Hardest thing about starting a Band..

By definition, you end up playing and listening to a fair amount of music that you hadn't paid that much attention to before if you're in a band. You've got to be willing to compromise -- and as soon as you do you'll find yourself enlarging your musical vocabulary and expanding your appreciation of different styles. It's an educational experience.

With regard to the larger question, I suspect each band brings a distinctive set of challenges unique to the characters that make it up. As is the case with any other kind of group, I think. But if you can all focus on working on performing your music well as a group (and, as in basketball, it's all about teamwork and not about hot-dogging it), the band will come together and you'll enjoy yourself.

My limited experieince tells me derekslide is prety right on. Muse added the other important elements too.

But I've struggeld with this for awhile now. First I believe it would have been much easier to do this when I was in my twenties/teens as all my friends had pretty similar tastes inmusic and we all hung around together anyway.

Now that I'm older several things have changed. First off because of careers, family, life etc., I don't hang around much with my close friends that much. Secondly as you get older I think you get more inflexible in your tastes in music they become kind of set in stone.

Then you get into the personalities. I would prefer to play with friends that I am comfortable with that may not be the best musicians rather han playing wih a bunch or "ringers" that play well but I hardly know. My only experience has been playing sports where I played with my friends and we were pretty good but had a blast, then I played on teams of all stars and there was no fun at all. You'd go to the games, do your warmups pretty much on your own play the game and then go home. It got to be really boring after awhile and I loved to play. This was baseball but I've had similar experiences in other sports.

So now I have a quassy mix of a fairly close friend and two strangers who are nice guys but I still don't feel that total comfort level yet with them although it's getting better.

But still the number one problem for us remains...What songs are we gonna play?"

Luckly i've found a fella guitarist that is into the Same Music as i am, and he likes to play lead where i play rhythm, and he's a really cool Guy, Were now on the look out for Bassist and Drummer which i believe a Drummer is really hard to find.. 8)

Hi,

I'd guess that the hard part isn't so much starting a band, it's keeping it going. It can take a while for the various personalities, musical and personal likes, dislikes, characters etc to surface and work through. If you have a good relationship going then I'd be careful about rushing into expanding the band too fast. I've heard many tales of bands with 'revolving door' memberships that never seem to stay stable for long. So, as Cnev says, I'd rather play with good friends with ordinary skill levels, but who are happy to work things through and be flexible, than some hot shot pain-in-the-arse who unbalances the group. Good luck with it all - whatever happens it will all be good experience.

Chris

chris C brings up a good point, our bas splayer who happens to be my friend and is in by no means nothing special on the bass does bring one thing to the table and that's that he knows alot of people and can find musicians fairly easily...the problem is what Chris described though...we've had a revolving door of musicians come and go and seem to spin our wheels way to much.

we end up getting what we think is going to be "the" group, do this for a few weeks and then someone drops out. Of course in the meantime we've begun to work on songs that said player likes. So now we get a new member and start the process all over again...this has happened several times and it has been holding us bcak from having more songs down than we do.

mark consider yourself lucky you found someone with the same tastes in music that will be a big plus. That's where I differ form the guys I play with. They pretty much just want to play classic rock and I'm not so much into that. I am to a point but I want to play modern music too. I've slowly got them to come around a bit but not much. At first it really bothered me because I felt I was getting no say in what music we were playing but I've since decided to just let them pick the songs and I'll just play them, not my first choice but it helps minimize the arguments over songs.

If you are serious about this ...

Understand that like most successful teams, a band is about combining people of the right skills to produce something that is better than any one of them might be able to do on his/her own. Yeah, in the beginning, everyone agrees to work in the same general musical direction as a group, but that doesn't always mean it's the same choice each would make as an individual. A band identified a band by name is different than the individuals. If not, then usually the "band" is one guy (the "name") with a mercenary backing band. Different structures, different ways of making decisions. So what's important to start?

A few challenges:

* Foregoing democracy and choosing a leader
* Following the leader. In reality, almost every member has veto power. Almost never use it.
* Understanding that one great lead guitarist does not = a great band. Not understanding this usually 'leads' to disillusionment and frustration.
* Understanding that a solid rhythm section plus good vocals is 95% of the way to being a good band.
* Telling someone NOT to play because the music would be better if they didn't. People rarely self-arrange, and need management in this area. Especially that d@mned lead guitar player and the drummer who keeps putting in all those fills and flourishes
* Telling someone they are not playing a part well enough (if they don't know it), and they need to practice
* Learning that playing less with very good timing makes far better music.
* Leaning to choose for the band. Sometime you've got to kick someone out to make it work.
* Separating the concepts of friend and bandmate.
* Managing effective practices. (hint: leader, leader, leader)

I think its about finding people who think like you or share your tastes.

Hmmm...

