Another in our series of tips on how to best get your band ready to make a television appearance.

In tip #7 in this series, we talked about subbing for a house band on a television show. In that tip we mentioned having at least 10 up-tempo themes (12-15 would be better).

Here are some ways to get though the night without making yourself or the show look bad. First appoint a bandleader for the night. It will be their responsibility to cue the band. Let's say you're the newly appointed band-meister. Your first step is to get a run sheet from the stage producer and attend the pre-show production meeting (assuming there is one). The run-sheet breaks the show up into segments and lists what guests will be appearing, for how long, and when breaks will take place. Think of it as a production sheet for recording. Usually, in the pre-show production meeting, the stage producer will verbally run through the show. If any music cues are needed for special segments, this is where you'll find out. Make notes on the run sheet and keep it with you onstage.

Now, here's where the bandleader and band members have the most difficulty: You cannot afford to lose yourself in performance the way you would on stage. Absolutely no closing your eyes when you play! You must focus on the producer or director for cues, and your band mates must focus on you in order to be ready to start or stop on cue. The only exceptions would be when the host does a monolog; they tend to want to cue the band to cut the music. Watch for hand gestures. Guests, on the other hand, tend to wait for the band to stop playing. In some cases, they make the music a part of their opening act (this happens most frequently with comedians) so you really need to pay attention. It has to look as though you had it all planned out ahead of time. Of course, this raises some questions regarding how to stop playing without sounding like someone pulled the plug in the middle of a verse. We'll cover that in our next two tips.