Good Band Flyers

Band Flyers That Work

Good Flyer Designs

Flyer’s are a very effective method of promoting your nights to people offline, they also have an easy way of finding their way to your target audience by being left at Venues, Bars, Clubs (the usual places). Getting your Flyer’s to the right people is important, but getting people hooked into reading your flyer with interest can be difficult.

Planning is important when creating a flyer you have a few things to consider –

Flyer size – A4/A5/A6/A7 and Business Card size. When i started i went straight for the A5 size, until one day when someone give me a flyer advertising a car wash. This flyer was a5 aswell and i decided to keep hold of the flyer. I folded up, creased it and ripped it trying to get it into my pocket and when i did it went straight through the washing machine, i then had a light bulb moment. Why not make your flyer’s Business Card size? Now obviously this means all text, images and artwork have to be smaller, but if you design them to be double sided you shouldn’t have a problem. When handing out these flyer’s i noticed a lot of people slipping them straight into their wallet and i never changed back to a5. Not only did more people hang on to the flyer’s but they are also a lot cheaper to produce.

Color and Fonts – Lots to choose from, but i suggest you use the principle Keep It Simple Stupid. Nice Bold Text in an easy to read font and nice vibrant colors. I have seen many flyer’s with crazy looking fonts and unusual colors. I have good eye sight but i struggle to read some flyer’s, consider people who don’t have good eyesight if they cant read the text they wont know what your advertising. Another point i would like to make is that when you hand these flyer’s to people you are taking their attention away from their busy lifestyles, if they cant read the entire flyer within 20 seconds and make a decision whether to keep it or bin it, they will just throw is straight in the bin.

Images and Photos – These provide a good summary of what your flyer is about, i highly recommend you add some form of image to your flyer. If nothing else they make the flyer look more interesting. Be careful what images you use, make sure they are relevant to what your advertising.

Design for your Target Audience – If your designing a flyer for a Punk rock night then make sure it’s obvious in the color, font and design you use. Somebody should be able to walk past your flyer and have a rough idea what it’s about within a split second of looking at it.

Themes – Keep it topical! I once generated lots of interest for a gig purely by theming the flyer. The event was taking place next to Portsmouth Harbour used heavily by the navy. The Event night took place the day after the anniversary of D-Day, so i used a military theme. Purely by having a photograph of a navy boat on the flyer, they went like crazy!

Selling Points- Before you start designing your flyer you need to jot down 3 selling points, 3 points that will make people want to come to your event. Once you have these, you need to make sure these 3 points dominate your flyer design and can be clearly seen above everything else.

Include the important information – Once your flyer’s go to print there is no time to correct any errors. Make sure your flyer includes the following information. Venue, Venue Directions, Time, Dates, Participating Bands, Cost and any special discounts that the flyer offers.

Proof Read, Proof Read, Proof Read

Quick Tip: If you have room, always promote your other upcoming Gigs. If someone can’t make this one, they might be able to make the next one!

A simple summary is to use your common sense, make it attractive to as many people as possible and don’t forget people who might have disabilities

Band Assist - Get a Record Deal Twitter

Hi All

Just a really quick reminder we are on twitter (@bandassist1). That's even more tips, advice and great articles to help you get further in your music carear!

How to improve your solo writing ability

When people solo, they have a few things in mind.... Their primarily thinking about the key of the song that their playing in. The key of the song is the overall note that the song is in. Here's a little trick that works most of the time when determining the key of the song: the chord that the chord progression of a song usually (9 times out of ten) starts with or ends in, is usually the key of the song. For example if a song is in the key of G, that means that I can develop melodies within the G scales, or I know that I could use the G major scale, G mixolydian scale, G pentatonic scale, etc. So remember that the key of the song is "key".

Here's another thing to keep in mind when you're soloing: Keep in mind that when someone solos, they're not hitting as many random notes within the scale as possible, however they are using a couple notes to create melodies and taking breaks between the phrases. Remember that a solo is also composed of the notes that you don't play. So take a deep breath and focus on little tiny melodies that you can make within a particular scale of a song. Don't focus on huge long runs and millions of notes during a given phrase!! Just focus on small, few note, runs. You can throw in more notes as you get better.