I've been in quite a few bands, and the hardest thing can be different things. I have been in bands with very talented people who liked to be very stoned and intoxicated all the time. That was a big problem. I have been in bands where a particular member was simply not at the skill level needed. We once had a drummer who simply could not keep steady time, he was always speeding up and slowing down. That was a big problem. I have been in bands where a particular person wanted total control and say over everything, it was his way or the highway. That was a big problem. I have been in bands where a particular player refused to play a song written by a particular artist or band. That can be a problem. I have been in bands where a particular person could not be relied upon. They were usually there on time, but once in awhile they simply didn't show, and didn't bother to call anyone, or else they called an hour after practice already started to say they wouldn't be there, like we couldn't figure that out. :D That was a problem.

I have been in bands where a guy simply cannot get away from his girlfriend. Nope, she has to come to practice, then complains it is loud. She bugs the guy to leave, cutting practice short. And the dummy leaves. That is a problem.

For me personally, the most difficult part of being in a band is finding people who are as serious as I am about music. I am not great on guitar, but I tell ya, I try to be great. I don't believe in doing a poor job. But lots of musicians play simply for fun, they do not want to work at it. They do not want to play the same song 5 times in a row to really get it down, they just want to play another song. So for me, finding serious musicians has always been a difficulty.

That said, I realize that I am a difficulty to many musicians. The guys and gals I play with do so for enjoyment. They realize they are not gonna be Rock Stars (and so do I). They want to get together and make some good music, but their driving force is to have fun, forget about the cares of the world for awhile. So someone like me who insists on practicing a song over again because we made some mistake can be a big problem for them. I am turning it into work and not fun. :roll:

So, there is no one problem, there are many. I think the best thing is to find musicians who are serious and commited to music, but also flexible. Bandmates with a friendly and positive attitude make being in a band a great experience.

Being in a band is awesome, but it is never easy.

mmm... One of the hardest things must be coming up with a good name for the band?????? :?

mmm... One of the hardest things must be coming up with a good name for the band?????? :?

Well..... 'bridge' is a term that refers to part of a song, and part of a guitar, plus it has a general feeling of making a connection, so you could call yourselves:

Trent Bridge

Every time it gets mentioned you get a free plug. :wink:

The hardest thing about starting a band....finding a REAL singer..not someone who thinks they can sing or can sing one or two songs I mean a real singer with dynamic range, that will be the hardest from my experience.

The hardest thing about starting a band....finding a REAL singer..not someone who thinks they can sing or can sing one or two songs I mean a real singer with dynamic range, that will be the hardest from my experience.

Chris,

What you have to realize is that in big time professional bands, the singer is the band.

It's not that a pro singer can sing any song you throw at them. No, the professional bands write and play the music for the singer. They play in the key the singer sings well, if the singer can't sing it well, then they don't play it.

This is why local cover bands are usually not so good vocal wise. Most cover bands play a variety of music that will get them jobs in certain venues. If the venues cater to an older crowd, then they will play famous Classic Rock songs. If the club draws a young crowd then they will play modern songs. In a few clubs (very few) you can play originals. If you play originals it is kinda easy, there is no standard to judge you by.

It is hard for any singer to sing like Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. One guy has a deep voice, the other very high. So this makes the job of singing in a cover band very difficult. This is probably the biggest reason most cover bands do not sound so great vocally. It's not that the singer can't sing, he (or she) just can't sing 30 different songs by 30 different artists all with very different voices.

This is why local cover bands are usually not so good vocal wise. Most cover bands play a variety of music that will get them jobs in certain venues. If the venues cater to an older crowd, then they will play famous Classic Rock songs. If the club draws a young crowd then they will play modern songs. In a few clubs (very few) you can play originals. If you play originals it is kinda easy, there is no standard to judge you by.

You nailed it, Wes. The best cover band I've seen had 3 guys that could sing. 1 guy could sing the high stuff like Journey and Styx, another the bluesier voice like Clapton and Hendrix and the other was in the middle and did stuff like Golden Earring.

What you have to realize is that in big time professional bands, the singer is the band.

That is SO true.

I've been spending some time recently listening to CDs and trying to work out who is doing what, and how it all fits together. I.e. How the various instruments fit into the mix, when and if they get featured in any kind of prominent way, when and how they leave room for each other, etc. And what's most obvious is that in almost every case it's all about the singer, and the rest could be replaced, or even left out, without much problem.

In some cases, various instruments were so far back in the mix they might as well have not been there. There were many tracks where I had difficulty picking out the bass at all, or could only make out what part of the drummer's kit was doing, and the rest was a mixture of bits and pieces from guitars, keyboards and various other instruments that came and went as required. But there was never the slightest doubt about what the singer was doing. The message seems to be - if you haven't got a good voice, then be a very good songwriter, have some quality that attracts fans and/or publicity, or else just be very versatile, professional, and easy to get along with. :)

Clearly, I've got a LOT of work left to do in every department. I wonder if there are any local singing coaches that can do miracles with a voice that swings between abysmal and mediocre?? Excuse me, but I'm off to start making phone calls....

Chris