Tips on starting a Band........

Jam10

I would really like to play in a band, but I find the hardest thing is finding the right people. Everybody's schedule is so different, people have different taste in music and it's not like playing on a hockey team where if 3 or 4 guys don't show up you can still play but in a band if 1 guy doesn't show up you can't play. It's important to have every band member at every practice. For people who are in bands or who have been in bands before do you have any tips or suggestions on starting a band? I'm from London, Ontario so if anybody from this area is interested maybe we can jam.

Thanks

xtremehardy388

It has to be with friends. I've been told by people that it doesn't have to be but honestly, if you all aren't friends and hate eachother, it's going to suck. I've gone through this. Introduce music to your friends, I bought a friend of mine who played acoustic guitar ten years ago a Fender half stack and a strat and he's falling in love with playing. Our bassist hasn't been playing a whole year yet and he's doing amazing. These guys I've known forever and had marching band with them, we just fit. Maybe even go to your local guitar shop and make a few buddies. You'll never know what you'll find unless you ask around. We JUST got a drummer at a party I was at because a coworker old her played the drums and was interested in jamming with us. We all just click. I wish you the best of luck

i like matt.c

xtremehardy388 wrote:

It has to be with friends. I've been told by people that it doesn't have to be but honestly, if you all aren't friends and hate eachother, it's going to suck. I've gone through this. Introduce music to your friends, I bought a friend of mine who played acoustic guitar ten years ago a Fender half stack and a strat and he's falling in love with playing. Our bassist hasn't been playing a whole year yet and he's doing amazing. These guys I've known forever and had marching band with them, we just fit. Maybe even go to your local guitar shop and make a few buddies. You'll never know what you'll find unless you ask around. We JUST got a drummer at a party I was at because a coworker old her played the drums and was interested in jamming with us. We all just click. I wish you the best of luck

Just to add on to what you said, from my experience, everyone in the band should want to go in the same direction musically, so you are all on the same page. Just because you're friends doesn't mean you wanna play the same style. Hope that helps Jam10.

Jam10

Thanks guys!

All Those Yesterdays

Everyone goes through the same issues. It's extremely difficult to line everyone up and having all "cylinders firing". My current band, has been around as a two piece, just doing song writing since like '00. Went through many upon many members trying to get the right combination. Finally we said screw it and did it on our own to record the album. We had a friend of mine who was in other bands at the time come in to do the drum tracks etc. Well he is now officially a member. So we are a three piece, with a album done. But aren't going to play out. We disagree on this now . So we are just going to do a full length album now.

Bands are hard and stressful, these two guys are my friends for sure, but it's pretty much just a band friendship for the most part, once in a while we might hang out.

Good luck, and by the way London, Ontario is a cool city. Saw the boys play there back on the Canadian tour.

xtremehardy388

i like matt.c wrote:

Just to add on to what you said, from my experience, everyone in the band should want to go in the same direction musically, so you are all on the same page. Just because you're friends doesn't mean you wanna play the same style. Hope that helps Jam10.

Very true.

PatrickBateman

i like matt.c wrote:

Just to add on to what you said, from my experience, everyone in the band should want to go in the same direction musically, so you are all on the same page. Just because you're friends doesn't mean you wanna play the same style. Hope that helps Jam10.

yup


I love me some Slayer once in awhile....but when the singer and I want to just play some Zeppelin and the guitarist starts in with Skeletons of Society, it can get annoying

Anon

Good advice from people here, i'd probably only add a little bit to whats already said.

How serious everyone is about starting the band, is prolly the biggest thing to consider. You can have the best people on the instruments, but if they are not on the same page as you as to the level of committment needed, you might get let down. You're going to want everyone in the band to be on the same page. Decide if you just wanna rock out in the basement and drink beers mmm or become regulars in the local club circuit!

Are you gonna do originals or covers? Combinations? Remember, there's some legal crap you need to be aware of if you are gonna do covers.