Refer back to the Arpeggio for the key of the song. If I'm playing many different style scales over the key of the song, if I refer back to the arpeggio of the key of the song, then I will hit notes that will interest the listener’s ear. What's an arpeggio you ask? Make a G Chord. You know, 3rd fret of the 6th string, 2nd fret of the 5th string, open 4th, open 3rd, 2nd on the 3rd fret, 1st on the 3rd fret... a regular G chord. Then play the 6th string, play the 5th, the 4th, the 3rd, all the way down to the 1st (in other words just strum the chord super slow). You've just played the arpeggio for the G chord! That’s all an arpeggio is. If you throw in notes from a given arpeggio, then you can make the listeners ear perk up and keep their attention. Try it!

Another thing you can throw in when soloing (this is really cool) is when you take the same melody that the person has been singing in the song, and play it on the guitar. This has been done in many songs. Great examples of this are Van Halen's "Higher", The Beatles "I've Just Seen a Face", Mr. Big "To be with you" and many others. It sounds really cool when you through it in.

Performing cool runs and patterns in scales is another cool thing you can mess around with while soloing. For example take the G major scale and play the 1st note, then the 3rd, then the second note in the scale, then the 4th then the 3rd, then the 5th and all the way up... see the pattern? You can also start on the 1st, go to the 4th, 2nd, then 5th, 3rd, then 6th, ya see?, there's a million of these patterns out there. Be creative come up with some. Patterns really make it more interesting instead of climbing up and down the scale... that gets boring to the ear.

Creating a New Band

Creating the ULTIMATE Band

You've got the songs, now all you need are the people to help you bring them to life. You know that finding the right band members is crucial to your success, but where do you begin your search? These tips will point you in the right direction.

1.Ask Around

You may already know your bandmates - you just don't know you know them. Some of your friends already in bands might be looking for a change, or they might know of other people who are looking for a gig. What makes this way of finding a bandmate good is that you "know the deal" about someone before they join the band. If so-and-so is a great bass player but has never turned up for a soundcheck on time in their life, now is the best time to find out. Finding band members through your local music scene grapevine means you can be more confident about finding someone reliable - or at least have a heads up.

2.The Record Shop

Where do music types like to gather? The record shop, of course! Or the instrument shop or another music related shop. Most of these places, especially the independently owned ones, will have message boards where you can advertise for band members. Be sure to put a little bit about your music on the advertisement, or at least some info about bands that you like, and don't forget to include some way for interested people to contact you. Asking the staff of these stores is another way to find people looking for a band.

3.The Internet

Websites like Craigslist and MeetYourBand.com are filled with ads from people looking for a band to join. Browse through the lists of musicians in your area who are interested in finding a band with whom to play, and place your own ad seeking band members. Include the same information you would on an advertisement on the record store message board. You can also visit musician's forums, like our own to advertise.

4.Studios/Rehearsal Rooms

Put a call in to the recording studios and rehearsal spaces in your area and let the people there know you are looking for musicians. See if they have a space where you can come by and post an advertisement for your band. The staff at these places know who is playing with which band and who is looking for a new gig, and they can be a great resource for you. Even if you haven't actually used the studio or the rehearsal space before, don't shy away from approaching them in your search for your band members.

5.Poster the Town

Stick advertisements up all over town, in places where you think likeminded musicians may frequent. Coffee shops, book shops, college campuses, clubs and venues - the key is to let people know you are looking. Get the word out there!

Tips:

1.You may want to set up a special email account just for people to use to respond to your advertisements, especially if you plan on putting up ads all over in town in non-music related places, so you can avoid that guy who pulled your contact info off your ad on the coffee shop wall to try and sell you an insurance policy.

2.When you advertise, be as specific as possible about the kind of music you want to play. It's a waste of time for the jam band guy to show up at the metal band audition, and so on. You want people in your band with whom you share a lot of musical interests so you're more likely to have the same "vision".

