Welcome to the Live It OutLoud information center!
A place where you can get all the info you need for the upcoming summer!

Here are some videos explaining in detail most the parts of the program so you know what to expect from Live It OutLoud!

• What Is Live It Out Loud
  • Live it OutLoud is an exhaustive 8 week simulation of what it is like to be an active member of the music community. We do this by creating an entire small music community within the program! This community thrives and drives a formidable group of new artists in the greater Tacoma and you can be a part of that!
  • During the program, you will be placed in a band and learn all the ins and outs of being a musician from professional mentors that will guide you every step of the way!
  • You’ll perform shows, record songs and even compete for a chance to make a professional music video! All while being integrated to an emerging and strong local music community that you will be able to be a part of for years to come! 
• What to expect from this program
  • Signup

Signing up for Live It OutLoud is very easy. Simply go to Live It OutLoud.net, (hint, you’re already there!) and right on the front page is a banner that says signup!

Click on that, fill out all the information and you're ready to go!

Keep in mind, the signup does not assign your band, that will happen after the evaluations are complete at the beginning of the program. But, we will use all the info you use in the signups to help us place you as best as possible!

• Evaluation and band placement

Evaluations are simply a first meeting with you, your parents or guardians and a few of the mentors. You’ll play or sing a song or two and we’ll talk about what kinds of things you're interested in doing this year. It is NOT an audition! You’ll be placed in the program no matter what, we just wanna get to know you as a musician so we can place you in as best of a situation as we can. 

Each Evaluation will only take 10-15 minutes, we will have equipment set up for you to use, a drumset, guitar amps, PA system for backing tracks. Anything you could need to show us whatcha got! Being nervous is normal, just remember it will only be for people that wanna see you succeed! Don't worry about mistakes, they happen all the time. All the mentors are really good at seeing beyond any mistakes to what you're going after and we’re here to make sure you get there!

After you play, we’ll talk for a few minutes about the kinds of styles you're interested in and what kind of band you'd like to be in. If the mentors know you from a previous year, we may even present you with a challenge for the year! something to get your gears turning for the summer! 

It's really important to come to evaluations with an open mind, fitting everyone into bands will require some adaptability sometimes. That said, some of the most interesting bands that have formed in LIOL have been from people from all kinds of backgrounds and styles putting everything together in new and unusual ways. Metallica as a folk song? Let It Go with double bass? Metal Billy Eylish cover with an original rap bridge?  These are things that have happened in LIOL and you’ll be in a band that does something just as cool like that too!

Try to avoid having a perfect band in mind, you could accidentally disappoint yourself by not being ready and excited to learn new things and maybe even new styles. Coming to evaluation with as open of a mind as possible for what you could do will carry you far in this program but also the music scene as a whole. Many of the mentors have been in many styles of bands and all will tell you that a go with the flow attitude is the most important thing we look for in a band mate!

There is also a chance you may be asked to be in more than one band! This happens if there is a shortage of a particular instrument or if you play more than one instrument. Be sure to tell us all your instruments, you could be in a band on two different ones! 

• Clinics

Each year we put together a series of clinics and workshops this years clinics are:

1. Recording
   • During the program, you will get the opportunity to go into a professional recording studio. This clinic is to help prepare you not only for that but also cover demo recording and other parts of the recording process so that you're as ready as you can be for the studio!
2. Song Writing
   • Possibly the most hands-on workshop! We talk about song writing in depth and talk about practical ways you can start to form your own songs and take them to new heights. THEN! We actually write a brand new song together and take it through some phases and try out some of the techniques we just talked about!
3. Music Biz
   • Here we talk about the biz side of things, an often overlooked and separate part of being a musician and artist. Branding, royaltees, booking agents and record labels are all covered in this workshop.
4. Stage Etiquette
   • In this workshop we talk about ALL the ins and out of putting on a show and the dos and don’ts of working on a stage. Lots of little tips to help things go smoothly as well as answering all your questions about what you can expect from the shows to come!
5. 2023 Theme - Community
   • A community is an important part of being a musician. You need to have others you can come to rely on for things you can't do on your own. Finding band members, looking for places to play, and finding other artists to support and book shows with are all parts of being in a thriving community. Even some friendly competition can be a good thing to help us all strive to better ourselves but it's also important to remember that a rising tide carries all ships. If anyone in our community does well, it helps us all in the long run. 