Also, unless you are totally against it, don't make gender an issue. Girls can rock too. I've heard people say they'd never have a girl in the band because they don't want any added tensions that a girl/boy relationship could add. I was younger when i first heard that, and i just though 'whatever dude, i just wanna play guitar you know.'

Choosing the name can be fun . Seriously though, don't rush in and do that straight away. You need to hang out and get a good feel of your band before you commit to something, because what might sound cool before you all get together, may not necessarily be right for you when you work out where you are heading and what style and image you are going to go with.

I wish you all the best with it.

jmccue7

being in a band is like being married to 4 or 5 guys at once. Choose your partners wisely.

xtremehardy388

Pj_Gurl wrote:

Good advice from people here, i'd probably only add a little bit to whats already said.

How serious everyone is about starting the band, is prolly the biggest thing to consider. You can have the best people on the instruments, but if they are not on the same page as you as to the level of committment needed, you might get let down. You're going to want everyone in the band to be on the same page. Decide if you just wanna rock out in the basement and drink beers mmm or become regulars in the local club circuit!

Are you gonna do originals or covers? Combinations? Remember, there's some legal crap you need to be aware of if you are gonna do covers.

Also, unless you are totally against it, don't make gender an issue. Girls can rock too. I've heard people say they'd never have a girl in the band because they don't want any added tensions that a girl/boy relationship could add. I was younger when i first heard that, and i just though 'whatever dude, i just wanna play guitar you know.'

Choosing the name can be fun . Seriously though, don't rush in and do that straight away. You need to hang out and get a good feel of your band before you commit to something, because what might sound cool before you all get together, may not necessarily be right for you when you work out where you are heading and what style and image you are going to go with.

I wish you all the best with it.

What kind of legal stuff?

Anon

xtremehardy388 wrote:

What kind of legal stuff?

In relation to the covers songs if anyone is looking to publically perform them.

Ian posted some good indepth information a little while ago.

http://forums.pearljam.com/showpost.php?p=5138047&postcount=9

voodoopug

I played in a very successful Rolling Stones tribute band for about 6 years. I left the band when we had our second child and the free time just wasn't there. Here is my bits of advice.

1. Play with people you enjoy spending time with, but keep in mind that playing in a band is almost like dating someone, you will, and I stress, will at some point see things in a different direction. Be prepared to keep the band separate from the friendship.

2. Make sure everyone in the band has the same type of commitment and expectations. It will lead to a major conflict if half of the band wants to jam on weekends and the other half wants to play 5-10 shows per month and try to take it to the next level. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a fun band that plays once a month live or so, but make sure that is what everyone in the band is committed to.

3. Make sure everyone is committed to the time/expenses of rehearsal. If you are planning on becoming a prominent member of the local music scene and beyond, you will quickly get to the point where you need to rent rehearsal space. I find it works best if all members of the band have a pre arranged day/time to rehearse each week, preferably 2-3 times per week.

4. Keep a very open mind, but offer help to your band. If some one is playing a song not quite right, be political enough to point out what they could do different and not what they are doing wrong.

5. Stick up for your bandmates. Our drummer was a very good drummer, but wasn't the best in Chicago by anymeans, but anytime any other band/fan would ask me "how's your Charlie Watts?". I'd always say that our Charlie is the best I've played with and really holds the sound together when we are playing.

6. Use decent equipment. If you are trying to play multiple shows with underpowere amps, cheap microphones, Squire guitars, etc....it will show. Save up some money and get some decent equipment. It never hurts to have two guitars on stage if you are not using any alternative tunings. Stopping to change a string in the middle of a set will kill your crowd, keep the string changes/repairs to between sets.

7. Work on vocals. Our shows used to run 4+ hours and I would never practice singing all out during our rehearsals, and it showed. I quickly came to realize that backing vocals not in harmony or lead vocals out of key will kill a song that is played behind you perfectly. Spend serious time working out harmonies and vocals.

