How to Use Photos for Your Business Cards or Brochures

The photos that you print on your brochures or business cards, or that you post on your website and save for press releases and paid advertisement, must all accomplish one thing: they visually must tell who you are. This snapshot of you needs to fit into the bride’s imaginary picture of her perfect wedding day. How can you visually make yourself fit into her picture?

Here are some general thoughts about photos:

1. A professional photo makes you look professional. Shop for a photographer who has produced the “look” that you want. View their portfolio. A good photographer will be able to get the photo to reveal something about the subject’s personality.

2. Include your instruments in all your photos. The kinds of band shots you see on MySpace.com do not cut it here, where the band members are standing around, looking cool, without an instrument in sight. A bride wants to see exactly what you’ll look like when you
perform for her, which means she also needs to see what your instrument looks like. If you are in a band, your wedding PR photo should show everyone holding his or her instruments. It could be a still shot or an action shot, with everyone playing. It doesn’t matter as long as your instruments and your faces can be seen plainly.

3. Dress like you would dress when you are performing at a wedding. Look the part. A bride wants to see how you will show up at her wedding. Will you show up in a tux and cleanly shaven, or will you be wearing the trendiest shirt, unbuttoned to your waist, with your hair gelled so it sticks straight up? Which picture fits the bride’s fantasy the best?

4. Recruit the services of a make-up artist, if needed. Women should wear heavier make-up for photo sessions. With digital photography, you can see exactly what the camera sees right after the picture is snapped. You’ll have instant feedback about how your make-up looks. But when the photographer is snapping away, there won’t be any time to review your make-up in each shot.

5. Your band or ensemble must look like a cohesive group. This goes further than making sure everyone is dressed like they are in the same band. Facial expressions should be the same, too, with no one member looking off in a diff erent direction wearing a scowl when
everyone else is looking into the camera with a pleasant smile.

6. Update your photos anytime your appearance changes. These changes include changes of personnel in your band or ensemble, significant weight changes, dramatically
different hair styles or colors, wearing contact lenses instead of glasses, and so on.

7. Show that you love what you do. Your wedding PR photo is not one of those photos that are taken of models in high-fashion magazines, where they look posed with serious looks on their faces. Look like you love playing for weddings!

Publicity photos and graphics can help you double the coverage you're now getting.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

Thinking Outside the Box

My newest gig, recording music for the e-card company Banjo Bunny, landed a notice in Jammin Dave Jackson’s Musicians Cooler Podcast. Here are the show notes from this November 26, 2009 episode:

Thinking Outside the Box

One artist that is thinking outside the box is Anne Roos who is a Celtic harpist and author of the book “The Musician's Guide to Brides” (great book by the way). She loves E-cards. She happened to notice that one e-card company uses instrumental music. She contacted them about using her music. They liked her music so much they've invited her to record music exclusive music for their cards.

Other fabulous ideas about how to think differently than other musicians and gather notice are included in this fun informational podcast, just for musicians.

The Musicians Cooler Podcast is a weekly podcast to help musicians get more gigs, more fans, and more music sales by harnessing the power of the Internet through relentless marketing, efficient use of music promotion tools, and a driving desire to spread their music to the world.

How to get the "Wow" Factor with Business Cards

Very early on in my career, I experimented with different business cards, trying to find a card that would stand out, a card that would not get thrown away after I handed it to someone. I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on cards, but I wanted something that had a classy look and feel, because to me, harp music is classy. I found a wonderful deep burgundy paper that looked almost like velvet.

I printed my information with silver ink on that card, and when I passed it out, people exclaimed in glee, “Ooooo!” I knew I was on to something. They were intrigued about my music and asked me questions about my music, fees, and availability, all because of the look and feel of that little card.

In truth, you’ll want to hear that reaction from all the materials in your promo package. Get this response from your business card, and then design the look and feel of all your other materials around it.

Here are just a few guidelines to having them printed:
1. Stick with the standard business card size (2'' × 3½''). It should fi t into a wallet easily. Avoid having your business cards printed on paper, or other materials, that are too thick.

2. Include your name, area code and phone number, email address and website address. Optional additions to your card may be your cell number, fax number, and mailing address. If you are in a band or ensemble, print the name of the group and the contact name or leader of the group, if it isn’t you.

Don’t forget to include the identity statement and any artwork that also appears on your stationery. Running out of room on your card for all the necessary information? You can also use the back of your card. However, I caution against doing this, only because sometimes people will want to write down notes about you on the back of your business card, and they fi nd that blank space useful.

If you want to include a lot of information on your business cards, consider printing “ tent cards”. These cards fold in half to be the same size as standard business cards. You can print all kinds of extra information inside of the fold. Tent cards can also stand up on tables, which may come in handy for table display in a bridal boutique or at a bridal fair.

3. Be creative with special colors of ink, card stock, and typestyle to match the identity you want to convey. For example, if you specialize in early music, your cardstock could look like parchment paper and you could choose a gothic typestyle. Just be sure you choose a font style and size that is easy to read!

