If you want to earn some extra funds at your next gig consider a tip jar. Of course setting out a jar with ‘tips’ on it might earn you some spare change. But if you’d like to make some decent money for the night consider these, well, tips for tips:

• Get to know the audience. That means tell them your band name as well as introduce the group members. Tell them a little about you as individuals. When the audience sees you as fellow human beings, the better chance you’ll get a few extra tips that night.

• Be personable. That means smile, tell jokes, get them involved, whatever. The point again is if you come off as a person and not just an object attached to a musical instrument you’ll get more interaction, and tips, from the crowd.

• Cheap games. Do a short game like ‘name that tune’ and give away a free CD to the winner. Tell the patrons to put their names on a piece of paper if they tip a dollar and at the end of the next set you’ll give away a CD or a $1 off coupon for their CD. That idea alone could bring in over 10 times what your CD’s worth to produce.

• Be bold and just ask. Between breaks socialize and ask audience members to help ‘feed the starving artists’. Keep it light and casual. Humor is a good way to get into someone’s pocketbook or wallet.

• CD Sale. Never give back a $5 bill. Always give back ones because it makes it easier to tip. Why do you think waiters and waitresses do it? Another suggestion is to set the CD price so the customer gets two ones. If you make a sale be sure that tip jar is handy and nearby so the patrons can drop the extra change inside for you.

It might seem simple enough and perhaps you figured you’d never have time to fool with just a few extra bucks but you’d be surprised how much extra you can earn in a single night by entertaining the audience and putting in a little effort. 

4. SPOTLIGHT ON…BLAME SALLY

Their music has been described as emotionally charged, passionate, high melodic and compelling. With a "unique command over the song," Blame Sally is Pam Delgado (percussion, vocals, songwriting), Renee Harcourt (guitar, banjo, bass, songwriting, vocals), Jeri Jones (guitar, bass, dobro, songwriting, vocals), and Monica Pasqual (piano, accordion, keys, vocals and songwriting). The four accomplished instrumentalist/singers combine their strikingly different approaches to create a distinct and beautiful sound. Download.com says Blame Sally, the San Francisco-based folk-pop quartet,  “are each veteran musicians and songwriters in their own right, and together they create soulful, complex, finely crafted music.” Monica Pasqual spoke with us about life, music and being in an all-girl band.

·    When did you realize you wanted to be a musician? ** I was about three years old. My father was an accomplished classical pianist and we had a grand piano in our living room. I used to lie underneath it and play with the pedals while he played Mozart. I started taking piano and singing lessons when I was five. I learned to read music before I read words. I studied classical piano pretty seriously from the time I was eleven years old, through high school and a couple of years as a piano performance major in college.

·    What groups or artist had a major impact on your music style? ** My first real loves in music were Bach, Peggy Lee and the Beatles. Mostly Bach. Though I now see myself really as a songwriter, one of my greatest pleasures is arranging music in the studio, weaving melodies through each other. In my twenties my love of music was re-invigorated by the burgeoning songwriter scene with songwriters like Suzanne Vega and Lucinda Williams.

·    Who’s your biggest supporter? **My boyfriend, Tom Erikson. He's at every show, recording, photographing, and then giving great feedback. He even helps me carry my keyboard. It wouldn't be nearly as fun for me if he weren't so into it. We met when he booked me for a songwriter series he was producing called the San Francisco Song Cycle. 

·    How do you view the music industry? **What I don't like about it is stuff that I perceive from my outsider's point of view. It appears to me that the "Industry" is not really about music anymore. The industry that developed out of the wild, ecstatic chaos of the 50, 60s and 70s music scene probably started out as a good thing. People heard something great and wanted to sort of harness it, make it possible for this innovative music to move into the culture. Money was a very exciting by-product.  Pretty soon the music became the "product" and money the focus. Now it's like everything else in a consumer-driven society: It's lowest common denominator, marketable, low-risk, high profit margin and not very interesting to me. On the other hand, there are a lot of people, like me and my band mates in Blame Sally, who have completely let go of any pretensions to accessing the "Mainstream". And once you stop caring about being accepted and marketed by the Industry, you realize that there is a huge world of music appreciators out there who are not responding to the hard-hitting tactics of the music industry. There are a lot of people who are completely turned off by the over-eager, T&A, airbrushed relentless marketing of empty product. These are the people who are listening to non-commercial radio stations, buying tickets to music festivals, searching the Internet and basically going out of their way to avoid the obvious and find what really speaks to them. The music industry that I love and care about, then, is the industry of musicians and songwriters and venues and small labels and independent radio DJs, all working hard to produce and present something heartfelt, meaningful and true.

·    Can you tell us something about your band the fans might find interesting but don’t know? **I think I am part of one of the best bands in San Francisco. We are four women, we all write, we're all really good players, we all sing, we produce our own records, we figure everything out for ourselves. And we're nice to each other. I watched the Wilco movie the other day, which was fascinating to me for many reasons. But in the end, one of the things that really amazed me was how rare it is for bands to stick together and for relationships to improve in the creative process. (Their's didn't). I work with a group of people who always figure out how to get along without compromising the integrity of what we're creating. We're now working on our third album together, we're recording it ourselves and we're working together better than ever.

·    What’s the best and worst thing about playing in a studio? **Now that we have our own studio, it's only good. It used to be intimidating thinking that every vocal take was costing you a couple of hundred dollars. It seemed so serious back then. Now we have our own Pro-Tools set up at Renee's studio. She's learned how to engineer and we have the luxury of playing with things, taking chances and trying again if something doesn't work. I could be there all day and all night. 

·    Where do you see yourself in five years? **Making music full time with my band and continuing to do music for film and television. I don't imagine that I have control over the future, but I suspect that Blame Sally has the potential to be pretty popular around the country within the singer-songwriter markets. I see myself as a working musician, not a "star", but not struggling.

·    And the standard question every wonders…Your favorite color and number? **My favorite number is 13. Second favorite is 63. I like a lot of color - if you ever see my house you'll know that I have a hard time deciding on one color. Let's just say I like color.

Visit www.blamesally.com to see the video "If You Tell a Lie" and more band information.

Upcoming shows:

Sunday, January 9th
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market Street
San Francisco, CA  94114

Sunday, February 6th
Bazaar Cafe
5927 California Street (between 21st and 22nd Aves)
San Francisco, CA  94114

Sunday, February 20th, 7 PM
Rancho Nicasio
on the town square
Nicasio, CA

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