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Getting Gig Ready with Shane Guse
Jan. 31, 2024
Print | PDF- Location: 190 Lester Street, Waterloo
- Date: Sat. March 9, 2024
- Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (3-hour workshop)
- Cost: $80 (WLU staff, faculty, and students, use code WLU70)
- Ages: 16+
So, you play an instrument, and someone asks you if you would like to sit in with their band, jam, or maybe they want to hire you for a gig.
Sounds like fun, right? Maybe a little scary?
This is something you want to do, but you have questions. “Getting Gig Ready” is a workshop designed to give aspiring musicians a glimpse into today’s gigging world and help them to prepare for it.
All from a musician who is using these exact tools every day to maintain a successful career as a working musician. We’ll touch on some of the skills that make preparing for a gig easier and quicker. Practice methods that will help you retain material faster.
How to write charts that won’t have you flipping pages mid song and can be transposed into any key on the fly without needing to be re-written. Skills to work on, like ear training and improvisation, that give you the versatility and freedom to react with your fellow musicians in real time, allowing you to be more creative and in the moment.
How to “play well with others”, and some of the bandstand etiquette that will make you the player who keeps getting asked back. How to battle stage fright. We’ll talk about gear and what you may or may not need, and how those needs will change depending on the gigs you’re playing. All questions are welcome and highly encouraged. If you’re thinking it, someone else probably is too, so be sure to suggest any topics of interest with your registration.
About Shane Guse:
Shane Guse is the instructor of Fiddle and Improvisation for Strings at the Laurier Academy of Arts. He has a master’s degrees in Community Music and has been working as a professional in the music industry for over 30 years. Shane has toured all over the world with various artists. He is a 5x Fiddle Player of the Year, and 2x Specialty Instrument Player of the Year award winner from the Canadian Country Music Association, an inductee into the CCMA Musicians Hall of Honour, a 4x Country Music Association of Ontario award winner, a 2x Independent Music Award winner.