Business cards do not have to be an expensive investment. In fact, if you are just starting out and have few funds for printing promo materials, you can get by with just your business cards and some matching stationery. If you have a laser printer, you can print business cards from your computer. A number of word processing programs come with business card templates, and the card stock can be purchased at an office supply store. If you go this do-it-yourself route, make sure your cards and stationary look as good as if they were designed and printed by a professional print shop. If not, your business cards will send an underlying message to potential clients that you are “cheap”, implying that you are not a professional class act.

If you decide to shop at a discount office supply store, they usually offer business card and letterhead printing services, but their selection of inks, typestyles, and papers may be limited. I have found some very unique online catalogues that sell beautiful matching business cards, stationery, and envelopes. Do a Google search on the terms “business cards” and “stationery”, and you’ll find a number of ready-made designs to have imprinted with your information.

The letterhead you choose should be created around your business card design. Again, think in terms of sending a uniform message to your client about who you are. Be generous when passing out your cards. Business cards, when properly designed to cause the “Ooooo!” response, are your strongest promotional commodity.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

How to Package and Price Your Services

Design three basic performance packages.

Why three? Read below:

The Highest Cost Package—
This contains your most performance time available for a wedding and all extra services you’re willing to provide. Because it’s your premium package, you’ll want to price it as such.

The Lowest Cost Package—
This enables brides who have very small weddings or very small budgets to afford your services. This package is your minimum—your minimum of how much time you will perform and the minimum of what the bride can afford to pay you. This package is the answer to the bride’s question of, “What is your minimum?”

The Best Value Package—
This package is in the middle of your price range. When a cost-conscious bride finds out that there isn’t that much included in your lowest cost package, she’ll be willing to pay a little more to receive more value.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

Essential Items Needed When Gigging

Here is a list of essential items you will need when traveling to a gig. Don't leave home without them!

1. Your instrument, of course. You should have a protective,waterproof case for it, either a soft gig bag or a hard shell case. Pack with your instrument,
all of the items that you directly use with your instrument (a full set of strings, drum sticks, bows, rosin, etc.).

2. Your favorite seat to sit upon. Your comfort is tantamount to having a good time
performing. Bring your favorite portable chair, bench, or stool. If you don’t, your client is apt to
offer you something that will be uncomfortable. A client once offered me a chaise lounge chair to sit upon while performing. Can you imagine playing harp while sitting on one of those things? I couldn’t either, and thankfully, I brought my own folding chair instead.

3. Strong, waterproof bags for your sheet music. In case you need to scribble a line or two of music at a gig, also keep some blank manuscript paper, a pencil, and an eraser handy at a gig. Post-it sticky notes are good, too, because you may need to write some last-minute cues on your sheet music. My favorites heet music gig bags are Tuxedo Bags, made by Humes & Berg.
These cordura bags are indestructible, and they’ll fit tons of sheet music. (Humes & Berg also makes a wide selection of cordura soft cases for instruments.)

4. A music stand. Invest in a solid metal music stand, and save the cheap wire stand as a spare. A solid stand is less likely to fall over in the wind or when someone backs up into it, and if you play a cello, double bass, or harp, you’ll avoid scratches on your instrument. You’ll also be able to place large books or heavy binders on a solid stand without their falling off . Manhasset has a solid, fold up stand called the Voyager. It’s more money than a wire stand, but it’s worth the added investment.

5. A soft case for your music stand. It’s a nuisance when a wire stand suddenly opens up while carrying it, and it is pretty painful to drop a Manhasset stand on tender feet. These are reasons enough to have a soft carrying case for your music stand.

6. A tough waterproof bag on wheels. Place all your small peripheral items in this bag. What works best for me is a 20''rolling carry-on flight bag that I purchased from a factory outlet store. Purchase it in person, not online, so that you can see the capacity, the design of the interior, the number and size of pockets, and the quality of the bag. Don’t purchase a bag that will fall apart in a few months. It needs to be rugged. Fill this bag with:

a) An electronic tuner and an optional alligator clip cord or another cord to connect it to your instrument pick-up. Itis easier to tune in noisy environments if you can plug yourtuner directly into your instrument pick-up.

b) Extra batteries for your electronic tuner.

c) A fix-it kit for your instrument: wrenches, pliers, wirecutters, you name it. I place all this stuff in a Dobbs kit (a men’s travel toiletry kit) so that I can easily find it inside therolling gig bag.

d) Gaffer’s tape and masking tape. Don’t bring duct tape, because it will leave a sticky mess wherever you use it. Gaffer’s tape looks just like duct tape and is just as strong, but it can be easily removed without gummy residue. I have used gaffer’s tape for anything from sticking a loose pick up back inside my harp, to taping down cords on the floor to avoid accidents, to fixing the hem on a gown. It’s truly indispensable. Masking tape is also very useful to have handy, just in case you need to write on it. I also use masking tape to cover unused input or output holes on my amp when I’m performing outside (it keeps bugs and sand from ending upinside my amp).

