A guide to hiring live music for your event...

LCQ providing live music at the Natural History Museum for a gala event.

Let's say you are planning an event for your company and thinking of hiring a musician. That is a great idea!

Companies hire musicians for various types of events – holiday parties, sponsorship appreciation, business anniversaries, retirements – the list goes on.

Before getting bogged down in researching / trying to book the right music group for your event, consider your strategic objectives and some of the practical considerations.

Since LCQ has performed a numerous events around San Diego, and having provided musical entertainment for all kinds of companies, we feel qualified to:
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• Explain why your initial instinct to hire a live musician over a DJ or other recorded music was a good one – and why it makes business sense;
• Illustrate why hiring a musician is a great choice compared with hiring other types of entertainers;
• Offer you some tips for getting the most out of your booking.

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Benefits of hiring live music for your event

a) Enhancing your event’s theme

The main benefit of hiring a live music ensemble is that we can tailor the repertoire to the purpose and theme of your event. In the instance where there’s no set order of music requests, we might deliver:

• Upbeat jazz standards for a drinks reception; or
• A mixture of contemporary pop, vintage pop and jazz standards during a sit down dinner

If you want to get into more specifics with your music list, you can get exactly what you’re looking for, e.g:

• Disney theme tunes – for a toy release, child's party, or indeed, Disney related event;
• Elton John or Beatles covers – for, a British pop themed party;
• TV theme tunes – for a quiz night;
• James Bond covers, for a Bond-themed night;
• Contemporary classical pieces for an art-installation.

b) A live performance, responding to the vibe

For musicians like LCQ, its not just about playing the songs in the same way a DJ might just select a track of music. An experienced, talented ensemble will judge the mood and vibe of the event and play the chosen songs with the appropriate gusto or restraint, or volume, as required.

Further, with our unique arrangements of music, we might infuse a pop cover with a slightly jazzy style to give it a classy or unique twist. It just depends what’s required on the night and how the our ensemble responds to everything going on around us.

A conscientious ensemble leader should have the proverbial feelers out constantly, checking the room to ensure that what our group is performgin optimally supports the atmosphere at the time.
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Our ensemble will be looking to cover an “entertainment arc”, e.g.

• Starting reasonably quietly while there are only a few people in the room;
• Building things as more guests arrive;
• Delivering a boisterous flourish as the atmosphere hits its peak; and then
• Dipping down at the end when people start saying their goodbyes and looking for taxis.

Hiring an experienced ensemble will mean they will know exactly what to do and when.

Gala reception at the San Diego Natural History Museum

Practical tips for booking your live ensemble:

Reconnaissance – If you’re planning your event in advance and if the planning stage warrants it, we might be able to join you for a reconnaissance meeting at the venue, or give you some tips about the many venues we've already performed in. We can discuss things such as how many guests, position of the ensemble, what you see happening on the night. Logistical items are also high on the priority list for discussion, such as amplification / microphoning, etc.

Ensemble options – We should be able to advise you on which of our groups would best fit considering the location, number of guests, and type of music requested. 

Holiday parties – if you are specifically organizing a sing-a-long as part of your holiday party, please email us a list of songs ahead of time so we can ensure we have the music prepared.

Charity/Non-profit – if you are a charity you will probably be able to negotiate some kind of discount on the ensembles standard rate. We might likely want something in return, for example a link from a news item on your website, a complimentary page in your event brochure. Good old fashioned bartering is on the table as long as everyone wins!

Fees – On the subject of costs, good-quality event ensembles typically charge $1000-$1500 for a two hour event. Keep in mind, on the lower end, we find you usually get what you pay for. 
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Choosing your ensemble – I don’t need to explain how to go about finding your ensemble (you can just book us now!) – but anyone with access to the internet is perfectly capable. Read reviews, look over our website and social media, make sure the group you are hiring is a good fit! We are really a laid back group of musicians and we want our absolute best side to shine for your event!

Wind ensemble versus other types of musicians

So we’ve just looked at the main benefits of hiring the Left Coast Quintet or Trio for your event.

But our ensemble and a corporate event is also a particularly good match – when considering other types of musicians. Here’s a few examples why:

• Pianist. Solo piano players are great, but they can be somewhat disconnected from your guests, and you typically have to put them far away if you don't want people tripping over a piano. Plus, you'll either have to rent a piano, or have them bring a keyboard (and provide electricity, speakers, etc) which just bogs the whole process down.
• Sax. Unlike a solo sax player, our ensemble can carry an entire song – the rhythm, all the chords and melody, making what we are playing instantly recognizable. Can a sax player do that without a backing track? – No.
• String quartet. LCQ is well regarded for having a pleasing sound that you won’t get bored with. A string quartet might be fine for a drinks reception but if you are looking for a whole evening’s worth of entertainment, can your ears really endure the sound of a string quartet for more than about an hour? Again the answer is likely to be no.
• Acoustic guitar/singer. With our ensemble, your event will be lent a classy vibe that corporate events demand. By contrast, a singer with an acoustic guitar has its place, but this tends to be more suited to a casual-type event.
• DJ. Can we call a DJ a musician? Sorry...! There is very little connection that they have with the guests, they are behind a large booth wearing headphones and have no idea what it is actually like to make music without pulling it off a streaming service or throwing in a flash drive that they downloaded. 

Getting the most out of your live musician booking:

c) Scaling your guest list with relative ease

Another benefit of hiring a live ensemble for your event is that our group can provide you with the capability to scale.
For example, we can entertain 300 people just as easily as 50.

Yes, this is possible –  How? The answer is sound equipment. Lets look at two scenarios.

Scenario 1: The quintet or trio is performing indoors at your venue, with no amplification.
Once your guest numbers exceed 100, you will very likely need some amplification. A sound engineer with the relevant equipment will be able to position a microphone or two around the ensemble, connect this to their sound equipment and project the sound around the room – providing just enough background music volume to accompany the sound of chatting guests.
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Scenario 2: The ensemble is playing on our own microphone system
There are two options when we bring our own system:

• We will likely have our own dedicated PA system, capable of projecting to around 150 guests maximum. Just let us know how many guests you are expecting so we can plan accordingly.
• A sound engineer, who’s either on-site, supplied by the venue, or is one you’ve hired in, can plug our mics into their sound system – which will likely have capacity for 300-400 guests.

Hopefully some of this information helped in determining that first, it's a great idea to hire a live music group for your company event or gala, and second, that we would be delighted to be picked to provide that entertainment! With a wealth of experience, we can guarantee that your event entertainment will go off without any issues and guests will be very happy! If you'd like to check our availability and discuss booking us for an upcoming event, please fill out our contact form by clicking here!