8. When practicing, focus on a few songs at a time....get those real tight. A band who takes a few opening band slots and plays 7-10 very tight and well rehearsed songs gets rebookings more than a band who plays 40 songs but only a handful of them well....again, I had to learn this the hard way. As a Stones tribute show, people expected to hear "Start Me UP", "Satisfaction", "Brown SUgar", etc. and that is what we gave them, but we also would rehearse a few lesser known stones tunes and would have them so tight that we ended up getting multiple requests to hear our versions of songs like "Dead Flowers", "She's So Cold", and "Stray Cat Blues".

9. HAVE FUN! Only a VERY small percentage of people will make any type of money playing music. Play what you like with people you like and that makes it all worth it. Our band never made top dollar, but I enjoyed working with the musicians in my band, and we were playing the music that we loved.

ianvomsaal

Agreed - A lot goes into a band: The right people; Sometimes it's the right timing; Similar interests; Schedules; Similar goals; Etc.
It can sometimes feel like more trouble than it's worth, but if you have a good group of people the rewards can be amaranthine.

Pj_Gurl wrote:

In relation to the covers songs if anyone is looking to publically perform them.

Ian posted some good indepth information a little while ago.

http://forums.pearljam.com/showpost.php?p=5138047&postcount=9

Thanks Pj_Gurl, I forgot I posted that - Plus lets not forget what I also posted about recording other people's music:

ianvomsaal wrote:

Most of us (dare I say) in the "buisness" already belong to an organization like ASCAP.
If you share cover tunes publically without obtaining permission, you are, by practical purposes "breaking the law" (nod to Judas Priest).
If you'd like to legally make a small run CD (under 2,500 copies) to give out to friends and family (which contains a few covers) you NEED
to obtain a mechanical license.
The click: Harry Fox Agency can help you out for minimal cost. It's easy - just register, find the songs you want to cover, pay the
amount, and post the license # on the CD. The current statutory mechanical royalty rate is $.091 (9.1 cents) per song per unit for
recordings of compositions up to five (5:00) minutes in length.
For example, if one were to make a recording of a song that is less than five minutes in length (e.g. 4:07) and then manufacture and
distribute 500 units of the recording, the total amount of royalties due would be $45.50. ($0.091 X 500 (units) = $45.50).
For songs over five minutes in length, the rate is based upon $.0175 (1.75 cents) per minute or fraction thereof:
5:01 to 6:00 = $0.105 (6 X $.0175); 6:01 to 7:00 = $0.1225 (7 X $.0175); 7:01 to 8:00 = $0.14 (8 X $.0175). In addition to royalty
fees, there is a modest per-song processing fee of $13 to $15 charged by HFA, depending upon how many songs are licensed at once.
Cheers . . .

- Ian

Here's the actual link to that thread about cover/tribute bands: http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?p=5138047#post5138047

- Ian

DaytimeDilemma

Go to guitar center and look on the bulletin boards. Call some numbers on flyers. There are some cool people out there.

xtremehardy388

My band just had our first show and needless to say, it was terrible. We missed a lot for things but it just shows that we need to practice. Anyway, needed a bad show under our belts

lucylespian

Learn to sing.
Also, having an other instrument has to help. Bass players and drummers are like gold, guitarists are like bumholes.
I'm not in a band, but I'm doing both the above, drums and singing.

Anon

xtremehardy388 wrote:

My band just had our first show and needless to say, it was terrible. We missed a lot for things but it just shows that we need to practice. Anyway, needed a bad show under our belts

It's all good though, when you have a bad show, just take note of what went wrong, and what you weren't happy with and learn by it. That's all you can do. Good for the improvising skills No one has an awesome night their first night. And always remember, the people watching will more than likely not have even known all the mistakes you heard

xtremehardy388

Pj_Gurl wrote:

It's all good though, when you have a bad show, just take note of what went wrong, and what you weren't happy with and learn by it. That's all you can do. Good for the improvising skills No one has an awesome night their first night. And always remember, the people watching will more than likely not have even known all the mistakes you heard

