In this episode, Jared shares his experiences from a nonprofit fundraiser gala at an art gallery in Denver. Despite battling challenging acoustics and technical issues with his PA system, Jared reveals how he successfully adapted, connected with the audience, and even created a memorable moment for a couple considering booking him for their wedding. Along the way, Jared offers insights into how musicians can manage difficult gigs while still marketing themselves for future opportunities.

"If you can get them to feel something emotional and connect with the song they want for their wedding, then you've got a pretty good shot at booking them."

- BookLive: Everything you need to start marketing and booking your act online (without having to hire or rely on a tech team!)​
- Your First Gig: Everything you need to book your first high-paying gig.
- Fulltime Music Masterclass: The Secret To an Unlimited Stream of High-Paying Private Event Gigs …Without Spending a Fortune on Online Advertising or Having Any Connections!
- Fulltime Music Academy (Gig Vault): 24,665 High-End Venues + Event Planners: Use this directory to book your highest-paid gig to-date.
- Breaking Into High-end Gigs Masterclass: How I Went From Broke Musician to Thriving By Breaking Into These Largely Unknown High-Paying Gigs

What's up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

I'm on my way home from a gig. This is September 26, 2024, and I am on my way home from a gig that I played. It was a nonprofit fundraiser gala.

A lot of people always wonder, like, hey, do nonprofits really have high end gigs that pay musicians pretty well?

And I'll say, yeah, this was a $1000 gig for me because I helped them raise money by entertaining and keeping people there longer, opening up their wallets generously.

Now, this gig was actually a very challenging gig. It was probably the most challenging gig I've done in a very long time. Not really from a logistical perspective, because the logistics were actually quite easy.

The venue was space gallery. It was an art gallery on Santa Fe street in downtown Denver. And they had their own PA system, or so I thought.

Well, they did, but it presented many, many issues. First thing, it was an art gallery, and it was probably like three stories tall, but it was an open concept, so the ceilings were just so tall. It was vast, spacious, and cavernous, which meant the acoustics were pretty bad to add to it.

You know, when you. The floors and the walls were all like concrete, which meant that all sounds, including my music and the guests speaking, all reverberated off of the rooms and echoed all around and just made for an all around, you know, cluster f of a acoustic situation. So, yeah, their PA system was not very good either.

It was definitely not meant for live music. And I kind of wish I had known that before. I had my other PA system in my car, but I did not have time to go back and set it up.

But, yeah, so I am grateful that I had in ear monitors because without them, I would not have been able to actually hear myself at all. Like, it was that bad, especially when people were talking. So that was a very big acoustic challenge.

But the in ear monitors absolutely helped. I'm still getting used to my mixer, the Behringer X air twelve or whatever. And unfortunately, I still.

I need to figure out the Wi Fi on that thing. I think I've noticed what happens, because, you know, so the x air mixers, it's wifi.

You connect to it from your iPad or your phone using mixing station, and then that's your mixer is your iPad, but it has to connect to Wi Fi on the actual mixer itself.

But two times now, it did not. It wasn't reliable. Like, it just got so slow that the app kind of crashed on me.

And then when I tried to move a fader, nothing happened visually. And then randomly, all of a sudden, like, the sound would. Would change, and it was like, oh, that must have been the fader I touched a minute ago.

So it was a very frustrating experience, and I need to figure out how to change the Wi Fi channel on that. So maybe it'll be a less busy area, a less busy signal. I noticed that it happened once at the babes tea room gig that I have, you know, once a month, and that was in a pretty populated area.

Babe's tearoom was literally, like, in an apartment building. So I'm sure it had, like, 50. At least 50 different Wi Fi networks, probably all occupying the same channel.

And then this once, like, this, probably had two or 300 people in the guests. And so once they all had their phones on and things like that, there was probably a ton of Wi Fi interference, which probably caused tonight's issue. So I gotta change that channel now.

A couple really great things happen. I was able to get a decent sound eventually, although my in ear monitor mix sounded terrible to me, but I listened, and I was able to hear from the main PA system. It actually sounded okay.

And then people did come up and say, like, hey, that sounds awesome. You sound great. Lots of compliments again.

But one of the craziest things happened, which was a couple came up to me, and they said, I don't know if you remember us, but we chatted about you playing our wedding next year.

I was like, oh, what are your names? And eventually, I did recognize them, but, like, you know, I was in that gig zone where I wasn't really thinking about anything other than the music and my massive sound system headaches. And so I did not recognize them immediately, but eventually I did.

And then they said, hey, if you can slide it in, we'd love to hear can't help falling in love. So I've been playing, like, a lot of pop tunes and modern stuff, you know, for example, Lizzo's about damn time. And I even threw in pink Pony club, which is the new chapel Roan song that is super popular.

Sabrina Carpenter's please, please. And so I was able to actually slide in can't help falling in love, because while I'm at these gigs, I'm not just thinking about the gig or the sound system. I'm also thinking about marketing myself for future gigs.

So if I was able to play the song that they wanted to walk down the aisle to, do you think that this would lead to me booking them? Heck, yeah.

So that is why I threw in can't help falling in love it was definitely a vibe change, but I eased into it. I forget what song I played right before, but it might have been Hozier's too sweet, which is a pretty popular tune these days.

And. Yeah, no, it was good. So I played that for them, and then they, like, they were, like, applauding afterwards, which is awesome.

So I feel like it's these kind of moments where if you can, like, you can't make this stuff up. Like, what? What are the odds that they would show up at a nonprofit gala for the Junior league of. Of Denver and also be one of my potential clients? I don't know.

That's crazy. But if you can, again, get them to feel something emotional and connect with the song that they literally want to walk down the aisle to, then I think I've got a pretty good shot of booking them. And actually, after the gig, they came back up to me and said, that sounded beautiful.

Thanks so much for playing it and so forth. So it was great. A couple other people came up, asked me for business cards, and it was good overall, but I'm just exhausted.

That was a. I mean, I wouldn't call it a nightmare of a sound setup, but I definitely wasn't happy with the sound. And I need to figure out that mixer thing that's just coming, becoming such a thorn in my side that if I don't figure it out, I'm gonna have this pain consistently in the future.

That's kind of a thing. Like, if you are in enough pain about something, you will do something about it, which I was. I did a masterclass today with a bunch of musicians about booking high end gigs, for example, nonprofit galas like the one I just did.

And, you know, at the end, I do make an offer. I make. I help them make a decision, and if they're in enough pain about their current gigging situation, like, you know, they're not making enough money, their wife is asking them, why are you playing so many gigs and not making a lot of money from them? Then you'll want to do something about it.

You want to change it. And that's me with my mixer right now, not because it's a bad mixer, just because I haven't figured it out. So kind of beating myself up about it a little bit.

But that's okay. I will fix it. I'm gonna work on that a bit tomorrow and Saturday in my basement studio, and we'll get it going pretty good.

All right. I gotta hop off. I'm too tired to keep going. With this podcast, but I appreciate you listening in to this gig report.

And by the way, if you want to register for my next time I'm doing that masterclass on high end gigs, go to BookLive. No, go to FulltimeMusicAcademy.com/high-end-gigs with dashes between those words, high end gigs. And you can register for that masterclass. It's totally free.

And sure, at the end, I do make an offer because as musicians, we can't just hope and pray that somebody will, you know, book us. We actually have to make an offer, ask for money for our services. And that's what I do.

I practice what I preach, so I'm not apologizing about it, but there's no obligation to buy. Just enjoy. All right, that's all I got for you all today.

Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Bye, everybody.