What is call time? (For musicians)

Call time is the time you need to be at the gig, ready to work. Not pulling into the parking lot, not looking for the loading door: in the room, gear in hand, ready to do whatever comes next. It's the one time on a gig sheet every band member has to hit.

The term comes from theatre and film, where cast and crew each get a "call". On a gig it works the same way. Different people can have different calls: the drummer might be called an hour before the singer, because a drum kit takes longer to set up than a microphone.

Call time vs load-in, soundcheck and downbeat

A typical gig sheet has a handful of times on it. Here's what each one means.

The gaps are rough guides, not rules. A trio playing a restaurant might load in, set up and play within 30 minutes. A ten-piece wedding band with its own production can need three hours before the first dance.

How to set a call time

Work backwards from the downbeat:

1. Start with the hard times. Downbeat, doors, and when the venue lets you in.
2. Add soundcheck. Allow 20 to 30 minutes for a simple setup, longer for a big band or in-ear monitors.
3. Add setup time per person. Drums and keys take longest. Vocalists and horn players are usually quickest.
4. Add a buffer. Parking, a long walk from the loading dock, the elevator that's out of service. Fifteen minutes is the least you want.
5. Give staggered calls if it helps. There's no reason to have the singer standing around for an hour while the drummer builds the kit. Just make sure each person knows their own call.

What "on time" means at call time

The old line among working musicians is "early is on time, on time is late". If your call is 5:00 pm, plan to walk in at 4:45 pm. A late band member delays soundcheck for everyone, and at a wedding or a corporate event there's rarely any slack in the evening's schedule to absorb it.

Making sure everyone knows the call time

Most missed calls aren't laziness. They're the call time that changed in a group chat message nobody scrolled back to, or the sub who only got the original email. A few habits help:

• Put every time in one place. One gig sheet with load-in, call, soundcheck and downbeat, not times scattered across messages.
• Write each band member's own call. If calls are staggered, say whose is whose.
• Use the venue's time zone. It matters more than you'd think for out-of-town gigs.
• Tell everyone when it changes, and check they read it. A changed call time that one person missed is worse than no change at all.

That last one is what GigPenguin is built for. Each band member gets their own gig sheet with every time on it, always the current version. When you change the call time, everyone gets a notice saying what changed, old to new, and you can see who tapped Got it and who's still on the old plan. More on band communication without the group chat.