Small Town/Where To Begin

[jmoen3]

Hey Everyone,

I've finally decided to start looking for a chance to play on stage other than when i did back in high school.

I've got some idea for tunes, mostly just blues, but I will see what else I can do.

Here is my main challenge that is bugging me. I live in a small town of 2000 people. Its very small, there are no restaurants or anything, just a small fast food place and a concert hall. There is no demand for jazz music, although people generally listened when I was in high school jazz (which got canceled this year :evil:).

There are town nearby who are generally the same, although there might be more chance in some than here.

I am about 2 hours away from a major city (and its not that major, Billings Montana).

Any opinions or options on what I can do to get a gig?

[foresterdjb]

Here in Helena, MT (much smaller than Billings, Billings being the "big" town in MT, heck fire, they have buildings downtown that must be 10-20 stories tall!) There are about 5-6 places (restaurants and bars) that have varying styles of live music 2 - 3 nights a week.

I am betting that if you have the desire and the goods you can find a place to play. I defer to real musicians to advise further.

Me on the other hand, it'll be years before I have the goods, if ever.

[jmoen3]

I really wish there was a place here that played some type of live music, then i would know where to begin.

I guess i should start looking out of city, but not before some more suggestions!

[DanPerezSax]

You go to church? That's a good place to start...

[jmoen3]

Yes, an a capella church :(.

They don't much have instrument stuff going on, plus its a very small church too.

I thought about asking if I could just play for them, but I don't know how it would work out. Anyone who plays at church have any information they could provide me, like what you do, how it is done, all that jazz :P.

[cymru97]

We've got about 2,700 people around here, but we are closer to other small towns. I'm in a quartet and we go play for retirement homes, community organizations, festivals, parades, we've done several gigs at the public library, and sometimes we just go downtown and play. People really love seeing live music out on the street, families out for a walk will stop and listen for a while and we always get positive comments even if they can't quite understand why we are doing it...

Even if you are going it alone those are great places to start. We've gotten pay from the community organizations and library, but for the most part we do it for our own enjoyment. You guys must have serviec clubs like Lions, Rotary, etc. that look for presenters. Put together a simple lecture/demo on Blues music, they'll love it.

Shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions. All the best out there!

[Yofis]

Every event presents an opportunity to have live music...there has to be some sort of "Americana" going on there. The first words out of your mouth when you hear about anything being planned are, "would you like music with that?" Eventually you will gig, maybe not for money, but that will come in time.

I just recently moved from a "small town" where our band could get gigs anywhere as the big fish in a small pond, to a larger town packed with great pro musicians...talk about tough getting gigs.

Just become known amongst your small population as "the music guy/girl"