joel: Without a doubt, always making mistakes. And that’s how you learn, isn’t it? You make mistakes and you learn from them.

J: But when you get to the stage that we’ve got to, I think you’ve made all the mistakes you’re ever going to make, and learnt the lessons the hard way. So I think that’s what we’re going to talk about. We’re going to talk about just some things for everyone to think about as they start moving into the realm of gigging. 

N: You see, Joel, when you said it that way, you made me feel really old. 

J: Well, I’m just as old, don’t worry. Oh, okay. 

N: So the thing is going out and gigging is a craft and you are your own business really. So it’s really, really important to be thinking about the customer and thinking about you as a business. I know it’s a bit weird talking about business and stuff as musicians, but really when it comes to gigging, that is what it is like.

But I reckon we could break down these points into two elements.

1. There’s the things that happen before you go to the gig.
2. And then there are the things that happen when you’re actually at the gig. 

Preparing before the gig

J: Yeah, without a doubt. And I think the big one there is before the gig. Especially when you start playing and performing, your focus is so much on that gig. You kind of forget all the things that you might need to do before that gig, you know?

So for example, you might not be able to warm up at that gig. You might be going straight on stage. So making sure that you do a bit of playing that day is really important. And make sure your sax is in good order and it’s working and you’ve tried out your reeds and stuff like that.

It’s really important. You would do that if you were practising. So definitely need to do that if you’re going to do a gig. So, how about you?

N: Absolutely, 100%. You know, and depending on the type of gig,  it can be even more important.

So, for example, a long time ago, I was doing a lot of full-on classical performing, which was terrifying. Like, sitting in a big concert hall with 80 professional, grizzly old classical musicians who are expecting the young guy to make all the mistakes. You’ve got to warm up before you go. But you know what? I’m going to add something extra to that, Joel, because it’s not just about warming up and preparing for that particular day.

Doing your homework

N: But another really big thing is actually doing your homework and learning the material before you get to the gig. So this is important if you’re doing a high-pressure classical gigBut it’s also important if you’re doing a solo gig or a DJ sax thing, or maybe playing with a new jazz group where you’ve got to learn a couple of standards that you don’t know.

J: Yeah, without a doubt, the preparation for a gig starts well before the day of the gig. Not just making sure that you’re familiar with all the material and that you can actually play it. But also understanding what the rest of the band‘s going to be doing.

Listening to recordings is always a great thing to do if they’re available. And ask for previous recordings if they are available. So anything that can help you feel more comfortable on that date. Because it’ll make you play better. That’s what we want.

We want to play better and all the old grizzlies will be impressed and ask us back next time. 

N: You never know. It could happen. Actually, it’s a really great point you made there about listening to lots of recordings. I think that’s super important. And we talked to our Sax School members about that quite a lot, don’t we?

Things to remember before a gig

N: And the other thing that we talked to our members a lot about is what we call performance practice. As you’re leading up to your performance, treat part of your practice session like a performance. So if you’re working with a backing track, you put the backing track on and you play from top to bottom with the mindset that you’re doing a performance.

And that does change things, because you tend to be a little bit more cautious about taking risks. You’re more cautious about all the little details you’re playing as well. But it’s a great way to prepare you for them.  How are you going to feel when you’re actually out? 

J: Yeah, like a solo dress rehearsal, which is really important.

Getting organised

J: And then there’s all the organisation kind of things. It’s making sure that you remember everything you want to take. And it’s probably worth having some kind of list somewhere, just as a double-check before you leave.

Because particularly when you start out, you’re quite excited, or a bit nervous. And it’s really easy in that mental state to forget the basic things you might need to remember. So,  just make sure that you’re taking some water with you. It might be difficult to get a drink there. Make sure you’ve got spare reed, your saxophone, your sling.

And I’ve definitely made that gigging mistake. I forgot my sling on a gig when I was younger and had to do the entire gig with my saxophone resting on a stool. Because the gig had to go on! It wasn’t the best look, but it had to be done. And from that, I literally went out and bought like four slings – I had one everywhere, because I never wanted that to happen again.

Be prepared

So you definitely learn these lessons the hard way, by making these gigging mistakes. But it’s just preparation. And it’s knowing when to leave, when to get there, making sure you turn up early. There are lots of things to consider.

