Do You Even Gig, Bro? NAMM Pros on Building a Music Career (Episode 204)

Make Music Your Business.

"Do you even gig, bro?" It sounds like a meme. It is not. In Episode 204 of The Career Musician, part two of our NAMM 2026 special, Nomad and the TCM Pro Team (Joel Meza and Emily Lauren) worked the floor of the NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center and asked working players three questions. Do you gig? What were your auditions like? What would you tell a musician who wants to do this for a living?

As Nomad put it, listen for the patterns, not the hype, because success leaves clues. If you want to know how to get gigs as a musician, and how to keep them, these real answers from real working pros are the roadmap.

Your music auditions before you walk in the room

One producer and sound designer we met was not even a year out of music production school when she was asked to do sound design for a movie. She never submitted anything. The filmmakers heard her music and reached out. Her advice: don't let social media stop you from creating, be yourself, and do it because you love it.

"Social media is a tool. It's not your validation meter."

Nomad, 3:26

Your tracks are auditioning for you before you ever walk into a room. So put the work out there, then do what Nomad calls submit it and omit it, or send it and forget it. You will be pleasantly surprised instead of anxiously disappointed. And remember: Everything you do is an audition.

Versatility is employability

One player told us his best audition was last year: he got the gig and toured Europe with the band. His worst? The only bad part was that he had to wear all white, and he does not wear white. His advice: learn as many different styles and songs as you can, and gig with whoever you can.

Nomad related to the all-white part more than he wanted to. Sometimes the gig requires it, so you find a way to make it work. As he says, comfort is not the goal. Growth is the goal.

A drummer we met put it another way: wear a lot of hats. He never thought he would be good at engineering or producing, and now his drum gigs often turn into engineering and producing gigs, and the other way around. Another drummer on the floor teaches at Musicians Institute, plays with blues guitarists, does corporate work and did some video game music for Star Wars Outlaws. In his words, being a musician is just a bunch of different pieces of the pie.

That is the Biz pillar in one sentence: Diversify or Die. If you only identify as one thing, you limit your earning potential. The bigger your toolbox, the more rooms you can walk into with confidence.

Your network is your net worth

Bryce plays the Whisky, the Sunset Strip and Nashville. Does he audition? Not really. His gigs come through connections and mutual friends. His advice: go out, meet people, go to venues, find the people who are rocking and go rock with them. Networking, he said, is the biggest key in the industry.

That does not mean he did not earn it. It means he built the relationships, and the best auditions often happen organically because of one. Nomad's version: get up, dress up and show up, consistently. You don't build a career from your bedroom. You build it with community. Work begets work.

Say yes, then do the work

Guitarist Roy got a call from Davey: the Toni Braxton gig needed a guitar player for the weekend, and it was already Wednesday. He told them he didn't even know how to play the style. They sent him the Pro Tools session and told him to learn the parts.

"I was like, you know what? I'll give it a try. And somehow we stayed for eight years."

Roy, 20:15

Nomad has his own version. Back in Nashville in the early 2000s, a producer cutting guitars with him asked if he played ukulele, for a Lilo & Stitch project. He said yes. He had never played ukulele. That night he bought one and a method book, studied until morning, and played ukulele on the session the next day.

Say yes, answer the call, learn the parts, deliver. Luck = preparation + opportunity. It is not really luck at all. It is putting in the work.

Prepare, check your ego, and don't be a weirdo

The band Letters Home both audition and hold auditions, and they know exactly what sinks one: lack of preparation, and ego. Their live show is written out from A to Z, so a player who shows up not knowing the songs, or with a plan to change the band instead of complementing it, is a big no-no. Check your ego at the door. The band is greater than the sum of its parts.

Guitarist Pedro had the opposite problem. He was supposed to get the material ahead of time, a four-minute jazz arrangement of a bunch of Beatles tunes full of hits. It never came, so he had to sight-read it, and at the time he couldn't read. He still got the gig. His advice: study, practice, don't be a weirdo. Brush your teeth and shower.

"Talent gets you noticed, but your skills and your vibe keep you hired."

Nomad, 10:50

If you are going to spend 22 hours together offstage, the hang matters. Low maintenance / no drama.

Don't be afraid to talk about money

Matt, a drummer, has not auditioned in a long time, but his most unique audition was for Mr. Big. Billy Sheehan had seen him. The band's drummer, Pat Torpey, had Parkinson's, and they were not sure how much he could play. When Matt finished his audition, nobody said a word, because Pat was sitting right in front of him. No high fives. Just know you did well and be sensitive to the situation.

His advice for young players was all business.

"Don't be afraid to talk about money... In the long run, it'll determine whether or not you can do this for a career."

Matt, 17:48

His example: you would never walk into a doughnut shop and have them ask you for your doughnut budget. There is a price for everything, including musical services. If talking rates makes you uncomfortable, Nomad says practice that too: run mock money conversations with colleagues, friends and family until it feels normal. Music is art, and it is still a product. That is Savvy, the S in the ETHOS code.

Love it, and keep going

Kia played three gigs back to back at NAMM. Her advice was short: love it as much as you can, and if you do not love it, it is not for you. Nomad agreed. This industry will test you. You will audition and not get it. People will ghost you. Doors will close.

James plays with Kevin Eubanks, the former bandleader of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His advice: don't give up, stay in the right circle and the right state of mind, and if you fall on your back, get up and do it again. "It's not easy work," he said, "but we make it look easy because we practice and progress."

Another guest added the piece most players skip: start with passion, then break the plan into steps. First step, second step, third step. Nomad calls it your POA, your plan of attack, and it beats comparing your chapter 1 to someone else's chapter 12. As Nomad says, methods change, principles remain.

The takeaway

Nobody on that NAMM floor said they waited to be discovered. They practiced, said yes, diversified, prepared, handled their business and loved it enough to keep going. That is how you get the gig, keep it, and eventually go beyond it. If auditions are part of your path, start with the free Audition Secrets guide.

So, do you even gig, bro?

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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