3.Take the time to find band mates who can not only play, but that you genuinely like as well. Remember, if all goes well, you could be spending quite a lot of time with these people. No one likes spending 12 hours crammed in a van with someone they can't stand. Your shows will be better if everyone likes and respects each other.

4.Be clear about your expectations of a band member. How many practices a week do you plan to have? Will everyone get to have some creative input, or is there only one songwriter? It is very important to figure these things out in advance. Also, if you're serious about making a go of things with the band, let people know up front that you expect a certain amount of professionalism. Tell people you expect band members to get to the show or practice on time, well rehearsed, and ready to play.

5.If there are to be band related expenses, like travelling to shows, now is the time work out who pays for what.

Fill Your Next Gig

Fill Your Gig

Promoting your band’s website locally is about getting more people to come to your gigs (if you don’t gig, don’t bother), it’s usually only locals who’ll turn up and support you. By promoting your band’s website locally you are also promoting your band locally - it works best if you’re hands-on, real world, for instance, if you want to get a link from the local press or local radio, it would help if your band proactively supports a local charity.

Local is the area around your favourite venue (the venue you like and play most) or your town. Get a map. Find the venue or town centre. Draw a circle with a radius of about 25 miles (about 40 kilometres) around the venue or town centre. That’s local. 25 miles represents the distance people would be prepared to travel to see an independent band in the UK. Because of the transport infrastructure and familiarity with commuting, you can have a 35 mile radius around a London venue (same in most large cities). Bands who operate in large cities have a big advantage - of course you don’t have to target everyone!

1. Swap links and get involved with local: businesses, charities, record shops, fashion shops, cafes, pubs, clubs, venues. Get links from local: press, radio.

2. (Legally) Hand out, post, pin up, stick and drop (accidentally!): flyers, stickers, business cards, button badges - in and around: schools, colleges, universities, record shops, fashion shops, cafes, pubs, clubs, venues and churches. Include your band’s name, website address and free gift details.

3. Team-up and collaborate with 5 or more local bands of the same or complementary genre and promote each other online and offline.

4. Use the networking communities (esp. Facebook, MySpace, ReverbNation) to communicate with the locals. Always make your website The focal point.

5. Create a mailing list / database of fans, friends and family, target those within your locale and ask them for support. And don’t forget, if you can’t make it locally with the support of your fans, friends and family, you’re not going to make it anywhere!

The Importance of Websites

We are often asked if in the times of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter whether you really need your own website. Our answer is always the same.Band websites are extremely important. Having your own domain name is also a key to your success. Let us show you just a few reasons why:

Band Website vs. MySpace/Facebook/Other

First of all, you never want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Relying on a service like MySpace, and not having your own website is extremely dangerous. Many bands think that due to MySpace's popularity, it's the website that they should focus all of their time and energy on. Yes, MySpace/Facebook,etc is important for musicians, but relying on someone else's service can be a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off. What would happen if MySpace was suddenly shut down? It's not as impossible as it may seem. Just think of all of the problems that MySpace has had, with predators using the social-media site for preying on people and how much trouble MySpace has gotten into with parental-control groups. Having your own site, and mailing list eliminates a lot of those issues because you have complete control of what happens to your site and gives you the ability to contact your fans, should something go wrong with MySpace (or similar sites). One other reason why it is important that you have your own domain name, is that it's usually much easier to remember than a MySpace URL!

Your Band's Domain Name

You want to have a domain name that is easy to remember; hopefully your band's name, if it is available. You'll want to put it on everything that your band puts out, postcard mailers, flyers, cds, t-shirts, everything! Matter of fact, make some t-shirts up and wear them all the time! You also want to make sure that every person you know, knows your web address. Make absolutely sure that your fans are told, many times a night, what your website is...and tell them to go there!

Registering Your Band's Domain Name

Registering your own domain name is no longer expensive (under £10/year for .com's). Some of the most popular domain registration sites out there also have web hosting available.

Quick Singing Tips

How can you get high quality and have great result if you have no practice? Follow the simple tips and do it with full of love.

1.) Rehearsal- remember all the basic vocal warm up exercises and do it 1hour before you perform.

