How do you handle one-off gigs

[CEB]

I take 5”x8” plain white index cards (plain, no lines).  I make a number charts for each tune. (A,B and C sections, intro outro bridge refrain…. Whatever I might need.  I may include notes on zone or patch or management.    This is way quicker than trying to type charts. 
 

I use the traditional Roman numeral system so the chart is good in any key or for modulations.  
 

I take pictures of the cards and load them into tablet software.  I require the band has a Setlist for the gig so I can have the charts and Kronos Setlist in tune order.  

 

If it’s a piano and/or organ gig then that makes things way simpler.  I can usually just use a single PC4 quick access bank and an organ and not mess with that big ass Korg. 

 

I try to take a vacation day for cramming.  

[Piktor]

12 hours ago, obxa said:

  I too make Finale charts for everything, more often than not If I get asked back,  I'm covered for next time.

As other mentioned, charting the song helps me learn it better.   

I’ve done that for exactly the same reason. The amount of time it took to make charts was the same as the amount of time it would take to memorize the songs for that one performance. I wonder, though, if some of the non-reading players get a weird impression of the guy with the charts. 
 

Of course, the approach does depend on the complexity of the material and, if I was playing cover tunes frequently, I’d eventually have more songs stored in my head. If this was my bread and butter, I’d put more effort into expanding my repertoire. I almost never spend my limited time learning music that I don’t love or expect to perform.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, mate stubb said:

I was forever cured of pick up gigs by the last one I did with a local long running band. We had one rehearsal the night before, and I learned that I came better prepared than the regular players were.  

That was a major red flag. 

 

It's best to know the capabilities of the musicians involved before taking the gig.

 

Surprised that band lasted so long locally when it reads like they weren't very good.

 

Sitting in with a bad band could definitely be a turn off to taking pick-up gigs.😎

[obxa]

11 minutes ago, Piktor said:

I wonder, though, if some of the non-reading players get a weird impression of the guy with the charts. 

I think if you're reading Brown Eyed Girl,  probably. .    But originals, or more complex stuff I'll take my chances.    Not to sound uppity, I think what we do as keyboard players is a bit more involved than say, the bass player.  I come across several great players  who also do one-offs and do a lots of other stuff.    Happens in ministry, many people assume all you do is Church stuff.   One- offs can sometimes be a great way to network.   But as mentioned, can also suck.  There are some people and bands I know better to never accept, no matter the pay.  You live and learn, or you find out from others who to avoid. 

 

Being down here I encounter a fair amount of Nashville players and artists, and they of course love number charts.  I'm ok with those for doing a session, but hate them for gigs.  

 

Charts don't have to be published quality, whatever works.  When in a crunch and doing super simple stuff,  sometimes use this free custom emoji font on my ipad/iphone:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/song-memo/id1459218009.  Works in it's own app, or as alternative emoji/font , providing chord, measure symbols perfect for shorthand. 

 

 

[Moonglow]

I’m usually too busy to devote the time needed to do a “one-off” gig, but have done a handful of them over the years. I first ask to see the band’s master song list and suggest doing as many of the tunes I know or have played before. I really try to hold firm on this, as it reduces my work load (and stress) for just one gig. I then learn the songs they want to play that I don’t know, and as others have mentioned, I make detailed charts. I don’t mind learning a challenging song or two, but if there are some that involve too much work, I advise that I won’t be learning those songs. I also advise that I generally will just do the agreed-upon songs, and if they want to “call an audible” at the show I’m not comfortable with, I will happily “go get a beer” during those songs. If asked, I will make myself available for one rehearsal. I do my best to be crystal clear regarding any expectations they have of me, and if the above parameters are not acceptable, I simply decline the gig, and try to recommended someone who may be more familiar with their repertoire, no hard feelings. 

 

[U.Honey]

My problem is that I’m a Yes-man. I’m getting asked to sub for gigs and I can’t say no. So, again I said yes to sub for a band that I’ve subbed before, and I thought that It will be an easy one since I played with them before. Then I got the setlist and yes, they have completely rebuilt the setlist. There are about 20 songs I’ve never heard before. I swear next time I’ll say no, but since it’s too late to refuse, and I couldn’t do it anyways because I’m a Yes-man, I’ll have to start working on it, like this:

 

1. Search the net to find a sheet or chord chart. I have iReal - iPad app which has pretty large catalog of tunes. If that doesn't work then,

2. Write a chord chart, or if there are signature keyboard lines I might notate then. By making a chart/sheet I’m 50% done learning and memorizing it too.

