Effective Gig Preparation for a lead country guitarist

Getting ready for the Hollywood Yates gig as a hired gun, reminds me of some good habits to keep in mind when prepping for the show. Especially if you move back and forth from styles to styles. Here are a few of my habits:

1) Ask for the set list a few weeks in advance. This might seem obvious, but for an entertainer on Hollywood’s level, he isn’t necessarily thinking about those details that far in advance, as he usually is busy acting and promoting other facets of his career. So, make sure you ask, especially if there is any song in the rotation that will be new.

2) Practice 3 to 4 times before the first rehearsal. Make sure you pay close attention to the details of the songs. At this level of playing you should anticipate needing to cover any guitar licks in the verses and guitar solos exactly as they are on the record.

3) Make sure you have a good handle on the intros as in country music the guitar is starting tunes 90% of the time.

4) Make sure you have a handle on the different versions of the songs. In country music especially, artists do tons of cover songs and there are tons of versions; live versions too. Use YouTube like no tomorrow! Doing effective research not only

is fun, but can give you a feel of the life of a song.

See Related Post: Nashville Country Gig, Part 1.

10 thoughts on “Effective Gig Preparation for a lead country guitarist

  1. Kim Steele on Facebook says:

    one thing that is paramount for me is to get my “tones” in order. I find that country music tones are exacting. They are slightly different than pop, worship, harder rock. It’s a kind of “hybrid” genre. My new band is modern country (mainly) with some classic and classic rock. I gotta know where I assigned everything. Some songs require different settings. Like Patty Loveless and Jo Dee Messina requires a different sound than say a Gretchen Wilson or Miranda Lambert. But then there’s Georgia Sattelites… ya know?
    I even gotta know when to switch to acoustic tones! (happy I have an on-board acoustic simulator)
    So there I am re-labeling my patches…”Here for the Party”…”Heads Carolina”…”Gun Powder and Lead” etc…

    Reply
  2. Robert Payne on Facebook says:

    Right, for Hollywood Yates stuff there really are only two types of overdrive needs: heavy rock and a marshall zz top style. This actually makes things less hectic on the board actually. My other tones for tonight basically are delay and chorus.

    Reply

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