Band Creation 101

So you want to start a band.

If you’ve been involved in music for any stretch of time, and if you can look deep enough within music to find its social side, chances are you’ve thought about getting involved or are already involved in a band. Music cannot be a strictly individual affair; it’s one of the many things in life where two heads (or more) are usually better than one. Hey, if you think you can make it on your own, more power to you. There’s no reason you can’t.

But there are several reasons why people want to be involved in a band. They might get shy when performing and feel better when other people perform with them, they might see music as a strictly social affair (those two definitely apply to me), or whatever. Fact of the matter is, as long is there is music, there will be bands to play it. And judging from the page you’re on now, you’ve given it a thought. This article will cover starting a band, rehearsing, performing and finding work – the main things the average band works toward.

OK, so you’ve decided to start a band. Who do you include? Who does what? How many people? A lot of things have to be taken into consideration when you’re starting your new band. Now, just to get off on the right foot, don’t think of a band name BEFORE you’ve assembled a band and at least had one practice. Get the feel of the band before you brand it for life. You might call it The Exploited Youths and imagine you’re going to be a punk band, but you may discover punk isn’t for you. Then you’re stuck with an inappropriate name that you have to change. Don’t do it.

Assembling your band is probably a lot easier if your friends play instruments. The reason I suggest picking friends is because you know them (and they know you) better than a stranger you read about in the personals at Zed + Gimp’s Music Store. If it’s a choice between a friend and “22y/o drummer seeking band, n/s gsoh inf: Godsmack, RATM, Sepultura”, go with the friend EVERY time. Another thing – if you’ve got the choice between a phenomenal drummer who’s only a mild acquaintance and a really good friend who perhaps isn’t as technically skilled a drummer, go with the really good friend. Most musicians, and not just drummers (in my case it was a drummer, but it can be anyone), are bound to improve but relationships might not. I learned this the hard way – on paper, my last band would have set the world on fire, until I discovered our interests differed unbelievably. He has since left and we have taken on the very good friend, and the relationship within the band is much better… there’s a much better atmosphere.

Assembling a band, by the way, is a LOT easier if you are in school/work/somewhere you meet practically every day. Not only is it a lot easier to arrange rehearsals and establish a band to begin with, but you’ve also got an advantage over bands that meet in the Zed + Gimp personals. I’m sure 22y/o drummer is a very nice person, but you don’t know him or his style.

So now you’re in a band. Congratulations! But now, you need to rehearse. If you don’t, you’ll never get the better things about band life – One-hundred-date-mega-stadium-tours, fan sites spreading rumours about your personal life, people saying that one member of the band is dead based on “clues” on album covers, and executives camping outside your doorstep.

Starting out, depending on how well you know each other and how good you are at playing together, rehearsals will take time. You’ll need to learn a couple of sets of songs and get them down cold. Not only the songs themselves, but also whatever arrangements and presentation you choose. You should plan on doing some intense playing in order to get your act together.

But once you’ve gotten that down, you don’t need to rehearse that often, just enough so that the material doesn’t go stale and you don’t lose a feel for the other band-members’ tendencies. It may sound silly, but it happens – you come back after long hiatuses with different interests and ideas (“Guys, I’d like you to meet Yoko, and she’s got a lot of fantastic ideas.”) Don’t let this happen. Realistically, aim to practice at least once a month, but if you can manage once a week, that’s ideal. If you’re in school, try and find an empty room (a music room, a hall, whatever) to rehearse in. If not, try and rent out a local community centre for a few hours – I think you’ll find they’re very reasonable.

Now another crucial question arises – what do you rehearse? From personal experience, I usually find it’s better to rehearse something everyone in the band knows. For example, the band I’m in now (incidentally, it’s the most successful one yet) was really having trouble clicking as a group – we just couldn’t get it together. I was trying to teach the other members the parts for Nirvana’s epic Come As You Are, and it wasn’t going too badly either. But something was missing. Then, Electric Six released the controversial Gay Bar. We all found it hilarious, we all knew the parts for it, and we did it first time without a hitch. The next rehearsal, we did Come As You Are too, with very few problems. It’s simply a matter of finding a common interest and using it as a method of branching out.

Now for another issue that will come up forever – original material. Unless some members have been in bands before together, there’s probably no set-in-stone lyrics man, and usually in new bands the person with a lot of ideas doesn’t like to impose. If you feel one person (maybe it’s you, maybe it’s the keyboard player, whoever) has the majority of the good ideas, and they obviously have a gift for that sort of thing, use that person to wrangle ideas from other people. For example, Freddy Mercury (of Queen) was the main lyrics producer, if anyone else (usually John Deacon) felt they had a good idea he would sit with them and work on it. All original material should be a collaborative effort. If you’ve written the lyrics and the music, let the drummer pitch in with beat/fill ideas. Let the drummer write his own part – most drummers worth their salt can put a nice, appropriate beat to anything. When you work with other people, it’s surprising how easy it is to make music.

So now you have your band and some music for your band to play! Excellent! Now comes the part most bands (rock bands in particular) aim for – getting work. If I can give one piece of advice to you (I hope I’ve given you more than one piece in this relatively lengthy article, but oh well), let it be this – do NOT look at music as the solution to your financial struggles. I HATE to sound clichéd, but if you’re in music for the money, then you’re in music for all the wrong reasons. Most gigs pay pittance, and £50/$50 doesn’t go far when it’s split 3/4/5/6 ways. Some gigs won’t even pay at all. Just take work wherever you can find it. My band started out playing benefit concerts for issues we care about and school concerts, and we still are, and we’re still not being paid. The fact is we do it because we care about the charities we play for – and the more concerts we do, the more people have seen us. It’s all about EXPOSURE. At every concert you play, there could be somebody in the audience who’s interested in you. Spread yourself around. SOMEBODY is bound to like you.

I hope this has at least enlightened you somewhat, and I wish you every success in your band. At the very worst, you’ll have learned a valuable lesson about how NOT to do things and at least you can say you tried. At the very best, well… the sky’s the limit.

Good luck.