That's what I'm finding out! A lot of people said we sounded great which is a HUGE surprise to me. I'm excited to practice and be ready for the next show. We sucked really bad but I'm gonna keep positive because I KNOW we can do better and we will! I'll send out demos when we get the full band recordings but I'm paranoid about stealing the songs so I'm getting them copywritten (thanks Ian for the links). We did, however, get a HUGE ovation for covering Ledbetter (I love that song). I broke a string on "Don't Gimme No Lip" and Army Reserve was a great cover (for my friend BJ in Iraq). The rest was pretty much originals and it was cool to see someone singing along to something I wrote...it's a big feeling. Apparently, she wants to walk down the aisle with that song at her wedding in a couple years. I learned though that with starting this band, ya gotta go through some people in order to find the right people and the more people you jam with, the more you learn.

Anon

xtremehardy388 wrote:

The rest was pretty much originals and it was cool to see someone singing along to something I wrote...it's a big feeling. Apparently, she wants to walk down the aisle with that song at her wedding in a couple years.

Now that is what it's all about isn't it. The fact that as a musician, you have created something that someone else can relate to, it moves them and makes a lasting impact on them. It really doesn't get any better than that.

butterfly1

xtremehardy388 wrote:

That's what I'm finding out! A lot of people said we sounded great which is a HUGE surprise to me. I'm excited to practice and be ready for the next show. We sucked really bad but I'm gonna keep positive because I KNOW we can do better and we will! I'll send out demos when we get the full band recordings but I'm paranoid about stealing the songs so I'm getting them copywritten (thanks Ian for the links). We did, however, get a HUGE ovation for covering Ledbetter (I love that song). I broke a string on "Don't Gimme No Lip" and Army Reserve was a great cover (for my friend BJ in Iraq). The rest was pretty much originals and it was cool to see someone singing along to something I wrote...it's a big feeling. Apparently, she wants to walk down the aisle with that song at her wedding in a couple years. I learned though that with starting this band, ya gotta go through some people in order to find the right people and the more people you jam with, the more you learn.

Hey that's great. If you are playing YellowLedbetter and AR, with originals, you are playing some complex stuff right there---. As I am sure you have heard, playing one gig is worth like 10x basement practice. Have no fear, cause as you aleady have discovered, what you as a musician hears, and what the crowd hears, can be two different things.

Jam10

Those are some great posts guys. Thanks a lot. There is a lot of great info on this board. I am married and have a 1 year old daughter so it's not like I want to go out and gig every weekend or play out 3 - 4 nights a week. I just want to have fun and do a couple gigs a month and practice with the same guys and see where it goes from there. I just have to find the right people who have the same goals. My number 1 priority is my family and music is my hobby. Are any of you guys married with kids who play in a band, and if so how do you find it. Is it tough to juggle the schedule?

xtremehardy388

I think it also helps we were all in marching band so we know a few things about practice. GO BAND! Does anyone have any advice on how to help a guitarist with chord progression? Our rhythm guitarist is having a tough time with it. Oh, another good piece of advice in starting a band (though I think it was mentioned earlier). Try not to let personal issues get in the way with the band. Two years back, I was released from my old band because my ex girlfriend was dating our drummer. She still liked me and ended up leaving him. He got pissed and booted me out (we were still in high school and everyone enjoys high school drama). Try t make sure the band is on the same maturity level as you. My current band, The Jousting Dinosaurs, has guys I've grown up with, relate to, and we all know eachother and are best friends. It pays off so much when your band mates get along.

xtremehardy388

Jam10 wrote:

Those are some great posts guys. Thanks a lot. There is a lot of great info on this board. I am married and have a 1 year old daughter so it's not like I want to go out and gig every weekend or play out 3 - 4 nights a week. I just want to have fun and do a couple gigs a month and practice with the same guys and see where it goes from there. I just have to find the right people who have the same goals. My number 1 priority is my family and music is my hobby. Are any of you guys married with kids who play in a band, and if so how do you find it. Is it tough to juggle the schedule?

I am none of those but you have the same idea my band does- just mess around and hang out. Gig a little but family first.