3. If it’s particularly important gig, or I want to make an impression like I actually knew how to play the keyboards, I’ll make a Spotify playlist and then play that in the car etc. so I get the songs memorized.

 

Then I’ll just promise myself to never say yes again, until the phone rings…

[ShadowMan]

I just love getting a fill-in gig set list in advance without any keys indicated… and being told “we do it the same as the recording.”

 

Only to find out at the gig - after a song starts - that they’d of course changed the key.  

[stillearning]

I take em just to challenge myself and for fun. You never know what will happen, and who you might meet. I do insist on an emailed and printable set list, with song keys shown. If it’s a song I’m unsure of/never played before, I chart it on plain paper, then scan it into forScore on my iPad. Otherwise, I wing it and have fun.
 

Typically take minimal gear: Nord Stage 3 88, stand, pedalboard, and either powered speakers or my in-ear setup depending on their PA. If it’s not mounted and prewired on the pedal board, it stays home. I can set up in about 10 mins. Do this once in a while, and your name gets passed around and you meet some great musos in the process! More fun than being a full time member in a band for me. Been there, done that at my age (70 later this year).

[Greg Mein]

I've actually enjoyed doing fill in and one off gigs but only if I'm given enough time to prepare. I've developed a really good process for nailing down parts and learning songs that includes a couple of computers, at least one interface, YouTube, Digital Performer (because I know it best) and Ableton Live for its ability to retune audio source files.

 

 

[Dave Keys]

Really enjoying this thread. There's nothing worse than the band that hires you for 2-45min sets, but gives you a list of 50 songs (my regular Soul/Funk Band tends to be 2x1hr sets and about 32 songs). You then try to find out which ones they are actually most likely to play and hope for the best.

 

The worst though are bands that come up with clever complex little segues, which I'm sure work great when it's the original lineup, but when you're a dep, these can be a real pain. In any case, since when did anyone ever go, 'hey, you know all those wonderful hits of the 60's, 70's, 80's. Wouldn't it be great if we chopped out all the choruses from them and merged them into some homogenous mess, because lets face it people just don't have time to hear the individual songs as they were meant to be played'.

 

Regarding keys, I've got perfect pitch, so can't use the transpose button, because If I play a C and it comes out as a Bb my hands will automatically move to 'correct' this.

 

With all this said, it is great to dep for bands on the whole, and it can often lead to further work. I'm slightly off the radar in my area at the moment so will be taking any one off deps that I possibly can. 

[jazzpiano88]

12 hours ago, Dave Keys said:

Regarding keys, I've got perfect pitch, so can't use the transpose button, because If I play a C and it comes out as a Bb my hands will automatically move to 'correct' this.

I thought I was the only one with this affliction 😄.   I can usually get away with a half step because my muscle memory isn’t that great in say C#.   But once I got good at playing Hymns in Eb Ab F# Db via years of playing the piano in church, the transpose button was over for me.    I’d be playing the right notes in the transposed key and would need to do a double transpose to compensate!!!  
 

The worst was when I’d transposed a song in E to Eb for a singer and forgot to set it back for the Regular Church Pianist.  I had to quickly sneak up to the stage and fix it with few being the wiser.    This was an Avant Grand type machine.  
 

Man but that Avant  Grand sounded glorious blended with my SK1 73.   I ran the organ aux in to the piano along with MIDI and used the expression pedal.     For some reason I’ve never had an issue playing organ comp with piano action.  I think it’s the opposite of poeple who have no trouble playing a piano sound with an organ or synth action (which I can’t do).    
 

This was a church I would happily travel 6 hours down to sub at any time in the future the music was that good.  Musicians and singers were outstanding and it was like fitting in to a perfect gig!  Would always either know the music already, or have the title and arrangement to pick off of YouTube.  

[dazzjazz]

For me, there’s two kinds of these “one-off gigs”

 

1. 3-4 people who know how to play get together and just call tunes and generally have a ball. I love these gigs. 
2. I have to learn a bunch of difficult stuff and be prepared to perform it with no rehearsal. These can be stressful, especially the lead up. Always goes well as I tend to over-prepare but I could definitely do without the stress. 

 

whatever doesn’t kill you…

[BEMcCut]

I get calls to fill in because musicians in my area call because I have the reputation of being able to learn a bunch of songs quickly and sing harmony on the fly.  My last call was for New Years Eve to double on keys and guitar. The bands keyboard player quit a week before. I did one 2 hour practice with the guitar player.  I used chord charts on my iPad but I only needed it for a few songs. To complicate things I was doing a solo acoustic guitar gig in the afternoon.

