Want Extra gigs any good websites you use?

[IvanMike]

well leave it to a mod to not do a thorough search.........

anyhow, i play about three times a month with a band these days but i do sub gigs whenever i can. A couple of bands have a bunch of us on call so usually one of us can cover. Financially it would be great to do some more (plus it's always good for your head to play with others especially if you've been in a band for a while).

So, what websites have you all found to be the most helpful for networking as far as getting with bands that need sub work, temporary work, or that have light gigging schedules that i could fit within mine?

I'm too busy/old to hang at every open mike and go to everyone elses shows to "get my name out there" and that doesn't always work. Craigslist is way too full of advertisements, "listen to my band" and bands that are looking for "serious professional we're gonna be rock stars!!!" types.

tell me your experiences eh?

[AlembicPlayer]

I do the same thing from time to time.
Where I am it's a small local scene, so word of mouth is gold. I agree with you about Craig'sList. I like the myspace site for putting up your online musical resume of sorts. You can post pretty much what you've said here, about your schedule, styles etc. I know myspace is a bit trendy, but that is the new trend for networking.
I guess facebook would be the other.

[fivestringgecko]

I've had some pretty good luck with Bandmix.com, as well. In the last two weeks, I've tried out with a cover band, two other startup bands and have gotten three more messages from people looking. Not sure how it'd work if you're just trying to sub, but it could only help, right? You can add clips, profile info, gear info, influences, etc. and tell people what you want to do. My link is in my signature if you want to get an idea.

A tip: with the unpaid subscription (which is what I have), you get 10MB to post audio clips. Convert your clips to mono to make them (roughly) half the size and you can get a lot more clips in there!

5sg.

[AlembicPlayer]

cool, thanks for that link!

[pointbass]

You can give www.musicianforest.com a try, but it's sort of a slow-motion site .... gotta do a lot of searching and the sign-in is laborious. I'm definitely NOT a fan of craigslist, far too many whack-jobs with little to no talent, or as stated in the OP, too many "we're gonna f-in rock the world" dopes.

I gig a lot. My busiest band is a classic rock group, I also work somewhat steady with a power jazz trio and of late I've been doing more and more straight jazz gigs (duo's to quintets) with a keyboard friend of mine. The thing that has really helped me make contacts (besides being 300 years old and playing forever in this area ) is taking every opportunity to get my info in any other musicians hands. I have my own web site (not a myspace page, but a web site), I always carry demo discs of my playing in a variety of styles, and I have no problem doing "self-promotion" ....

There used to be a pretty good site called gigfinders.com but it was shut down a year or so ago ....

[crijan]

Maybe just scan the local listings for other bands that you'd like to sub for and give their manager a call to put you on their available sub list?

[crijan]

Also, another decent musicians classified is backpage.com.

[IvanMike]

thanks for the links. i just tried out bandmix a few days ago. any others?

i know most of the non internet tricks but thanks. you can still keep those coming too. It's not a huge desperate thing. I still think there should be some kind of gig swapping/oncall/players available lists on the web or otherwise. Some of the bands i play with have a list of players for each seat that they use, but that's strictly word of mouth or reference. It seems that there should be some more comprehensive way of networking.

[rokkitt]

yes, craigslist, backpage and bandmix

works!