how can I get flute gigs?
I’m a 4th place all state flute player in PA. I play all styles of music. I wanna start playing gigs at churches or weddings or where ever a flute player is needed. what can I do to get my name out?
First – you get in line behind all the THOUSANDS of flutist that have BM and MM degrees – if not higher – that are ahead of you. Yes, there are places that are SO cheap that they will not hire pros – and then turn to a search for students who will play for nothing, or close to it. Most pros will NOT let a kid sub for them – unless the job was odious and CHEAP to begin with, and the pro does not care to EVER be asked back ( if you send a kid in your place to a pro gig – you do NOT get asked back!) You will need a repertoire that is suitable, with and without accompaniment. You will need a lot of advertising, networking, and self-promotion – gigs are hardly going to fall on you. If you have a duo with an accompanist, or a small chamber ensemble ( my trio of flute/violin/cello works a lot – so does my duo of flute/keyboard), you might find more work – but then, you need to be SET UP for this – finding decent players is easy, but somebody has to own ALL the music you could possibly need, etc. I have tens of thousands of dollars invested just in music that is used for gigs – for the various instrumentations that I offer. They are all in folders, organized by genre, sets, etc. There is a entire run of classical/wedding stuff; another of cocktail hour music ( we are into about fifty hours worth of that alone); and i also offer a Viennese salon orchestra – and our repertoire and library is around 375 titles – all of which I purchased in small-orchestra format. No, I did not buy this stuff all at one – this is decades of assembling. If you want to start doing this NOW, then I suggest, beyond all the flute music you already own, to get things at www.lastresort.com. Get the “music for three” – plus the piano book. This gives you a lot of interchangeable instrumentation – you can do a treble/treble/bass trio, with and without keyboard, or any combination of flute and keyboard, adding a third or fourth player. These are GIG arrangements – cut-downs of *heavy hit* classical music, etc. These are NOT concert-quality!! It should run you under $180 to get these. If you gagged at that number, then you know why more KIDS are not working – it takes front money to get set up, and you had better have work coming in to justify the expense. What I have told you is the minimum cheapest way to start- unless you want to sit around until some church or senior center asks you to play for $20.
Remember – more than half of the term “show business” is BUSINESS. The world is full of fine players – the world is NOT full of musicians who are also good at the business of getting hired. Good luck – but this is NOT *make a quick buck* employment.
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