Get Yourself Ready To Go

What is getting myself ready to go?

If you’ve ever played a gig before that is bigger then playing at your house for your immediate family, such as at a music competition, or at a larger venue when there are multiple bands, you’ll know that you only get so much time to set up, and you want to set your stuff up as soon as possible. After a while it starts to get embarrassing that you’ve been setting up so long, only to realize that your amp isn’t working, or your guitar broke a string, or your tuner is out of batteries.

How can I “Get myself ready to go?”

Get your bare essentials in order FIRST. Right when you hit the stage, get your amp turned on, drums set up, and mics working. Don’t spend the first five minutes polishing your gear, or putting extra picks in your pocket, or setting up your drumstick bag yet. First and foremost, get all of your stuff working, make sure you have power, your mics are on, and you’re mostly ready to go. THEN you can take care of the little things, i.e vocal warm ups, getting extra picks, adjusting your snare, tuning your bass/guitar, all that good stuff.

Steps to take:

Figure out how to get all of your essential gear working really fast before you show up at the gig
Don’t let your bandmates mess around while you should be setting up
Organize your stuff so you can set it up faster. Make a routine

Making sure all your stuff is working is very important, even though it may seem like the order isn’t that important. You never know when the announcer might just assume that you’re ready, and say you’re ready to play, or that they might say you have only 10 minutes for set up instead of 20. It just makes you feel safer, knowing that all of your vital gear is up and running.

In summary:

Set up your important gear first
Make sure you have your drumset, guitars, amps, and mics working from the start
Don’t mess around with little things that aren’t as important, you’ll regret it if it makes you forget to set up something important