Module 15: Professional skillsLesson 2professional⏱ 90 min + apply on every gig

Gigging and bandleading

Build set lists that work, prepare keys and charts for singers and horns, run a rehearsal that ends on time, count off, cue endings, keep your equipment from failing, and own the function and corporate repertoire that pays most working guitarists.

Why the leader is the one who gets rebooked

A band is rebooked by the person who hired it, and that person rarely knows what a good solo is. They know whether the band started on time, whether the first dance went smoothly, whether the volume was right for the speeches, whether the musicians looked like they wanted to be there, and whether the leader answered emails. If you can run a gig, you will work more than better players who cannot. If you can also play, you will keep the work. This lesson is the operations manual: everything that happens between the phone call and the load-out.

Before the gig: the set list

A set list is a plan for energy, not a list of tunes you like. The principles:

• Open strong and simple. The first tune is one the band can play in its sleep: a medium swing standard or a groove tune in a comfortable key. The room is deciding whether to listen; mistakes in the first two minutes cost you the night.
• Alternate. Tempo (medium, up, ballad, Latin), key (do not play three tunes in F in a row), feature (singer, horn, guitar, trio), and familiarity (a known tune after an obscure one).
• Plan the arc of each set. A 45-minute set is roughly eight to ten tunes: two medium, an up, a ballad, a Latin or groove, two more mediums, a feature, a closer. The closer of the last set is the biggest thing you have. The closer of every other set is something that leaves people wanting another set.
• Write it down with keys, feels and counts. "Autumn Leaves, Gm, med swing, 140, intro: last 4" is a set-list line. "Autumn Leaves" is not. Print copies for everyone; the band should never have to ask what is next.
• Have a reserve list. A dozen extra tunes, sorted by feel, for when the client says "can you do another thirty minutes" or the dance floor empties on a ballad. Draw the whole thing from your repertoire list; if a tune is not on it in the right key, it is not on the set list.

For a function (wedding, corporate dinner, cocktail hour), the structure is dictated by the event: background during arrival and dinner (quiet, mostly instrumental, long tunes, no drum solos), feature moments (first dance, cake, speeches: usually silence, be ready to stop mid-tune on a signal), and the party sets, which may be jazz or may be whatever gets the room dancing. Ask the client for a timeline a week ahead and build the sets around it.

Charts and keys

Everything in this section assumes you can read and write charts fluently (Reading chord charts, Sight-reading). The leader's chart jobs are:

1. One book, one format. Every tune the band plays has a chart in the same layout: title, composer, key, feel and tempo at the top, form clearly marked, intro and ending written out or named ("intro: vamp on I–vi–ii–V ×2, cue"). The chart is the contract between the players; if it is ambiguous, the rehearsal is spent arguing.
2. Transposed parts for horns. Horn players read in their own key: a Bb instrument's part is written a major 2nd above concert, an Eb instrument's a major 6th above. Lesson 15.4 covers writing these; as a leader, make sure they exist before the rehearsal, not during it.
3. Keys for singers. A singer's key is set by the singer's range, not by the Real Book. The tune must be prepared in that key, which means the chart must be transposed and the whole band must have it. Never ask a horn section to transpose a chart at sight on a gig; ask a rhythm section only if everybody in it is a professional.

Transposing a chart is a numerals job. Write the tune in Roman numerals once (you did this for every tune in Module 12's method and in Shells through all keys), then read the numerals in the new key. The table below shows the turnaround that opens and closes hundreds of standards in the six keys singers most often ask for; the same procedure gives you any tune in any key.

Two habits save you here. First, keep a key sheet for every singer you work with: the tune, their key, and the date you last did it. Second, when a singer says "can we try it down a tone", you say yes and play it down a tone, because you prepared the tune by numerals and not by shapes. Singers remember the guitarist who could do that.

Rehearsals that end on time

Musicians are paid for gigs, not for rehearsals, so a rehearsal costs everyone money. Run it like this:

• Send everything in advance: charts, a playlist of reference recordings, the set list and the purpose of the rehearsal ("new intros and endings for six tunes; everything else is on the gig").
• Rehearse the joins, not the tunes. Professionals do not need to play all of a standard; they need the intro, the ending, the key, the feel, who solos and in what order, and any kick or stop. Play the first eight bars, the last eight bars, the ending, and move on.
• Decide things. Every question gets an answer in the room ("intro: piano, four bars; ending: tag three times, Basie figure"), and the answer goes on the chart in pencil. A rehearsal that ends with "we'll see on the night" was not a rehearsal.
• Time-box. Two hours, with a list of tunes and a minute count beside each. When the time is up, stop; what did not get rehearsed goes on the gig with a verbal plan.
• Record it on a phone, and send the relevant minutes to anyone who was unsure.