2.) Meditation- Sit alone in just 5minutes is sure that no one will bother you. Close your eyes and imagine the wonderful moments of your life. Like for example, you are going to sing and you expect to have a great result.

3.) Smile- Don't show to everybody that you are tense or feel nervous. Let them know that you are prepared for the battle and willing to do everything no matter what happen.

4.) don’t think too much- Over excitement and anxious can cause stress and the energy you have will decrease. So, at the time you perform it might be you sing of no emotions.

5.) be natural- Use your own technique and style. Be sure that 100% original. Good luck!

Stage Craft Secrets

Stage Craft Secrets

You have the tunes, you have the gig now comes the difficult task of marrying the 2 together so your show becomes an “Event”. Something that is talked about for days, weeks or years to come and a display that lives long in the memory of those in attendance. How do you achieve such a feat? Stage craft! And here are our top tips:

KNOW THE MUSI C INSIDE OUT

The first essential is to make sure you’re absolutely on top of the

music. This is the physical or technical side of self-confidence. You

have to free yourself from worrying about whether you play the

right notes or sing the right words. This means rehearsing to the point where

you can almost play without thinking about what you’re doing. Here are a

couple of pointers to help you.

PRACTICE AS IF YOU’RE PLAYING LIVE -

To get ultra comfortable with your material rehearse as if you’re gigging.

This means sticking to the set list in terms of which songs and the order you

rehearse them. You can work out song starts (who does what), where there are

potential problem areas (down-tunings, guitar switches etc).

Playing the set-list when you’re practising is the same as a “dress rehearsal”

and will itself help ease any stress on gig-night. When it comes to the gig

you’ll have been through the same songs in the same order in rehearsal

countless times before. This will increase your confidence and technical mastery

just like playing gig after gig.

HANDICAP YOUR REHEARSALS

You can make performing feel much easier on gig night and so increase your

confidence by “handicapping” yourselves at rehearsals. Rehearse without

letting your singer check out his lyric sheets or guitarists stare at fret boards.

This will also help keep your focus where it needs to be when the time comes

to play live: Out towards your audience!

Drummers and guitarists can also handicap themselves with weights on their

wrists. You don’t want to overdo it and risk injury of course, so you can for

example, use a heavy watch and/or wristbands when you rehearse. You then

leave your wrists bare and so lighter and easier to play with whenever you gig.

RELAX ONSTAGE

Onstage you’ll perform and relate to your audiences better

if you’re feeling relaxed. Crowds can often tell when a

performer is uptight or anxious and it can make them

uncomfortable too. Concentrate on your breathing pattern as this is a key to your feelings of either

tension or relaxation. Once you’re aware of your breathing, just deepen it and

slow it down. This will naturally dissolve feelings of tension and replace them

with calmness. You have to keep on top of it as you’re learning and gaining

performance confidence. Repeat it over and over. Eventually, like most habits

you develop, you’ll find it’s become second nature.

However, all of the advice in the world can’t beat experience. So accept every gig offered and learn by experience.

Unsigned Promotion Advice 2011

It’s a tough time to be a musician, or the right time, depending on who you’re listening to.

Whether you’re afraid or fearless, one thing that’s certain is that a little advice on being a musician in the digital age won’t go amiss.

Hence this 5 tip mash up, geared towards helping you navigate the digital market as a DIY musician.

1. Drive your live audience online

Interaction with the audience during live performances is key: it helps you connect with your fans. It’s also a great time to increase your online following, so be sure to let your audience know about your website, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any other social sites where you can be found.

2. Content is the most important aspect of a website.

The most important aspect of any website is quite obviously the content and presentation. If you’re creating your own musician’s website ensure that your font is both consistently legible and professional looking. Images, video and music are all acceptable forms of content – and should represent who you are as a musician. Don’t forget to leave links to your social networking sites like YouTube, Twitter and Foursquare.

3. Website Rule #1: No flash!
   Flash doesn’t just get in the way of your content. It’s also not compatible with many browsers. Sure Flash websites are good-looking, but what good is a site that can’t be accessed by everyone? It’s best not to forget that your website is a place for fans to go when want to learn more about you and to make a connection.
   