[stillearning]

3 hours ago, jazzpiano88 said:

I thought I was the only one with this affliction 😄.   I can usually get away with a half step because my muscle memory isn’t that great in say C#.  

I’m another one. I can use the transpose button for a half step, sometimes a whole step. Never more than that. Transposing a 4th or 5th is asking for trouble. Ain’t gonna happen.

[Adan]

As some have already said, there easy and and fun one-offs, and then there are ones where the effort is disproportionate to the fun. As a part-time musician, the latter just doesn't make sense for me. There's no point in me networking to get other gigs that I can't do anyway because the extra gigging activity will cause my wife to divorce me (which is where finances really go into the red).

 

So for me this comes down to being able to predict which kind of one-off it's going to be.  Usually a 10-minute conversation with the BL and ideally at least one other bandmember gives me enough information to decide.

[Dave Bryce]

Here’s my version of this type of thing - when a band I’m in wants to do a song that requires most of the learning and/or programming be done by me…and, inevitably, after a whole lot of prep on my part, when we do try to play it live (with no rehearsal), they’re nowhere near as prepared as I am, and we end up only doing it once or twice.

 

A couple examples would be Kashmir and Won’t Get Fooled Again.  The latter was really annoying for me - I had to have the organ sound triggered by LFO when I was the only one playing, then switch to manual 8th notes modulated by a phaser when the band was playing because our drummer refused to play with a click.

 

However, the worst one was having a club owner who was friends with our singer request that we learn to play Pink Floyd’s Dogs.  Waaaay too long for a non-Floyd bar gig, way too much keyboard programming and not a lot of effort required from the other members…so, I’d have had to spend a bunch of time programming sounds for a 20 min song so we could play it at one gig because one guy requested it…

 

… and I even already knew how to play it end to end acoustic guitar.

 

I refused.  Hilarity ensued.  😒

 

I even offered to do an unplugged version, but noooooo - they wanted an “authentic” version.🙄

 

dB

 

 

 

 

[NewImprov]

Great topic! I generally avoid one-off gigs, but every now and then I'll do one, generally based on my relationship with the band, I have a hard time saying no to friends. This can lead to great gigs, and sometimes, not-so-great.

 

A great gig: There was a great Led Zeppelin tribute band that played around my area for about 10 years. I caught a bunch of their shows, and loved their approach. They broke up, and, after about a year, decided to do one last show. Their bassist, who had handled the keyboard parts ala JPJ, hadn't been playing keys, and didn't feel comfortable, so they enlisted me to play on about half their set. Got to play, among others,  Misty Mountain Hop, Trampled Under Foot, Thank You, and, my personal favorite, Kashmir, where I got to cop all the mellotron/string parts. One of the running gags with this band was that they never played Stairway, so, for the last encore of the night, they played it for the first time, and I got to play on it. Amazing gig!

 

A not-so-great gig: THis was while I was still mostly playing bass. There was a long-time band in the area that had a huge book of eclectic material, everything from the Dead to the Allmans to Talking Heads to Little Feat, to classic jazz and blues. They never did set lists, and they'd call tunes as they played, and sometimes tried to playfully mess each other up. Fun band, and the guys were all long-time friends of mine. They had a biggish show coming up, and their bass player had a medical emergency, so they asked me to fill in. We would have one 90-minute rehearsal, but the show was only 2 hours, so I figured I could make it happen. I tried to get the members to give me lists of the tunes they'd likely cover, each band member I asked gave me a different list. At the rehearsal (these guys never rehearsed), one of the guitar players started playing a jazz tune, I think it was "Well You Needn't", the band falls in, everybody takes extended solo choruses (all 3 guitarists(!)), we probably spend 30-40 minutes jamming that tune. When it finally ended, the band leader says, "Well, we're definitely not playing that at the show." I'm like, WTF dudes, I have a limited rehearsal time with you, and this is how you spend it?

 

The show was kind of a trainwreck. It turned out they did a lot of the tunes in different keys than the records, and, of course, nobody told me. Felt like the whole time I was barely hanging on. A bit later, they asked me to join the band, but, since I was friends with most of the members and wanted to remain so, I politely declined.

[wineandkeyz]

For every band situation, I use a spreadsheet to organize my mental notes, chord changes, patch numbers, tricky spots, etc. for each each song. Then I convert the spreadsheet to a PDF and load it into an iPad Mini that rests on the panel of my lower keyboard.

By default, I sort the spreadsheet alphabetically, which is easy to scroll through during a show. If the band provides a set list, I'll also make a second PDF with the songs sorted accordingly -- although I often end up jumping out of that PDF to the alphabetical sort when the band veers from its regularly scheduled program.