Comments on: House Concert Hosting: a Beginner’s Guide.

By: Alex W. Rodriguez

Alex W. Rodriguez — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:27:25 +0000

For my 16th birthday, my parents hired my trombone teacher to bring his quartet into our living room — it was one of the most fun and memorable musical experiences I have been a part of. I hadn’t really thought about it until you started blogging about house concerts, so thanks! It’s a great idea and I hope that you have lots of takers.

By: my first house gig

my first house gig — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:53:28 +0000

[...] He even has an article on his wow-how-does-he-find-the-time-and-energy-to-do-all-this blog steve lawson.net. Dunno about the price structures, i much prefer a pay as much as u can/want – but great he [...]

By: Office Gigs: The Musicians - Office Gigs: Musicians At Work

Office Gigs: The Musicians - Office Gigs: Musicians At Work — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:34:25 +0000

[...] a video of Lobelia and I playing together, at a house concert in [...]

By: steve

steve — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:45:34 +0000

Chantilly – glad you’re finding it useful. Though technically, that’s not ‘linking’, it’s cutting and pasting… Would be nice if you’d like back to the original article to, please.

Anyway, good luck with finding the house concerts. They’re a lot of fun.

By: chantilly

chantilly — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:32:08 +0000

thanks for posting this! i’m totally linking this from my myspace if that’s okay. because i think this is just a really good explanation of house concerts, and may spark some of my own fans to start up one of their own

By: House Concerts Comments and Travelling | The Bass Guitar Blog

House Concerts Comments and Travelling | The Bass Guitar Blog — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:45:40 +0000

[...] about house concerts, I’ll also point you to this great post by Steve himself on the matter: House Concert Hosting: a Beginner’s Guide. A number of recent posts have some great discussions in the comments, which are worth checking out [...]

By: Neil Alexander

Neil Alexander — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:40:59 +0000

More encouragement to Steve C…
We didn’t charge at the door for our HC, since it was for us a kind of “test”. But we did put out a donation box…and were quite surprised to find close to 100 bucks in there from the 15 or so people that were here. Those same people brought food and drink as well. So – it seems people are generally supportive of quality events. And the point of the HC is to bring great music directly to folks who would appreciate it – your friends (and neighbors?). It’s worth a try, in MHO. I agree with Trevor. Go for it!

By: Trevor Raggatt

Trevor Raggatt — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:17:34 +0000

…continued… sorry, mousepad hit return by accident!

If you’re still attracted to the idea of doing a house gig it might be an idea for you (and your partner) to approach a selection of trusted friends with the following question: “Look, we’ve got this mad idea to book a singer/artist to do a gig for us and a few friends but to do it in our front room. Apparently, it’s becoming the new big thing to do. Thing is, these artists are professional musicians, making a living out of this stuff so we thought of asking everyone who comes to make a donation of a tenner towards the artist’s expenses -kinda like buying a ticket for the gig. Would you be up for that sort of thing? It wouldn’t make you feel weird to pay or anything, would it?”

I can guarantee that anyone you would ask wouldn’t be offended at the idea of paying towards the artist’s expenses. In their mind it’s not paying to come you your house, it’s paying for someone to provide a service or entertaining them while they’re their. It’s a paid gig like any other. It might help put your partner’s mind at rest.

Of course the main thing is that they don’t feel awkward about it. The whole point for the host is that it’s a fun, low stress evening with a great vibe.

If you hear of any house gigs in your area it might not be a bad idea going along just to see what happens and how it works for them. There are a number of people who do advertise their house gigs more widely and a Google search might throw up something in the area.

When we do house gigs ( we’re doing them about every other month now!) it’s only friends, family and “gig buddies” that we invite and – without exception – no one balks at the idea of paying for a ticket. They come for the vibe and the experience first and, to be honest, the music second. We have a few friends now who ask to buy a ticket BEFORE they know who’s playing. They trust us that, whoever it is, we wouldn’t book someone rubbish and that if we like them they are at least worth a listen!

For us it’s about enjoying great music with people we like played by people we like. So far we’ve only booked musos we happen to know and who are friends.

As it is, we make the event more of a “gig” than a “house party” – although the actual vibe on the night is equally informal and vibey. We do “fliers” that we sent out to friends and print out a ticket which we give them. We provide soft drinks and a few nibbles but ask people to bring along their own (alcoholic) beverages and some nibbles. We also have seats for pretty much everyone. We’ve been to others where it’s more of a house party – everyone on cushions and beanbags on the floor and something more substantial in the interval. Both work and it just depends on how you fancy doing it.

If you want to see some photos of our ones there are some photos in this Photobucket album, including some of the fliers we’ve done…

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d60/trevorandthea/House%20Gigs/

I would recommend giving it a go if you feel you can. It is amazing fun and your friends will love it!

By: Trevor Raggatt

Trevor Raggatt — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:18:26 +0000

A bit of encouragement to Steve C…

I can completely understand why your other half might feel awkward about “charging” friends to come to your house. However, the chances are that it’s just an irrational fear of what your friends might think of you for doing so – not to belittle that concern, doing a house gig for the first time is a step into the unknown, especially if you’ve never hosted one before. Imagine someone inviting you to a birthday party and then charging you for nibbles, drinks and cake. Awful.

It’s really a matter of mindset on what’s happening in your home. The mental step from “we’ve invited our friends to a party” to “we’ve invited our friends to a gig (where the artist will need to be paid to perform), it just so happens that the gig is happening in our house”. It’s actually not that big of a mental leap when it comes down to it and I suspect that ALL your friends would get the concept straight off without any offence at being asked to pay a tenner to attend.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:59:02 +0000

Daniel – I’m so glad it’s inspired you. That’s great news. And thanks so much for offering to host one, we’ll def. take you up on that next time we’re in Austin!

Steve – no problem. I totally understand that elements of the house concert format don’t work for some people. Not a problem at all. Hopefully there’ll be one near you soon that you can come to

Neil – your gig was great, and Lo and I are both really looking forward to hanging out and playing some shows with you as soon as we can You rule!

Hi Giles – part of the beauty of house concerts is how the format can be molded to the music. There’s no reason why Baroque music wouldn’t work just as well as any other small ensemble. I’m sure it’ll work better in a house than in most venues. It’s a great way to turn a new audience onto the delights of Baroque music. I look forward to hearing how you get on!

Jim – good luck with the booking stuff, it’s great to see you getting stuck into so many different kinds of promotion. You’re onto something, stick at it!

TBP – thanks!