Counting off

The count-off sets the tempo, the feel and the confidence of the first bar. The conventions are not optional; every professional expects them:

• Medium and up swing: "one, two, one two three four", with the first two numbers on beats 1 and 3 of a bar and the last four on the beats of the next bar. Snap your fingers on 2 and 4 while you count so the band hears the swing.
• Ballads: "one, two, three, four" in the actual tempo, or a bar of "one and two and three and four and" so that the band hears the subdivision.
• Latin and straight-eighth tunes: "one, two, one two three four" with no snap, or two bars of the clave or the bass pattern played quietly.
• In 3/4: "one, two, three, one two three". In cut time count the half notes.

Before you open your mouth, find the tempo: sing the first phrase of the melody silently at the speed you want, then count at that speed. Leaders who count from a number on the set list without hearing the tune first start tunes too fast. Time feel and the metronome is the lesson behind this; the daily "guess the tempo, then check" game it describes is what makes your count-offs trustworthy.

The example notates a count-off and a stock intro: two bars of count, then the last four bars of the form played as an intro with a Charleston figure, ending with a cue into the top of the tune. The muted notes are your snapped count; the words are what you say.

\tempo 140
.
\ts 4 4
:4 x.6{txt "one"} r x.6{txt "two"} r | x.6{txt "one"} x.6{txt "two"} x.6{txt "three"} x.6{txt "four"} | :4 (1.6 2.4 2.3){d ch "Fmaj7" txt "intro"} :8 (1.6 2.4 2.3) :4 (-.6 -.4 -.3) (5.5 5.3 7.2){ch "D7"} | :4 (3.6 3.4 3.3){d ch "Gm7"} :8 (3.6 3.4 3.3) :4 (-.6 -.4 -.3) (3.5 3.3 5.2){ch "C7"} |
:4 (1.6 2.4 2.3){d ch "Fmaj7"} :8 (1.6 2.4 2.3) :4 (-.6 -.4 -.3) (5.5 5.3 7.2){ch "D7"} | :4 (3.6 3.4 3.3){ch "Gm7"} r :8 r (3.5 3.3 5.2){ch "C7" txt "cue: top"} :4 (-.5 -.3 -.2) |

Stock intros every leader should be able to call by name: "last four" (as above), "last eight", "vamp on the first two chords until cue", "piano solo intro, four bars", "pedal on the V", "rubato melody, then in time at the bridge". Name the intro on the chart and in the count: "last four, from the top" tells a professional everything.

Cueing endings

Endings go wrong more than anything else on a gig, because nobody decided. Decide, and then cue. The standard endings:

• Tag: repeat the last two or four bars (usually a iii–VI–ii–V or I–vi–ii–V) three times, then end on the I. The leader signals the final time through with a raised fist, a nod, or by playing the ending figure loudly.
• Basie ending: a short rhythmic figure on the I chord after the last phrase, from the Count Basie band's book; everyone knows it, so it needs only a nod.
• Hold and cut: the last chord sustains while the leader (or the drummer) gives a visible cut-off: raise the guitar neck, or a clear hand motion.
• Rubato ending: the last phrase slows down; the leader conducts it with the neck and the band follows the melody. Rehearse this one; it cannot be improvised with strangers.
• Vamp and fade on a function gig, when the client gives a signal to stop (keep the vamp going and cut on the nod).

\tempo 140
.
\ts 4 4
\ro :4 (5.5 5.3 6.2){d ch "Dm7"} :8 (3.6 3.4 4.3){ch "G7"} :2 (-.6 -.4 -.3) | \rc 3 :4 (3.5 3.3 4.2){d ch "Cm7"} :8 (1.6 1.4 2.3){ch "F7"} :2 (-.6 -.4 -.3) |
:2 (6.5 7.3 8.2){ch "Ebmaj7" txt "cue"} (6.5 5.3 7.2){ch "Ebm6"} | :4 (6.6 5.4 7.3){ch "Bb6"} r :8 r (6.6 5.4 7.3) :4 (-.6 -.4 -.3) | :1 (-.6 -.4 -.3){txt "hold: cut on the nod"} |

Cueing works only if the band is looking. Build the habit: at the last A of the last chorus, every player glances at the leader. As the leader, position yourself where everyone can see you, keep your cues large and early (a bar before, not a beat before), and use the same signals every night.

