As musicians, sometimes we have to make our own luck. If we don’t step up, months can go by between concerts. Instead of waiting for concerts to magically appear, we must learn to ask for what we want.

Step One: Preparation

If you’re going to order a gig, you want to look like a professional musician. Prepare a CD or take your digital recordings and laptop with you. By preparing a CD or audio recordings, we mean making clean audio recordings that are on par with the recordings you would release for sale, edited to remove background noise and professional sound quality. The more professional your music sounds, the more likely you are to walk away with a new gig.

Step Two – Research

Have you ever heard the phrase “Know your enemy”? While the hopes are to turn the owner of the venue into a new ally, at this point you should consider getting the gig as a conquest. Assume that the owner of the place is going to try to shoot down the idea, and be prepared with responses that could put his foot in the door. Better yet, kill the arguments before they arise.

If you’re trying to get a gig at a local nightclub, visit a few times and get an idea of ​​how busy they are. If the owner says, “I don’t think we have enough business for this,” you can say, “Really? I was here last week and the place was packed.” This little exchange might get you in the door, but it could have been avoided by saying “I was here last week and noticed you do a very good business. There must be at least a hundred people here all night and that’s the guy.” It’s the crowd I like to play in front of, so I thought I wanted to come meet the guy who can draw a crowd like that.”

In this example, you did two things: you avoided the quick answer NO, and you made the owner of the place feel obligated to help you. If you just told him that he’s doing good business, how is he going to say that he’s not doing enough business to justify giving you a job?

Step three: don’t ask, tell.

I know the title is asking for gigs from the venue owners, but the truth is that when you ask for a gig in the form of a question, you are preparing yourself for the quick NO. We are asking for the concert, but it must be done in a different way.

Don’t say “Can I play here Friday night?” Instead, say “I’d like to play here on Friday night. What time can I set up my team?” Yes, it sounds broken. Yes, he is aggressive. But if you followed the advice in step two, you’ve already told the landlord why there’s no reason you shouldn’t get the gig. Being direct in telling them when you want to act further reinforces their feeling of being obligated to comply with their request.

You can get any gigs you want. All you have to do is ask for them.