Question: I'm a bass player in Pittsburgh, PA, with decades' of gig (and other entertainment) experience. I initially want my music career to consist of touring to support bands or artists in hired gun situations. Off the road, I want to do studio work with bands/artists. I also sing backup and, if needed, could play acoustic guitar. So, where/how do I get my name out there to get picked up for jobbing type gigs? Magazines and local ads so far have been bust and full of truly bad amateurs -and some bad pros! I show up on time and prepared, and have always been drug, alcohol, and drama free. Thank you for your time.

Tom Hess's Answer: An easy way to add instant credibility to everything that you do (and to expose yourself to thousands of musicians and potential business partners) is to write online articles on the topics you are an expert in. For example (in your case), that could be playing as a studio musician. This will help with establishing credibility for yourself as a real expert not only as a bass player, but as a musician who has a professional attitude, professional work ethic, is drug, alcohol and drama free (this is a HUGE plus, you need to advertise this!)…

As you know there are a lot of ‘jobbers’ out there trying to do what you want to do, most bands and studios don’t pick up the local ads looking for a jobbing bass player to fill in, usually they get players from past experience with them and/or referrals from other bands / studios they respect the opinions of.

Establishing yourself as an expert who writes for other musicians on how to be and act professionally will instantly put you on everyone’s short list of potential musicians to contact for gigs once they see you are doing that. In addition, this will also give you better leverage to negotiate for more money when accepting such gigs. This is a very powerful promotional tool for yourself that costs no money to implement.

Also, be sure to actually ask people you have played with to refer you to other bands/studios who may be looking for such a bass player.

Another thing you can do is seek out singers and guitar players who are doing things on their own… they are always looking for good bass players! You don’t need to always be chasing ‘bands’ to find steady gigs.

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