Archive - July, 2010

What are you going to do if you have a band and someone quits?

July 31, 2010 in John Gilliat "Playing the Guitar" with 0 Comments

I just stumbled upon Ovidiu Oprescu blog. Ovidiu is a fellow guitarist who lost a band member and I shared my thoughts on his blog. I thought I would echo them here.

So… What are you going to do if you have a band and someone quits?

That’s tough! I’ve played in lot’s of rock bands where we’re all good friends and thought we had a vision to go all the way and it just never happened. I finally arrived to the conclusion that if I was going to forge a career in music or just want to play for fun. Playing the music I loved, I would have to figure out a way to do it on my own.

So I grew up playing rock guitar in several top 40 and original rock groups. Did a little touring even studied jazz for a couple of years in a commercial music program in college. I’m not much of a singer but just love playing and improvising on guitar so I created an instrumental group.

I even put down the electric and began playing nylon string. (weird… as I started on nylon, then got my first electric and never thought I’d look back) However after seeing guys like Ottmar Liebert, Al Dimeola, Paco DeLucia, etc… I though I could do something like kind of like that. No Vocals, just playing instrumental guitar melodies all night long and people just might buy a cd or come out to a self promoted concert to support my guitar junkie habit!

Ok, so here’s my point… To make this work I created a group that’s all my own. I’m the guy, the band leader. Then I went out to find a circle of good musicians to play in the band. I have a short list of players I can call on that can jump in and play. By that I mean I have a couple of bass players, drummers, guitarists, keyboard players, etc…

By doing this it’s kept me alive playing my guitar, chasing my dream and if John Doe doesn’t want to play in the group anymore, it’s ok, the band doesn”t have to fold. I can go to my list and I’ll still playing.

The cool thing now is because of this I have a growing network of players everywhere (internationally). I can call up a guitar buddy in USA or Japan to say, hey, I’m going to play in your area would you like to join me for a few performances! Or do you know someone that can sit in a play drums, bass or ??

So it’s truly wonderful to keep playing with the same group of friends but it doesn’t always work out so why not create your own vision and invite players to join in. If they loose interest, it’s ok. There are lot’s of us players that would love to sit in.

Btw… I also get called on by other band leaders to sit in or join the act if a player bails and that’s really cool too! Sometimes it pays and sometimes it’s just for the love of playing

Cheers

Back to Whistler to perform at the Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre

July 29, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I’m heading back up to Whistler, BC to perform at the Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre. I’ll be performing solo guitar from 6pm to 6:45pm. Then I’ll join my trio with Andre Stepanian on flamenco guitar and Lyndon Dewitt on percussion inside in the Great Hall to perform from 6:45pm to 9pm.

I’ll load up the truck today with two sound systems for today’s gig. For the solo performance I’ll plug into my Bose T1 then into my Behringer B212D on a PA stand. In the great hall will use my bigger system with mic’s on the guitars and percussion.

Once I finished setting up in both locations it was time for a quick sound check. Then it was time for my 6pm solo performance. Once I was finished I had a few minutes to eat while the ring dancer was performing. Then at 7pm we began our trio performance in the great hall were we played until the awards speeches at 7:30pm.

Once again we had time for a short break until the speeches ended then we were back on stage to finish the night. We were to end at 8:45pm then to pack up at 9pm. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to leave until 9:45 when the guests departed.

Tonight it was ok to hang around as I didn’t have another gig to get to and I was going to spend the night in Whistler as a little vacation however, the others had to leave (around 9:30) as Lyndon had to get home asap to pack for a flight to Vegas.

Performing at the top of the Hyatt Regency

July 27, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I’m performing solo guitar on the 34th floor of the Hyatt Regency and it looks like I’m playing for the Culinary Olympics in the Sky.

I believe this is an event put on by the hotel to wine and dine the top destination management companies from around the world. It’s the hotels way to showcase their facility to the people that big corporations hire to create a getaway corporate event, seminar, retreat, awards gala or trade show in Vancouver.

Once again, performing on the top floor of a Vancouver high rise is a wonderful experience because of the spectacular view of this beautiful city I live in.

The unfortunate part of this gig was the ambient noise in the room. It’s so loud from the volume of everyone networking that I sometime leave these events with my ears ringing.

So my performance began with me in place, ready to play at 5:30pm and to finish my first set at 7:30pm. I began playing as soon as I saw the first guest arrive at around 5:50pm. After my 7:30 break I was to play from 7:45 to 8:15 then 8:30 to 9pm.

