Aimee Nolte discussing her tips on keeping gigs.

Summary:
Read your audience
Be kind to people
Be on time
Quit playing too loud
Don't drink /limit drinking
Set your boundaries
Don't show off




Jerryghr

I agree!

Gary

Great stuff and all true. People ask me "what do you play" and I usually answer " whatever the occasion and crowd calls for" . Too many bands have a set list and don't vary. Once saw a DJ at a wedding I was at blasting Bon Jovi during the salad couse of dinner . No clue.

Goes back to something i've mentioned before from the Jersey Shore Legend "Crazy Hughie", the worst most successful musician I ever knew.
1. Read your crowd
2. Music is the best part time business and the worst full time. Have a backup plan.
Loved that guy.

I love Amy's advice, and her humble way of sharing it. She's not the best singer, but her ear, and technique are great. All her children were named for Famous Jazz musicians, Miles, Ella, Louis, and ... I forget the last one

Must be great to grow up in such a musical atmosphere. I'm assuming at least some of her kids took advantage and are players too. I started looking at some of her other vids and I like her laid back approach. didn't run across her singing yet.
Oh, where was this stuff when I was starting out ?

One of the things I have always aspired to be proficient at was reading the audience, which Amy devoted the first half of her entire presentation to. I am so amazed at the number of entertainers, DJs, KJs, etc... that cannot read an audience. This includes a number of high paid wedding entertainers.

Then, as I stated on another post, that Tony Mads disagrees with me on, they crank up the volume to ear bleed to compensate for their inabilities. Amy, agrees with me on this aspect. Play at reasonable volumes, and in all the years I have been on stage, I have only had one person tell me to turn down the volume, and that was a very young manager in Marathon Key, Florida at the Hilton. She said it must be too loud because she could hear me singing in the dining room. I was using the Bose L1 Compact and the coverage was incredible. Yes, she could hear me in the dining room, but it was the same volume as the bar and adjacent lounge area, were people could hold normal conversations and did not complain about the volume being too loud. The dining room was three rooms away and walled off with glass, but that Bose system zipped right through the glass as if it were not there - I was amazed. And, yes, I lowered the volume, but just a bit and no one noticed.

Did I have a beer or two on the job? Yep! But, never more than one or two in a 4 hour period, and these were usually purchased by someone in the audience. Most of the time they sat behind me and got warm - too warm to drink and got dumped out.

Amy is a pretty good singer and musician, but more than that, she's a great entertainer. Love her! Like Amy, my first American Legion job lasted 7 years until the post hired in new manager who turned out to be about 30 years younger than myself. He dumped me for DJs and KJs and the post lounge went from 70 to 80 people on the Friday nights when I performed, to a half dozen drunks at the bar every Friday. Amazing how all this comes into play.

Gary

Bill here is one of her performances with Piano/Bass.


Jerryghr

Gary, if you had read my post correctly, I didn't disagree with you on the "being too loud" issue, I disagreed with the statement that musicians turned the volume up to cover their inabilities ... I said thatI've seen many REALLY talented players play too loud because that's what THEIR audiences wanted ...

PS: In 26 years playing weddings, dances, etc. with the band in NY we were never told we were too loud ... I guess we knew what were doing ...

Jerry

That was right in my area. Didn't know about it but also didn't know about her. Roasting Room is above a coffee shop but like most places don't advertisee much/ You have to look them up to see who's going to be there. I missed Tony Monaco at the Jazz corner last year too.
Thanks for finding it.

As for playing too loud there are many electric guitarists who push the volume level up but it is not just to play loud music. Tube guitar amplifiers take on a different sound quality when they are driven hard. Playing loud produces a very different sound quality. It is not about the volume level. Nowadays there is more development of smaller tube amplifiers to try and get that sound at lower volume levels.

Whenever my band played R&R we put the volume up. Without the volume, and some distortion it was not rock.

A salesman from Gibson guitars brought a prototype of the first distortion pedal. When I asked him what is it supposed to do, he said it gives the effect of a broken speaker. Since I had ben trying to get a stronger clearer sound, I thought he was crazy.

John C.
Nigel, I thought that a distorted guitar sounded very much like a violin through a small amp. ?????

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013A0C0Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I have a box of these at the ready (Orange) for anything too loud including music, snoring, concerts, stadiums, race track,
target range, etc, etc, ... they really work great. problem solved..

He was crazy. A distorted guitar is nothing like a broken speaker. He didn't have a clue. Tube distortion is totally different. Nothing to do with broken speakers. He obviously wasn't a guitarist. And it is nothing like a violin through a small amp. Only a non guitar player would say that.

Or possibly a guitarist who has spent his life playing D’Angelico and D’Aquesto guitars. A different type of music.

The remark, “sound like a broken speaker” was on the very beginning of a distortion guitar sound, few had ever heard the sound of a distortion guitar. At that time a Fender was looked upon as a toy guitar.

Nigel, these remarks were made many, many years ago. I own three distortion pedals and a compression and a delay pedal – times have changed.
John C.

HEY! Maybe we can play "SORRY?"