Curtains Up!

Dear Musicians,

Here is my maiden voyage into posting on the blogosphere! Steve here at GigSalad.com was kind enough to give me a voice, so here goes…

Within my new book, The Musician’s Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings, I introduce many ways to make wedding gigs successful gigs for all musicians. Since I fully intend to write future editions, I wanted a forum to find out what works for you at weddings. Perhaps you’ll have some additional ideas that I did not come across during the writing of my book.

So, let’s start with the first topic…From the first chapter of my book, I spell out 10 personality and skills that a musician needs to be successful at playing weddings. They are:

1. Be content with taking directions from the bride and those she appoints to oversee her wedding, no matter how strange you think her expectations of you may be.
2. Educate the bride about the services you have to offer.
3. Politely stand your own ground when necessary.
4. Possess a willingness to offer helpful suggestions about how to select wedding or reception music, without actually making up the bride’s mind for her.
5. Accept the fact that you will be performing background music while people are talking and mingling.
6. Perform smoothly and with confidence.
7. Look good. No, look GREAT!
8. Realize that you can learn from bridezilla stories, those horrible nightmares about crazy brides that you, other musicians, and wedding vendors experience from time to time.
9. Know that a positive attitude makes you a magnet for enjoyable, high-paying wedding gigs.

And

10. Love what you do and success will come.

Do you have additional items to add to this list? Do you have any stories to share relating to these general abilities and attitudes that musicians should possess to be successful wedding performers?

Let me know, and I’ll check back and add a new topic in a week or so.

My best,
Anne Roos
Celtic Harp Music by Anne Roos
www.celticharpmusic.com

And if you would like to purchase my new book, The Musician’s Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings, with 324 pages of helpful wedding gig info, you can order it from all retailers that carry Hal Leonard Books, including Barnes & Noble, Borders Stores, and Amazon.com.