During my breaks I had an opportunity to check out the view and watch the other group performing in another ballroom for the same event.

Once it got to 9pm it was time to pack up and head home. Parking again was very expensive for this event. $29.00! When you factor in gas and AFM dues it really takes a bite out of your net pay. So it’s important to make sure as a corporate performer to charge enough to still make a decent wage after your perceived expenses.

Tune in Wednesday when T and I head back to Whistler to perform at the SLCC with my trio.

Music Success in 9 Weeks – Week 4

July 26, 2010 in Music Success in 9 weeks with 0 Comments

After a successful week 3 it’s time to begin week 4…

This week is all about the power of blogging, twitter, facebook and flickr!

I visited commoncraft.com and watched all the videos recommended by Ariel and yes, these were great. The video’s were all about social networking, rss feeds, wiki, etc… There’s lots of good info here.

Next it’s time to create a blog and this is something I have done and now I’m a daily blogger. Yes, there is a lot of power in blogging! Here’s a couple of examples why blogging is working for me…

#1: I’m now posting new content to my webspace which in turn gives visitors and fans a reason to return to my site to see what’s new with John Gilliat. It’s my own reality web show. I post behind the scene gig pages so people can see and read what it’s like living a guitarist life.

Because of my posts I’m adding content and keywords that is increasing my google ranking and relevant web traffic. I have currently increased my daily traffic from an average of 125 visitors per day to 225. And I know that’s directly related to my blogging.

#2: I had a client contact me because they read a post about a wedding I played. The client was considering the same venue for their wedding and was looking for a guitarist. I was found by a google search for the venue and a guitarist.

Week 4 – Day 2… Now my big task this week is to find blogs related to my music and my guitar style and post comments, I need to be involved with other bloggers and begin developing my social network of like minded bloggers. I’m going to dive in and develop a circle of new blogging friends. I’ll also have to be sure I include the blog sites I comment on to my blog role. My goal this week is to find and comment on 50 relevant blogs!

Week 4 – Day 3… Today I didn’t have any time to find my 50 blogs however, as I’ve been doing regularly I created a new blog post. “Back to Whistler Mountain, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics to perform at the Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre” It’s been a busy day with travel and a gig were I have to set up 2 sound systems, perform in 2 locations, etc… Some days it’s hard to find the time to put my social networking hat on.

Week 5 – Day 4... Today I’m going to learn to take twitter a little more serious. I already have a twitter account http://twitter.com/johngilliat and I’m going to tweet and hook up with new friends here. Also, I have found an app for my blackberry which allows me to tweet anytime/anywhere. It’s a free app called UberTwitter for anyone interested. I can also see what’s new with Twitter friends I’m following.

Week 5 – Day 5… So here’s what’s going on today, Just downloaded and installed twitbin – very cool browser app to keep me up to date tweeting. Also I’m posting to as many relevant blogs as I can find and having fun meeting other bloggers. It’s fun getting involved!

Week 5 – Day 6… Today it’s Flickr day. I wasn’t aware of this photo gallery, social networking site. I checked it out as per Ariel’s book and it looks great! I have re-activated my Google account and will create a Flickr account as soon as Yahoo re-activates me. (I created an account some time ago and never used it. Yahoo takes up to 24 hours to get me re-activated. Then I can create my Flickr account.) I really need a good and easy to maintain photo gallery on my website and blog. This has been a task on my to do list for years. Flickr looks easy to create and I should be able to instantly upload photo’s from my blackberry to my website, blog, facebook page. Keeping my fingers crossed that this comes together easily as it could be a wonderful edition to my internet space!

Week 5 – Day 7… Flickr is up and running visit me on flickr here. Lot’s of work to do here at flickr… upload photo’s join groups and discussions, create galleries, widgets and I need to learn to embed a flicker gallery into my website. (all great stuff, I need more time!)

I almost missed checking the CyberPRMastermind blog this week for the supplement post. I must begin following at least 100 tweeters and need to add Ariels “must have” apps to my facebook account!

In summary the toughest part of this week is finding really good blogs (at least 50) to become involved with, add to my blog roll and post comments to. I’m continuing to forge on with Ariel’s program however there is a lot more on going work to be done from this past week.

Also for others working through Ariel’s Music Success in 9 weeks program, be sure not to miss signing up to be involved with Ariel’s CyberPRMastermind Group/Blog. There are some fantastic supplement posts to each week that you must not miss!

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