So you've got a couple guys together in the garage. You've even put some notes to beats, that's cool. But what's next? You obviously want people to hear what it is that your working so hard to put together. That's a freebee tip, by the way - if you don't practice regularly then your not serious and I want you to stop reading this right now. Still here? Good, let's begin!
Recording
The first step to getting heard is to get recordings. There are many different modes of thought that conflict with this, but they're all irrelevant for this tutorial. Now you don't need to call up Universal Records to get a record deal so they'll spend millions of dollars on your very first album. No, it doesn't work that way. Instead you need to start small. Now adays home recordings are taking the industry by storm.
So here's what you do: find a friend or a member of the band who has a mac book with garage band installed (most of them come with it), and bust out a few tracks. This first recording does NOT have to be perfect. Pretty much, your simply trying to portray your ability as a band to potential listeners. Better quality recordings will come later, after some gig money starts rolling in.Band Bio
Okay here's where your high school education comes in handy. There are companies who will offer to write you a superior band bio, but that's called stealing. You should never pay someone to do what you are perfectly capable of doing yourself. You don't want to waste money on things like this when it can be used for more important things. Now to the bio itself: include your band name, style/genre of music, number of members, names of members. instruments, length of band being together, etc... basically you need to tell them everything important. I say important because people don't care about irrelevant things and will stop reading entirely if they are bored. This brings me to another point. Don't be boring! Anecdotes and side storys are okay if they relate to how the band was formed, why your influences are who they are, and so on. You are perfectly capable of writing your story, so write it well.The Perfect Picture
Another necessity is getting a couple band pics taken. Again, don't waste your money going to a professional photographer. If you still go to school, find someone in a photography class to do it. Some times they can use it themselves, so your helping each other. If you don't go to school slap a camera in someones hand and do the best you can. Now the picture itself should represent who you are as a band. This will always be your potential fans' first impression, so make it a good one!
The Internet
The Internet is one of the most wonderful and awful tools that an up and coming band can utilize. I say awful because so many bands are using it that it can be difficult to be discovered among millions of other bands just like you. That said, it is vital that you use every tool that you can, which includes the internet. The first thing that you should do is to build a page to promote your band. You don't need to buy your own domain name yet, cause no one knows who you are anyway. Myspace.com has a wonderful band page builder that I highly recomend. You can go to other people's pages after creating your own and "friend" them, thus showing them your own page and allowing them the opportunity to listen to your music. Also be sure to include your band bio and pictures. This is why recordings, pictures and bio writings are an important first, second and third step; cause you can have the most appealing web page, but with nothing for viewers to listen to or see, your just wasting time.
Get the Gig
Playing shows and gigs is the heart and center of your band. How do you get shows and gigs, you may ask? Getting the gig is fifth on the list because you've got to combine numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 in order to achieve number 5. There are two ways to book your own shows: press kits and electronic press kits. I'll explain the details of a press kit later, but for now simply collect your bio, best picture and best single track on a CD. This is a basic press kit. Depending on where you send it, it may need more but your skeleton is complete. Now what do you do with this? Well head on down to your local bar, resturaunt or other local venue and ask for the manager. When he meets you, present your press kit to him in a proffesional and neat manner - make sure all the pages are crisp and there are no scratches on the CD, you should also put it all in a folder.
Now for the not so outgoing types, there are also electronic press kits. These are basically your MySpace pages. Find venues and promoters on myspace and send "em a message saying how much you"d love to play with them. Promoters are almost always looking for new bands to fill the slots. There's always a catch though. Depending on the promoter you will most likely have to sell a set number of tickets to play the show. This is commonly refered to as "pay to play," and is an archaic trend that should be abolished.
But it still exists today, and part of succeeding is learning to play the game. Just make sure that you fully understand the requirements of the ticket minimums and you should be fine. Once you get the gig, most venues will offer to record your set for a few bucks, which is always a good idea if it was a good show. These are more cost effective ways to get better quality recordings.