Working with singers

• The singer's key is law. Carry the key sheet. Prepare the chart in that key before the gig; transpose in your head only if you must, and then keep the voicings simple.
• Intros must give the pitch. End the intro on the V or on the I in a register where the singer can hear the starting note; if the melody starts on an awkward note, play it in the last bar of the intro.
• Comp under the voice, not over it. Lower register than the melody, sparse rhythm, no fills while they are singing a phrase; fill at the ends of phrases. The singer is the soloist for the whole head.
• Know the lyric form. Verses, a rubato verse before the chorus, where they breathe, which bars they stretch. Follow the words, not the bar count, on ballads.
• Agree the roadmap aloud before the count. "Head, guitar solo one chorus, head from the bridge, tag the last four." Singers get lost in instrumental choruses more than players do; signal the return to the head clearly.

Working with horn players

• They need written parts in their key for anything beyond a standard they already know. A horn player with a concert chart on a gig is doing arithmetic instead of playing.
• Agree the solo order and the number of choruses, and the hand signals for "one more" and "last one".
• Backgrounds and kicks: horns often play riffs behind solos. Lay out or thin your comping while they do; your job is harmony and time, not a third horn.
• Tuning: give an A or a Bb from the guitar, in tune with the piano if there is one.
• Blend and balance: a horn section is louder than you. Do not compete; the sound engineer or the room gives you the volume, not your amp knob (Tone, recording and live sound).

Equipment reliability

A gig is lost by one dead cable more often than by one wrong note. The professional's rule is redundancy for anything that can fail and cannot be fixed on stage:

• Two guitar cables, two power cables, a spare set of strings on the guitar you actually play, a spare pick in your pocket, a tuner that works without a battery light show, a string winder and cutters.
• Fresh batteries in anything with a battery, and a note of when they were changed. Phantom-powered or externally powered pedals are more reliable than battery ones on long nights.
• A small torch, gaffer tape, a multi-socket extension, a DI box, an adaptor for every jack you own. Carry a fuse for your amp if it takes one.
• Know your amp's failure modes and have a plan: if it dies, can you go through the PA via DI? If a tube goes, do you have a spare, and can you change it safely? If not, the plan is "DI into the desk", and you need the box for that.
• Soundcheck your own rig before the band arrives. Every cable, every pedal, every switch. Then do not touch it again.
• Keep a gig bag checklist laminated in the case and read it at the door before you leave the house. It takes thirty seconds and has saved more gigs than any amount of practice.

The function and corporate repertoire

Most working guitarists earn most of their playing income from functions: weddings, corporate events, hotel residencies, private parties. The repertoire overlaps with the jazz standards but is not the same list. A function band's book has four shelves:

1. Background jazz: forty to sixty standards playable as instrumentals at low volume with long forms (bossas and medium swing work best; avoid tunes that need a loud shout chorus). The Stage 1 and 2 lists in the repertoire cover this.
2. Vocal standards in the singer's keys: Sinatra-era, bossa nova, Ellington, with a few in more than one key for different singers.
3. Soul, Motown, funk and pop for the dance sets, if the band does them. These are not jazz tunes, but they are played by jazz musicians on function gigs every weekend, and reading a chart for one is identical to reading a chart for a standard.
4. The special requests: first-dance songs, the one tune the client's mother loves, a national or company song. Learn them properly, in the client's key, a week ahead.

Treat the function book as a professional repertoire with its own maintenance: a list, a key for every tune, a chart for every tune, and a review schedule exactly as in the practice plans. The gig itself is the best place to practise your time, your reading, your voicings and your patience; the players who treat functions as beneath them stop being hired for the jazz gigs too, because the people who hire for both are the same people.

Exercises

1. Build two set lists: a 45-minute jazz club set and a 60-minute dinner set for a wedding, with key, feel, tempo and intro for each tune. Find the places where the energy sags and fix them.
2. Transpose three tunes from your repertoire into two singers' keys each, by numerals, and write clean charts. Play each new key with shells, then with drop-2s.
3. Count off ten tunes from a playlist: guess the tempo, count the tune in, then check against the recording. Log how far off you were.
4. Cue practice. With a metronome, play the tag ending above and give the cue on the third repeat with a nod and a lifted neck; film yourself and check that the cue is a full bar early and visible.
5. Write your gig checklist and pack your case with it. Then unpack and repack it to time yourself.

Quiz