e) Sheet music clips to hold down your music in breezy conditions or to keep your music books open. Don’t use clothespins; they look too tacky for a well-paid musician to use at weddings. You can purchase see through clips at standard music stores or any number of online retailers.

f) A doorstop. Keep doors open while you are loading and unloading musical equipment.

g) Instrument polishes and polish cloths. You’ll be amazed to see the gunk that can get on an instrument, especially when performing outside.

h) Personal emergency items. In the summer, I take mosquito repellent lotion with me, along with antihistamine, since I am allergic to mosquito bites. I also bring along sun block. In the winter, I take hand warmers with me, the ones that can be purchased in camping stores. I place them in my pockets so that when I have some downtime at a wedding, I can keep my hands warm. Aspirin and Band-Aids are year-round emergency items for me, along with a nail file, Kleenex, and cough drops. I usually keep them in my purse or car, but they can also be contained in the rolling gig bag. You might have others items necessary for your own personal comfort that you’ll want to drop into your bag, too.

i) Extra business cards and brochures. You may wish to keep business cards in your wallet or purse, but it’s good to know that you have more in your rolling gig bag if you run out. If you are using amplification, also store the following items inside the rolling gig bag.

j) Lots and lots of extra batteries for all of your electronic devices.

k) Power AC adapters to recharge your electronic devices. If you are using a battery-operated amplifier, these adapters will save you if your batteries run low.

l) Warranties and instruction booklets for your tuner and amplification devices. When your equipment malfunctions, you’ll be able to trouble-shoot on the spot.

m) A wide assortment of cords. Over the years, I have collected cords that I don’t presently use with my equipment. I still carry them with me to all my gigs. Why? I can plug into house sound or into onsite P.A. systems that will enable my harp to be heard well in that particular location. Some of these spare cords will just do the trick, fitting right into asound system built for the wedding or reception site.

n) Velcro straps for tying up your cords neatly.

So, now you are fully prepared to anything unexpected that may come along.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

3 Easy Steps for Creating and Updating Your Wedding Music Repertoire

Step 1. Take out a few peices of paper, and some colore pencils, too. On one page scribble down the kinds of music that you play right now, making a list of your present repertoire. Be as detailed as possible. Don't stop to analyze whether your music is approppriate for weddings. Just write down the titles of every tune you know how to play comfortably, music that you know you can perform in front of an audience without stumbling or breaking into a cold sweat.

If you play different genres of music, say you can play jazz guitar and know some bluegrass tunes, use different colored pencils to differentiate between the types of music you play. Maybe use one color for up-tempo tunes and another for slow ballads. You can also separate the types of music you play by ethnicity or whether they are secular (religious) or non-secular. Take time to go through your sheet music books and include everything in your list. Take as long as you like to complete this page.

Step 2. Review this list and place things in an order that makes sense to you, an order that you could perhaps share with a potential client, a bride. Place all the pre-ceremony music together, the reception music together, the possible bridal entrance tunes together, and so on. You'll want to be prepared to offer the bride several choices for each wedding activity. Remember: Not every bride wants to enter to "Here Comes the Bride."

Step 3. Start on a new page. Make a wish list of all the kinds of music you'd like to learn to play. Write down specific titles. These may include tunes you are still working on, tunes that you're not ready to perform in front of an audience quite yet. This list will help you to determine if you should continue working on these tunes or abandon them for other music that will give you a better chance of landing you wedding gigs.

When you're done with the list , compare it with the first list of songs you know. Do the songs you want to learn fit in with the types of songs appropriate for weddings? For instance, if you play for receptions, are they danceable? Put these tunes in order, with you first choices at the top of he page.

If you are in a band or ensemble, do this entire brainstorming exercise with your band members. They may have tunes in their personal repertoires that could be worth adding to your group's song list. This exercise will also help to confirm that all the members of your group have the same goals. If they aren't interested in performing at weddings and receptions, then the truth will certialny come out through this brainstorming activity. The key to this exercise is to make sure that each member of your group is on the same collective track. Musicians who share the same goals tend to get along well together and have longevity as a group.

Brides love menus of information. When they aks you, "What do you play?" you'll now be prepared to share your repertoire list with them.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

Do What You Do Best---Create a Repertoire

Do what you do best, and you'll love what you do. The music you play that resonates within you carries your own fingerprints. Even if other musicians can play the same songs as you do, what you bring to these sonsg is uniquely your own.

To land lucrative wedding gigs, you need to find your niche among the competition. This is know as "positioning" in marketing lingo. It means researching what makes you different from the rest of the musicians and capitalizing on these differences. Compiling your wedding repertoire is the first step to making you stand out.

"You are more attractive when you break bread with a competitor."-from Attracting Perfect Customers by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniea of Perfect Consulting Unlimited.

How do you find out what your competition plays? There is no better time than now to enlist some allies. Make friends with other successful musicians in your geographical area and hear them perform. Get together and jam. Check out their websites. If some musicians give you the cold shoulder when you approach them in friendship, they may be viewing you as a threat, and that's their problem. Your competition can be your friends.


Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.