 

• What to do at shows
  • This year there are 3 shows that you will be preparing for. Here's a little info on how to best get yourself ready to perform!
    • Dress to impress.
      • It’s simple, your band should look like a band! Make sure you coordinate with your bandmates on what your style will be. If you don't know where to start, a simple starting place is to wear black and pick a color you all accent with. You could add more things like no logos, or even suits! Maybe animal onesies is your vibe or everyone wears shredded cloaks or metal studs! Whatever it is, make sure you are all on it in some way so you look like your part of the same band.
    • Stay with your band
      • Your bandmates and you should try to stick together as much as possible so when it's time to go on, you're ready to jump up and do your thing! Lineups will be presented the day of the show, so you wont know when you go on till the day of so it's important to be ready right at the start of the show just in case you're up first! If you're not first, find out who's on before you and make sure your whole band is ready to hop on stage right after the band before you is done so the show can run smoothly.
    • Support the other bands!
      • In a music scene, it's important to support all the other bands you play with as much as possible. At the Live it OutLoud shows, we encourage you to be up front and loudly encourage and support each band from the first to last and help keep the energy up! They will do the same for you ensuring every band has a great crowd to play for but also you immerse yourself in the live music scene and further glue your music scene together. These are people you may end up in bands with later on for years to come, make good impressions and you will always have resources you need to make music!

• Being active in your band
  • Being active in your band is super important not only for you but the rest of your bandmates as well! Being active means many things, one of the basic ones is simply showing up to practice on time making sure you have everything you need with you. Also make sure you have your schedule in order so you can plan easily with your band. You should also be actively engaging with your bandmates about when the next practice is and checking in with each person to make sure they can make it. Scheduling is the most difficult part of being in a band and it requires effort from EVERYONE in the band to make it easy and quick. 

 

• Another really important aspect of being active in your band is with the music itself. Has your band picked some covers? If not, be active in asking what songs everyone wants to do and work on. Once you have a few songs to work on, make sure to show up to practice with those songs fully learned so your band doesn't have to wait on you while you learn the song. If you’re working on some original songs, be active and participate as much as you can in the writing process. Even if you don't have a lot of experience writing songs, you can help make notes about the arrangement and make sure you remember all the changes and chords or lyrics someone else wrote. It's a team effort to write and it's always different from band to band but one thing that's always the same is it takes everyone actively participating to make it a success.

 

• Lastly, Being active in your band means encouraging and bringing up your bandmates! Staying excited for what's coming up to work on and reminding your bandmates that they rock and that they will do great! It may seem like a given, but if you don’t say it out loud your appreciation and excitement, your bandmates might not know how you feel about them and the songs you're working on. This goes for people in other bands as well. If someone feels nervous or maybe even feels like they messed up on stage, remind them of the many other times they killed it and did great! We all tell ourselves stories about ourselves that might not be true and having someone see the good things you're putting out into the world can go a very long way to helping them up if they feel down. Doing this also has the side benefit of reinforcing your own excitement and general good feelings about your band and the direction you're heading. Might seem cheesy but it's very important to a healthy and successful band dynamic.  

 

• About the Mentors
  • The Mentors for Live It OutLoud are all seasoned musicians with decades of experience. They know what to do, and what not to do in any given situation of being a musician. They are here to help you with all kinds of things including:
    • Organizing your band:
      • Your mentor will help you make sure all your bases are covered and that you know all the aspects of being in a band you should be preparing for. A lot of details are easy to overlook even for pros so having help from someone that's been doing it for decades is a big help!
    • Polishing your show
      • There are a lot of little things that can make your show flow smoother and make you feel more confident on stage. Your mentor has been at it a very long time and no matter what style you're going for, having a smooth show is important. Lean on your mentor for these little things and you will find a lot of valuable info on how to make your show epic!
    • Preparing your music
      • Your mentor can also help facilitate working with the actual material you intend to play. Whether it's helping to tighten up your original song, or identify places in cover songs that can be focused on for rehearsal. Your mentor has had many years of experience getting detail oriented about music and will be able to help you figure out what best to work on!
• Practice rooms
  • How to use the gear
    • The Practice Rooms are packed with gear to help you make noises! 
      • There will be a PA system with monitors for vocals and other tracks. You can even use the PA to make demo recordings directly from the board by plugin in your own laptop or using one of the recording laptops we have available to use. 
      • There Are guitar amps, bass amps, drums and even keys in the practice rooms for you to use. If you need help with settings on the amps, your mentor can help you dial in a good sound but feel free to experiment with all the different sounds your amp can do so you can get used to setting them the way you like it!

 

• Competition
  • Live it OutLoud also has a small competitive aspect to it but it's important to remember that it's only to acknowledge the hard work that goes into the program and your own personal growth should be the focus for the program. That said, here's how the competitive part of the program works:

 

• A Panel of three judges will score your final performance on a variety of categories. These categories correspond with the awards that are handed out in relation to them. There are several categories that receive awards each year, some individual, some as a whole band. Here are the categories for 2023:
  • Best Performance
  • Best Original Song
  • Best Dressed
  • Best Guitarist
  • Best Drummer
  • Best Bassist
  • Best Singer
  • Best Keys or Other
• In addition, the 3 bands with the highest combined average scores will get to make professional music videos after the program is over to be premiered in november!
  These will be music videos for the original songs you recorded in the program. It’s a lot of fun to get to do this part of the program and it adds more motivation to push yourself even more for the final show!