How To Get More Gigs

By the time you graduate from college or conservatory, you will have spent at least half your life developing your skill as a musician. You’ve put in countless hours drilling scales and etudes. You’ve played in orchestras since you wore braces and rode the bus home from school. You’ve stood in front of family, friends, and colleagues and performed recitals with challenging repertoire. You’ve taken auditions and gotten glowing feedback. 

There’s no question you’re a good musician. So why aren’t you getting more gigs?

Colleges and conservatories churn out thousands of musicians each year who are eager to take what they’ve learned and begin a career in the arts. The vast majority of these graduates are competent musicians. Yet anyone who follows their former classmates on Facebook can’t help but notice that many of them no longer work in music. There’s the flute player turned massage therapist. The soprano who is now a Zumba instructor. The cellist pursuing an economics degree and moonlighting as a bartender.

College might teach us how to improve at our craft, but it spits us out into the real world lacking one crucial piece of information: how to actually land work in our chosen field.

If you’re wondering why you don’t have more gigs, it’s most likely not because of the way you play. Here’s how to get more work:

Engage your network of friends and colleagues. 

Here’s a riddle: how can spending $5 on coffee earn you $250?

The answer: find a friend who is doing the work you want to do. Ask them to meet up for coffee. That old friend from school who’s playing with a regional orchestra? A friend of a friend who is always booking wedding gigs? The acquaintance who just started a new chamber orchestra in town? Contact them and invite them for coffee or lunch.

Amid the friendly conversation and catching up, talk about your interests and career goals.  Your friend probably wants to grow their career, too. Often, the person you talk to will have ideas about who to connect you with. You might be surprised to find you have connections that can help your friend, also. Always remember that at the core of this conversation is developing a true friendship, not getting something valuable from them.

But this presents another question: If you haven’t played with these friends before, how do they know you’re actually a decent musician?

Show external proof of your abilities.

Sometimes, musicians hiring others will look at which schools you attended when asking you to play with them. But for many of us, graduation was a dozen or so gray hairs ago. That’s why it’s important to have videos showcasing your abilities as a musician.

The easiest way to do this is to post videos of yourself on social media. 

These videos can be of you actually performing at a concert, but they can also be homemade videos of you practicing.

Working on an orchestral excerpt or a concerto? Post a clip. And here’s something you don’t often hear as a musician: you don’t have to be perfect. It’s our imperfections that make us human, and no one wants to work with a robot.

In addition to posting videos, post about the gigs you play to show the level of ensemble you typically perform with. The modern equivalent of the age-old question of whether a tree falling alone in a forest makes a sound is this: if a musician plays a gig and doesn’t post about it, did it actually happen?

Showcase your identity and personality.

People hire me not just for the usual reasons. Of course, I’m reliable. I respond to emails and texts quickly. I show up to gigs early. I play in-tune and in-time. But that’s the bare minimum required. Nearly everyone does this. 

I can narrow every audition I’ve won and every gig I’ve been asked to play down to 2 reasons: my mellow, chill personality, and that my focus when playing viola is producing a compelling sound.

I show both my personality and my ability as a violist by posting on social media. I use social media not as a forum to lecture or to brag about my accomplishments, but as a place to show my personality and interests and to connect with others. I call out my insecurities too.

Show people that you’re enjoyable to work with and that you're human and they’ll want to work with you.

Because if you’re going to be sitting on stage or at a wedding reception for hours, every one of us would rather do it with someone whose company we enjoy.