N: Well, the thing is, the more you do it, the more confident you get about everything. And that packing thing is a really important one. I think most of us have done that to some degree. You’ve forgotten your sling. Hey, I’ve never done it, but I’ve spoken to people who’ve arrived with their saxophone case with no saxophone in it. And, actually, that sounds hard to believe. But I’ve done a lot of gigs where you have to bring a lot of instruments. A couple of different saxophones, a flute, a clarinet, a piccolo. And you’re in a hurry, it’s easy to make those mistakes. 

J: I’ve been at plenty of gigs where I’ve seen musicians forget their instruments.  They’ve turned up and wandered in with their suit bag and stuff. And then you can see them looking at their other hand, and then running back to the car, hoping that it’s going to be in there.

And it’s not been in there, because they’ve rushed out the door.

So these are about being professional, aren’t they? That’s what we’re talking about – little extras that make the difference between being professional or not being professional.

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Get there in time

N: A hundred percent. There’s just one more thing.

So, we talked about looking after your practice. We talked about like warming up. And we talked about preparing and learning the music and doing performance practice as well. We talked about making sure you’ve got a packing list, and you’ve got all of your stuff.

Make sure you plan your route so you can get to the gig in a timely fashion.

And by the way, kids, make sure you always get there way earlier than you think you need to – trust me! There’s nothing worse than running late to a gig. I might’ve done that once or twice. It’s an awful feeling, even an hour early, get there an hour early, two hours early!

Communication with your client

There’s one last thing I wanted to cover in this part, which is the Before the Gig preparation. Another element that really needs to be factored in there is actually communicating with the person that you’re playing for. So make sure that everybody knows exactly what’s happening. Make sure that you’ve got a clear agreement in terms of times and how much they’re expecting for you to play and where.  Check what’s available for you and if you need power. How much space do you need? Those conversations are often forgotten, but they can make a big difference between making gigging mistakes, and everything running smoothly. 

J: Without a doubt. That’s so important because a lot of people have a really nice image of having music at their wedding or at their event, but they don’t really think about the minutiae of that. And that’s our job to do that.

A lot of people think jazz is literally everything. They hire a jazz band thinking that you’re going to be able to play some ABBA and going to play a bit of this and a bit of that and you’re just not set up for that.  So you’ve got to really communicate with them what type of music you play. It’s really good to try and agree on a rough set list with them.

You can send them recordings – never mind us listening to recordings! Or get them to send you a playlist of things they like, so at least you know what they’re expecting. Because there’s nothing worse than turning up thinking that you’re a background jazz trio, and it turns out you’re the main disco entertainment!

N: Hey, we’ve all been there though.

J: Yeah, and it happens all the time. And it’s not really their responsibility to do that communication. It’s your responsibility as the musician to tell them what service you’re going to provide, and what they should expect. And like you said, check the timings. You don’t want to turn up and it starts four hours later than you expected. Because maybe you’ve got another gig after it!

Be clear on what you need

N: A common one that I’ve seen, is that people who’ve not booked a band before don’t realise that musicians need to have a break.  

J: Yeah, and eat and drink, and need power, and somewhere to park, and things like that.

So there’s lots of things to communicate. And they’re all just very nice conversations. Quite often when you say these things to the client or the customer, you can see the surprise on their face. Because they’ve not thought of that, because they’re all quite obvious things, but they’re just looking forward to planning the party. And we want to take that pressure off them, that’s our job. Then they can have a good time and listen to some good music.

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When you get to the gig

N: Right, Joel, so we’ve talked about all the stuff that happens before we even get to the gig. But what about the things when we get to the gig? Because that’s a whole new set of potential gigging mistakes there. 

J: Sure. So when you get there, you need to go and scope out where you’re playing. Quite often you see people load up with all their stuff, and they’ll start traipsing in only to find 200 people they’ve got to walk through! That’s another reason to get there early and just scope out where you’re playing. 

Have a chat with the client and also with the staff there. How do they want you to get in? Because they’ll actually know more about the venue, and how it works and where power points are. 

So when you get there,  go in and have a wander around and familiarize yourself with the venue. It’s a good thing to do so you know the route in ready for when the rest of the band arrive. Particularly if you’re the band leader, you can tell them exactly where to go. Otherwise, it can turn into a bit of chaos.

 N: Yeah, definitely. Or six people from the band are all asking the same question of the staff, which is also frustrating.

And another thing that often gets forgotten is, where do we park our car? It sounds really obvious, you know, but it’s often forgotten. And wedding venues can be a real nightmare, because often you’ve got to park miles away from where you’re actually playing.

