Having a great night playing your instrument gives you an incredibly rewarding feeling, and is something that every professional musician strives for with each gig. Now aside from your personal satisfaction in your playing, every gig also provides the potential for more personal success. What I'm referring to is the kind of valuable benefits that you can get from taking advantage of your breaks, after each set, to "work the crowd." Getting out in the audience and mingling with the customers can benefit you in several important areas. Here are just five ways you can use this time to improve your career.

Mingling Improves Your Image

This first benefit is probably pretty obvious, yet many musicians fail to really take advantage of this opportunity. Getting out to talk and mix with the people of your audiences can really win them over. Now that they've met you, they may end up staying longer at your performance than they had planned on. Have a schedule of your upcoming performances you can hand out, or a website address so that they can check your playing schedule out online. Just make sure you have something that can they can take home with them enabling them to know where you are playing and to become part of your following. This makes club owners very happy when you can bring in a lot of your own crowd when you are booked in his/her club. This will be great for your business.

Sell Merchandise

If you or your band has any kind of merchandise; CDs, t-shirts, hats, etc, this is a fantastic time to make a few sales. Some people may be to shy to approach you directly, so it helps if you're out mingling with them. During the conversation at their table, you can mention the CD that you just finished, or something like that, and this could help make some sales and, again, could recruit more people for your following. If they've got your CD to listen to, or your t-shirt to wear, they will be likely to want to come see you perform again.

Recruit Students

Often there will be amateur guitar players in the crowd who will admire your playing. Using your break times to meet these people could give you the opportunities to let these players know that you teach and that you would be happy to schedule some lesson time with them. Even if you're "on the road" keep lesson materials with you in case an opportunity pops up to do some teaching while you're traveling.

Talk to future employers/contacts

You never know who may be in the crowd. There could be another band leader who likes what you do and would like to offer you a better position in their band. Or maybe you're happy in your current band. It's still good to make, and maintain business contacts for the future. There also may be another club owner, or agent there who would be interested in getting you more work.

Develops social skills

The business of music is very "people" oriented, and the better your social skills are, the easier time you'll have in the business. Getting out in the audience every night really pushes you to improve your "people" skills. Use your break times to meet new people. Start conversations with customers and make them feel good about being there to see you. Don't ignore people when they want to approach you. Now, there is a good chance that you'll be dealing with people who may be a little too heavily into "Party Mode," and may be breathing pure alcohol into your face while they attempt to speak. This is a great opportunity to work on your skills at still being charming and social with them, yet being able to gracefully move on to another audience member who wants to talk to you.

Having a gig to work on your playing is a wonderful thing, just don't miss the other valuable, and sometimes priceless opportunities to take advantage of your break times to "work the crowd!"