Brad Hoshaw

Hi! I'm so happy you're interested in hosting a house concert. In my experience as a performer, house concerts have been – by far – the most fun, rewarding and memorable concerts I've ever been a part of. I'm excited we have the opportunity to experience this together.

This guide will take you step-by-step through the method by which I'll organize all the house concerts on my 2018 Summer House Concert Tour. Through a lot of research, I have learned a lot about how to structure these shows to make them the most enjoyable and successful events that they can be.

• It's important that you read this all the way through, even if you've hosted a house concert before, so that we're on the same page as we start planning together.

At the end of reading through the guide, if all the parameters seem good to you, then I'll have a short list of questions for you that I'll use to pick a date for your house concert.

I hope this will inspire you and get you excited for what is guaranteed to be one of the most unforgettable things we do all year. Ready?

I have staged house concerts in living rooms, backyards, and on back patios; in small houses, big houses, condos and apartments; at a winery, in an art studio, and at a local theater. The point is that the "house" can be any space you have access to where your friends can gather, sit, and enjoy a concert.

• The only requirement for the space is that everyone in attendance must be able to gather in the same space, seated, for the entirety of the hour-long concert.

Pre- and post-concert mingling can of course spill into other rooms or areas of the property, but I ask that for the concert time, everyone is gathered close and seated, together, directly in front of where I'll be set up to perform. I've learned that seating around tables for the concert works against the creation of the intimate experience I aim to bring to the audience, so I ask that there be no table seating for the performance.

It's fine if there aren't enough chairs for everybody – carpet seating in a packed living room or blankets on the lawn in the backyard can work great as extra seating options.

I will work with you to pick a date for your house concert. This is fun and exciting, and it's also a bit hectic on my end, as I am juggling several different hosts' schedules to make things work for everyone as I move in a (hopefully somewhat) logical way around the US playing concerts almost every day of the week.

In a perfect world, every day would be the weekend, and then I could do a house concert on the weekend. However, a quick look at the calendar reminds us that in fact Friday and Saturday only account for about 28% of the week – but I play shows nearly every night! This means that in reality your concert will have about a 72% chance of falling on a "school night."

But don't dispair! While weekend shows can certainly be a lot of fun, I've had some of my best shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The bottom line is that if you have a good group of people, you can't stop the fun from happening, no matter the day. And, this is not a particularly lengthy event; the time from guest arrival until the music is done is typically only about two hours (more on this in a minute) – making this the perfect event for a unique weekday evening get-together.

So, if you want a weekend date, I will certainly try to make that work – but keep in mind that other people want one too, and there are only two per week. Thanks in advance for being flexible so that I can accommodate as many potential hosts as possible.

• At the end of this guide, one of the questions I'll have for you is to provide me with any dates in August and September that you will be unavailable to host your house concert. So if you have a vacation planned, or a wedding to attend, or a regular weekly event that make you unavailable, I'll want to know each of those things to help me plan the tour.