Seven Gigging Tips From Gregg Bissonette

By Gregg Bissonette
Published /September/October 2004 issue of DRUM! Magazine

Prepare Your Music

You have to know the music when you go into a gig. It really shows if you’re unprepared. I even write out transcriptions from the CD of every beat, every fill, and so on. The most important thing I do is write the tempo in the upper right corner of the page. So many drummers don’t think of the tempo of the song. I use a metronome, a song starter, to check my tempo when I count off a song. At the very least you should take time to sing a verse of the song in your head before you count it off.