How to present yourself as a musician

N: So there are those sorts of logistical things to think about. But before we get to that, another really important thing that less experienced players get wrong all the time is personal presentation. So, even if you’re playing for free or just for friends – but definitely if you’re doing a paid gig – you’ve got to think about the way that you present yourself as a musician.

You are your ambassador. It’s worth spending that extra 30 seconds thinking about how you look. Are you wearing the right sort of clothes? Because you want to give the right impression to your audience. And I think personal presentation is super important.

J: You’ve got to think about it. It’s like going to a meeting. You know, it’s a networking opportunity.  You might be working for that particular client, but there’s going to be other people there. And if you do a good job and you don’t look a mess and you play well, then the chances are you’re going to get further work. That’s how it works.

So you’ve got to turn up looking smart, or looking how you’d expect in that situation. It might be a gold twinkly jacket, like like Chris from Sax School often wears! Or it might be a suit, or it might be a DJ.

Once again, this is something definitely to discuss with the client before you go. Because you don’t want to turn up in a DJ when it’s a jeans do. 

N: Yeah, those are gigging mistakes you don’t want to make. It’s never a good thing when you turn up in jeans and a T-shirt and everyone else is all done up to the nines.

And actually, another point that follows from that is communicating with the band. So we’ve talked a lot about communicating with the person that you’re playing for, but communicating with your band too is important. If you’re playing with other people, you all want to turn up looking consistent.

J: It’s almost one of the first things that I generally discuss with the band. I tell them where it is, how much it is, what time you need to be there and what we’re wearing. You know, that’s where, where the conversation starts when, when you book in the bands, you know, so And it gives you a really good idea, as a musician, what kind of gig it is. If I was being booked by somebody,  and we’re wearing tuxes, you kind of know what this gig’s going to be, be to some degree.

You might not know exactly what it is, but you’ve got a good idea of what you’re going to need to do for that gig. So it’s really important. And once again, it’s part of that management and preparation and presentation.

N: Yeah. So we’ve talked about the logistics when you get to the gig. And we’ve talked about the way that you present yourself, and the way that you talk to the people that you’re playing for and the way you communicate with your band. 

Reading the room

I think there’s one other really important thing that a lot of less experienced gigging sax players fall into. And that is not thinking about the way that you communicate with your audience when you’re actually doing your performance.

Because I think it’s it’s super important to be aware of how your audience is reacting to you. This is really important if you’re a solo artist ,if you’re doing something with backing tracks. But it’s equally important if you’re doing a function, or if you’re playing for an event or a party.

I think some people who are less experienced maybe have that idea that if you’re going and paying, buying a ticket to go see a band in a venue, they can do what they want, because you’ve paid to be there.  And that’s wonderful to get the opportunity to do that.

But for 99.999% of all the other gigs, you are being paid to go there and entertain the people. And I think it’s important to think about what the customer, or the audience, wants to hear. It doesn’t mean selling out, (and that’s another podcast episode that we can do for sure). But it’s just about being respectful and mindful, I think. 

J: Yeah and judging the situation, the gig. It’s another reason for getting a feel for the place when you get there as well. Sometimes it’s really important that you talk to the audience. And there’s going to be other times where it’s really important that you don’t, if you’re background music, and they’re all there chatting and it’s quite quiet anyway.

They don’t want you announcing your next thing and telling you all about your life and stuff. They just want you to play the next tune, you know! But sometimes you need to actually really engage with the audience, if it’s a bit more upbeat and it is worth talking to them. And that’s part of it as well. 

Stagecraft

It’s something that I know I definitely struggled with. I mean, I can talk for England normally! But get me on a stage and my mind goes very blank. I’ve really got to do a bit of preparation and think about the kind of things I’ve said. I’ve got kind of set pieces now that I can say.

And also just judging the thing. You don’t want to start telling – let’s call them ‘blue jokes’ – you don’t want to be doing those kind of things. And I see musicians make those sort of gigging mistakes. They think they’re funny. But you’ve got to read the room. You really have. 

N: I think stagecraft is such a massive topic. We could definitely dig into it more.

We’re off on a roll today, Joel! I’ll tell you what, I thought this is going to be a relatively quick conversation and we’re going for it! I’ve got so much to say about gigging mistakes. I hope you guys are enjoying listening to it.

What to play (and what not to play)

N: So I think there’s one other point that’s really important to mention.

If you’re in that situation where you’re playing improvised music,  it’s really easy to get carried away. You can do 55 choruses, squeaky, and all that sort of screechy stuff. And if people are just trying to eat their soup, it’s not always appropriate!