4. Email marketing is effective

This being the age of social media, you’d be quite surprised to find that email marketing is still very effective. The below chart shows not just how well email marketing works, but how it is used in other business.

Use emails to remind fans of upcoming gigs, connect on tour, or to announce upcoming releases.

5. Follow 25 new people a week on Twitter

This is an easy way to increase your followers on Twitter. We suggest following 25 new people that you’d like to follow you on Twitter each week. Don’t forget though that you need relevant followers, so start by adding your favourite music magazines and work your way up to people following bands/ acts similar to yours.

Guitar Effects Advice

Guitar Effects Advice

Guitar effects pedals can add a whole range of tones and sounds to a guitarist playing that would not otherwise be achievable. It is quite possible for a guitarist to spend more on their effects than on their amp or guitar to sculpt the correct tone. Pedals can also degrade tone quality, so understanding how to set them up is important to minimizing these issues.

1. The "Best" Pedal

o The tone qualities of pedals are subjective, so there is no such thing as a best one. Any well built pedal is likely to have a guitarist get more out of it. Even having a larger range of settings is not necessarily a good quality for everyone. A distortion pedal with a higher level of gain will work for someone that will turn it up, but for lower gain users, it would not usually allow the same level of fine tuning as a pedal with a smaller range. Advice on reliability and quality is useful when looking at pedals, but tone and function are subjective from player to player.

Pedal Order

o The order of effects pedals is important, but there is no single correct setup. Changing the order of the pedals will usually alter the tone and the function of the effects when combined. A volume pedal in front of many pedals will alter the signal strength going into the pedal, which can greatly alter how that effect functions (particularly with something like distortion or overdrive), while a volume pedal after an effect will alter the signal strength, but mostly maintain the tone characteristics of that pedal.
The most significant exception to this rule are tuners, which function the best at the front of the chain (or in the separate tuner loop that is a feature of some amps). Tuners need to measure the pitch of the guitar strings, and will be much better able to do this with as pure of a signal as possible. Tuners are not going to provide a good reading after many effects, since many of them do have a minor effect on pitch.

True Bypass and Buffered Effects

o There is a misconception that true bypass is automatically a good feature on a guitar effect pedal. In some cases this is true, but in other cases, a guitarist would likely be better off with at least some buffered effects. True bypass pedals basically route the signal directly from the pedal input to output when the pedal is off. A buffer pedal will have the signal go through some circuitry, even if the pedal is off.
True bypass pedals are usually better for guitarists with only a handful of pedals. Passing the signal through buffer circuitry will alter the sound a little bit, but true bypass is not all that different in tone from passing through a guitar cable. On the other hand, guitarists with massive pedal boards will find that adding buffered pedals to the mix will help improve the signal clarity and definition. If only true bypass pedals are used in these longer chains, then it ends up being equivalent to passing the signal through a long enough guitar cable that the signal will start to degrade. Buffered pedals help to maintain the signal strength through these longer pedal boards by helping to boost and clear the signal.

One for wannabe rappers

So we have been criticised a little recently for ignoring rappers. So here’s a blog just for you on free style rap techniques.

You can find freestyle rap tips that beginners can quickly understand. Freestyle is 1 of the extremely remarkable music genres. This is really an aspect of rap music where the rapper creates a verbal rhyming and presents it a song. In case you want to understand the best way to freestyle rap well, it makes a strong sense to have fantastic understanding of words and have the capacity to put them into songs, rhythm and tunes. Most importantly, you also need to know far more about beats.

In freestyling, the words are actually not pre-written and the rapper creates sentences with words that rhyme. Then he has to think the next words and lines when he sings a specific line. With this in mind of a beginner, he surely thinks that this is something so hard to practice and perfect. Others would even thought of this as the toughest and challenging style to compose songs. There are even some people taking years before they perfect their freestyle rapping techniques.

Here are fantastic and successful freestyle rap tips it is possible to try to take a look at today so you can start building your career.

