The Best Way To Show Your Audience Gratitude

The best way to show your audience gratitude is to put on a great show.

Often times artists go on and on in between each song about how thankful they are to the audience for being there, for buying a ticket, for listening to the music, for sticking with them from year to year…and then proceed to put on a lackluster, underwhelming show.

If you never said “thank you” one time during your show but put on a GREAT show, your audience wouldn’t think a thing about it.  And if they did think a thing about it, they would have just experienced how much you care, as opposed to simply hearing how much you care.

The final spoken words at a show are too often some version of “Thank you SOOOO much, it means the WORLD to us”. 

That’s great. And if you’ve decided that’s how you’d like to end your show, it can be an excellent way. But it’s not required. Or even needed.

What’s needed is for you to put on a great show.

That’s the real thank you.

p.s. I wrote this on Friday and meant to send it out but I got distracted. So if you needed this post on Friday, I’m sorry.  I hope it’s not too late.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

One Million

It’s still impressive, but getting less so.

Because we all know that it’s a cumulative number.

Whether it’s song streams or video plays…the content is online forever.

And if you have forever to get one million, you and everyone else will probably get there.

A million is still important, and you can do a LOT with that if you’re smart. But the longer that Spotify exists, the longer that people still go to YouTube everyday, the more things will have one million.

If you’re going to play the numbers game you’re always going to need more in order to set yourself apart, and then set yourself apart again and again.  And remember while you’re getting more, everyone else is getting more too. 

I hope you get one million. I hope you have a million.

I hope you have millions more.

But even more, I hope you understand what it means and what it doesn’t.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

How It Went vs. What Did We Learn

Instead of asking yourself and rehashing ‘how it went’, you might consider asking and uncovering ‘what did we learn’.

Just going over how it went keeps you stuck inside the event…the show, the meeting, the interview, the phone call.  Things like “It went badly and here’s why” or “It went well and here’s why” limits the full vision for what transpired.  It’s being treated as an isolated event rather than a fluid piece of the overall story.

‘What did we learn’ causes you to gain new perspective, to move forward, to grow from the event into the future.  It makes the event an open box rather than a closed, independent occurrence. 

Coincidentally it’s also a much more optimistic approach than the simple re-hash of events.

When we ask what we learned as opposed to how it went, we are much more likely to take the deepest parts of how it went with us.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

A Release Party

…much different from a Release Show.

Back in the day, every band I knew in Nashville did a release show for every new project.

And it’s not a bad idea.  You’ve got new material people haven’t heard. It’s the day or week that that material is being released.  And you want to celebrate so you have a show.  And a ‘release show’ is a great way to market and advertise for club shows.

Releasing new material IS a big deal and you SHOULD celebrate.

But a release show has all the same logistical headaches, load in/sound check situations, when are we eating dinner, who is all on the guest list problems of every other show.  

And often times all those problems and day-of-show obligations steal the celebration out of the celebratory event.

I want to offer up the idea of a Release Party (maybe in place of, or maybe in addition to).

Get the people together who worked on the project, engineers, producers, their families, management, your agent, your spouse and kids…and have a PARTY.

Buy food and drinks for everyone.  Buy legit food and drinks for everyone. Give a speech as though this project just won record of the century and thank people by name.  Talk about the vision moving forward. Give others a chance to say something.  Tell stories.  Stay up late.

Now that’s a celebration.

I would argue that this is just as good, if not a better way, to celebrate your next release.  It shows you care about both the music AND the lives of team.  

You can’t really go wrong.

So I’ll go so far as to say this is something you SHOULD do next time.

We’re talking about a party here. Do I really need to keep twisting your arm?

Drop me an invite.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Ambition And Sitting Around

Sitting around is not contentment.  

Ambition is not discontentment. 

Most artists get pigeon holed as sitting around a little too much and being perfectly happy, or working a little to much and being wildly unsatisfied.  

We have this (arbitrary) scale in our brains that measures how much someone works and what they SHOULD be getting out of that amount of work.  And we’re oh so quick to judge, aren’t we?

There’s a difference between ambition and selfish ambition.

There’s a difference in sitting around and the relaxation after job well done.

But you already know that.

You probably have the perfect balance.

Contentment comes from both ambition and ‘sitting around’.

No need to fear your ambition.

No need to shame your sitting around.

True life comes from discernment on when to employ which.  And to what degree.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Song Information

If all your show does is inform people of your songs, then you’re doing it wrong.

People don’t go to shows for information, they come to experience, to hope, to levitate even just for a few moments.

There are better ways to be informed of your music than a live show…i.e. your records: the bass is tighter, the vocals are perfectly panned and balanced, that extra synth line is in there, they can rewind if they missed a part or want to hear it again.

But people don’t go to shows for bass compression, appropriately panned vocals, the extra synth line or to rewind a song.

So at your gig STOP informing people of your songs…instead, you need to show them the way. Using your songs and the time in-between your songs.  You must show them the way into the present.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com