J: Oh, absolutely. Particularly, I think, as a jazz band. Because you might be into hardcore Coltrane and a bit of Ornette Coleman. Nobody wants to hear that when they’re eating their dinner!

It’s a really interesting subject, because you’ve got to be able to adapt your playing. Even though there are probably 15 top saxophone players in the country I’d be absolutely happy to dep out a jazz festival gig to, I can think of maybe two that I’d be happy to do at a jazz wedding. And you’d think it’d be the other way around. But I know that those players can temper their style correctly and not just go, ‘well, I do what I do’ and just start altissimo and multiphonics midway through a nice dinner that someone’s trying to have.

So it’s, it’s really important that you can change your style, even if it’s within a genre, to fit that room. It’s absolutely critical, in fact, otherwise, you’re not going to go back there. 

N: Well, that’s exactly the point. You’re not going to get a callback. And I think most of us have got one common objective and that is to be asked to come and play again.

J: Without a doubt. 

N: So hopefully the things we’ve discussed today will help you guys avoid these gigging mistakes.  And if there are some things that you maybe have noticed that you’ve done in your early performing experiences, then maybe that’s encouraged you to go and try some different stuff.  And hopefully it will help you avoid some other common pitfalls as well. 

Question from Sax School member

N: So our question this week is from Jin Wei, one of our Sax School members. He’s new to Sax School and he was saying that he’s really enjoying it, but he’s a bit new to jazz. And his question was about the first jazz tune that he was learning. And he said, “How come the quavers or 8th notes, are written straight, but when he listens to the way that we play it, it sounds different. What’s going on there?” 

J: Okay, so in jazz we play what is called swung or jazz quavers. There are different ways of looking at these, and we can get into that in another lesson. But basically, they sound uneven compared to the way they’re written.

So we get used to reading music, particularly if you’re coming from a classical background. If it’s written as straight quavers, they’re straight quavers. And when you listen to jazz, or listen to somebody playing jazz, and you see it written, it doesn’t look anything like it does on that part. And that’s for a couple of reasons.

There’s a bit more of a triplet feel. Sometimes you’ll see this in the top corner of the chart. You might see ‘quavers equal crotchet triplet’, ‘quaver triplet’ or whatever. That’s just telling you when you see quavers, actually there’s this extra rhythmic element in there.

Now, a lot of it for sax players is done with articulation to some degree. But basically what you’re seeing isn’t what you’re getting in this circumstance. 

So it’s something to be aware of. And if you listen to jazz and you hear them playing quavers, it should give you an idea of the kind of sound that you’re getting.

So don’t be put off. Music’s just there as a guide. That’s all it’s meant to be, it’s there to be interpreted. And it’s really important to remember that whether it’s classical or jazz or anything else, the music needs interpreting stylistically. You know, it’s just our best way of writing it at the moment. So sometimes these discrepancies happen.

So it’s worth being aware of these stylistic nuances to some degree. 

N: Yeah, it’s it’s a great question, actually, Jin. I’m so glad you asked that. Because I think for us who’ve been doing it for a really long time, we are just so used to, ‘well, that’s swing.’ It’s a swing feel. It’s just part of what we do. But if you are new to the whole swing thing and like you said, coming from a classical background, then it’s quite confusing. So yeah, listening and,  and experimenting is the way forward. 

J: Yeah. I think this goes for loads of things. Don’t always assume the piece of music in front of you is literally right. Because not only do you get these kinds of things where quavers aren’t really quavers, but you’ll also get mistakes in charts. You come across it all the time. People make mistakes, they’re written by humans, humans make mistakes. And if you hear that that note’s a B, not an A, and that’s what you’re ears telling you, them it’s probably a mistake. So you’ve got to trust yourself a little bit and your interpretation of these things as well, which I think is something you learn over time. Not everything is as it seems.

N: Haha, there we go. Well, hey, thanks for sticking around. I hope you really found our tips on avoiding common gigging mistakes useful. 

J: And also don’t forget you can sign up for the 14-day free trial and get stuck into all the great resources we’ve got in there right away. 

N: Yeah, there are thousands of students in there and it’s such a friendly community. We have a lot of fun. They’re certainly loving your lessons Joel, and there’s so much other stuff going on there too. We’d love to see you in there.

So that’s it for today. Thanks for watching. Keep practising hard and we’ll catch you next time. 

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