* Enrich your Vocabulary - without a good vocabulary, it is impossible for you to be the most effective freestyle rapper. Your vocabulary is certainly 1 of the most substantial tools of rappers. As freestyle means delivering words and sentences on the spot, it is vital to determine the numbers of words you'll be able to use in your songs. Try to discover and memorize words that rhyme. It enables you to master the music style. The much more knowledgeable you are with much more words, the greater are your chances of becoming a good freestyle rapper in the world.

* Discover the right basics of freestyle rapping - After having plenty of vocabulary words, the next thing essential to know is how freestyle is supposedly to be done. The delivery of words is one of the most important factors in freestyle rapping. It is therefore important to pronounce each and every word clearly so your listeners won't find it hard to understand your message. It is not advisable to be in a hurry when completing one sentence that move to the next one. The words should be retained free flowing. The simple way to do this is take note of the words you learned, play with them and create sentences out of it.

* In freestyle rap, an additional essential factor that need to be considered to successfully produce excellent rap songs is beats. Along with the rhyming words, it's crucial to focus as well on the beats and rhythm. As you've got everything in place, you can now try to put them altogether within the song and sing with the beats. Drum machines are commonly used to produce good beats.

Now that you know quite well freestyle rap tips, it is possible to start making an impressive song that can surely mark the beginning of your rapping career.

Keep your Fans!!

Keep Your Fans!

Don't Ignore Your Fans on Social Media. Respond With Enthusiasm.

When you start posting frequently, fans and others will respond with comments of their own. Respond back, acknowledge them and be positive, enthusiastic and encouraging. If folks respond to your comments and you repeatedly ignore them, some are bound to take it personally. Always engage your fans. If they comment on a song or an album of yours, thank them and let them know you appreciate it.

Tell your fan their comment made your day and in doing so you'll make their day. Just think - every day you can chat with dozens of total strangers, encouraging them to share your music with their friends and family. Do you realize the power of this? If a hundred people are following you, that's a hundred people you can ask, via your status update, to spread the word about your music. With social networking, you always have a crowd at your fingertips. Work the crowd. This will put you so far ahead of the pack as 99% of unsigned acts do not do this effectively.

Band of the Month

This month the coveted Band Assist Band of the Month award goes to indie upstarts; Spray on Jeans. We caught up with the guys for a quick interview!

How did you guy’s form?

Four of us went to the same school, we were a 3 piece at first but then we found joe, our singer and steve, rhythm guitar.

“Weekend Lover” is an awesome track and demonstrates a very unique style – how did that track come about?

Our drummer actually wrote weekend lover and after a few days together we patched it all up.

Tell us about your last gig?

The last gig we played was at cosa nostra, Sunderland, we played with a few other bands, including Where's Strutter from Manchester and 12 Dirty Bullets from London.

What is your general writing process?

At the moment since finding our own sound and what we wanted to be heard as, we all contribute to writing the songs. Usually we practice twice or three times a week working on our own stuff, hopefully an EP will be out soon with around 5-6 tracks on it.

What do you find most difficult about being an unsigned act in 2011?

We would say the most difficult thing about being unsigned in 2011 is being unsigned, everyone knows how difficult it is too get a deal but you haven't got to give up.

What are your top tips for other unsigned bands?

Other unsigned bands like us, all you can do is keep doing gigs, working hard, and when you do get an opportunity take it.

What is your fantasy band line up?

Fantasy band line up would have to be, chad smith (drummer) from the RHCP, Jimi Hendix, matt bellamy (muse) and Alex turner (arctic monkeys), although im not sure it would quite work.

Tell us an amusing band story

An amusing band story, all i can think of is the time after a hard days practice we decided to go out in the car, with the acoustic guitars, we would sit somewhere and play our tunes. Didn't know that somewhere would be a chinese take away. We walked in casually, ordered our food, sat down and started to play. It was very amusing as no one new what we were doing. We sat opposite a middle aged man and he just sat there as if nothing was happening.

What are your views on Band Assist?

Band assist is a great way for unsigned musicians to get help whilst trying to gain a bit recognition.

What’s next for you?

Next for Spray on Jeans we will be working hard towards the Skinny Twins festival where we are supporting the Futureheads and the Stranglers, and trying to get our EP out in the coming months.