Starting A Band

Starting A Band
Part One - Where Do you Start?
by Shane Bailey

We've had requests for this type of series of articles a few times now so I figured it was about time I delivered on those requests. The information herein is certainly not the only way to go about starting a band, merely observations from personal experience and from the experiences I've learnt of from countless musician friends and acquaintances. Input from your personal experience is certainly welcome as I endeavour to put together a series of articles from the go to woe of starting a band.

So, what do you need to do for yourself before looking to start a band? Well, no one says you have to be able to play your instrument like a virtuoso but, whilst it's cool to think it can all happen with next to no knowledge of your instrument like the New York Dolls or The Ramones, it would make your journey a whole lot quicker and easier if you did know a little before going out to conquer the music world with some comrades. Like I said, you don't need to be a virtuoso, but you should concentrate on being able to play in time and know what the different instrumentation is in the styles of music you would like to play and what the roles of those instruments are in the group. Practice playing with CDs and such and listen carefully to what your role and the roles of the other instruments in the songs are. This will not only improve your ability to play in time but it will also give you something else to throw into your practice regime, particularly good if you are starting to run out of inspiration to practice your instrument.

Learn some cover songs. Even if your goal is to play originals and originals only, you're going to need some material to practice together with your group while you're working on material for your future platinum selling debut. Not only does this give you something to practice together, it will actually improve your ability to write together as a band. Playing covers teaches a group how to play together and the individual musician's roles in the group. Once you know how each other plays more intimately it will open up new ideas in your own writing as you are more quickly able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your band mates.

So you have maybe half a dozen cover songs under your belt that are well known with other fans of the genres you're into. Don't go for obscure covers, there's little benefit in learning the lesser known songs of your preferred genre when it comes to playing in a band. The chances of finding someone who knows the same songs to jam out on in your first get together is more limited, you want to get going and get going as soon as possible. Sure, you can pull out the more obscure stuff later, after all, you're playing for your own enjoyment first and foremost.

If you're looking to do originals more popular cover songs may come in handy down the track. You may need them to pad out your set for a few shows, or they could be good crowd pleasers if you're playing your originals to a tough crowd sometime. I've never really understood the desire for original bands to play obscure covers live. Sure, you may like them, but when you're playing out for real you have an audience to please too, not to mention some dude paying you a lot of the time, and they want a happy crowd. If you're going to play a cover only maybe 10% or less of the crowd know you may as well be playing one of your originals instead. it's a bigger buzz to play your own thing so, if hardly anyone knows what you're playing anyway, why not play one of your songs? Save the obscure covers for your rehearsal, that's your time and your space to use how you see fit.

Time to find some bandmates! There are plenty of avenues which you can use to find potential bandmates for FREE. There is no need to pay for an ad, countless sites have free Musicians Wanted advertisements, bmusic being just one (www.bmusic.com.au/links/bands/wantads.html). Musicians get screwed enough as it is, so we and many like us offer a Musicians Wanted service for free to try and do our bit. There are also many message boards local to specific regions as well as the old music store notice board. If you're posting an ad via any of these means take the time to find out what the advertising policy is. If advertising on a privately owned web site be respectful of what rules they might have, take a look at the other ads there to see how to go about setting out your own ad. Same goes for the music store notice board. Chances are an ad with graphic images and explicit language won't last long so keep that in mind. Poorly composed ads are a real turn off to potential recruits, readers might be of the opinion that if you can't be bothered taking the time to compose your ad reasonably then what sort of an attitude will you have to the business side of being in a band. Even if you just want to get together with people for a jam, make sure your ad is appealing and is full of the right information and laid out in a manner that will make sense to other people, not just yourself.

Who are the right people? Well, basically, people like yourself will likely be the easiest to get along with, and that comes first when forming a band. If you're joining an already existing band have a good talk with as many of the current members as you can to get a feel for the dynamic of the band. If someone really rubs you the wrong way the you need to decide whether you could incorporate yourself in the group with this person without causing waves in an already formed outfit. All this depends on what others in the band have to say about this person too, they may not like them either! Same goes for anyone you may come across if you're building the band from the ground up. Despite what the person is like as a musician and how much you think you might be able to accommodate them, at the end of the day, being in a band with someone you do not get along with just isn't fun and inevitably leads to a split. Whether it takes 1 month or 20 years to happen, will it be worth the agro?

All musicians need a certain amount of ego, you're performers after all and performing live is going to require some sort of ego to pull off. But there's good and bad egos. A good ego could otherwise be defined as "confidence", a bad ego may be defined as being a "wanker". I couldn't think of any other way to put it, but I'm sure you get the idea. So you do need to think about the longer term and your relationship with potential bandmates. Remember, enjoyment is what comes first. Making music in a hostile environment is rarely productive and even if it is, who needs it!?

So you've lined up a fellow musician to get this thing off the ground with or you've been invited to try out for an existing band. If it's the latter find out exactly what the band plays and learn the material backwards and upside down even before your first jam. Even if it's three or four songs, make sure you have them down before stepping out. It's better to nail a few songs than to half-ass ten or so. If time is a constraint between finding out the material and your first jam you can explain that you were keen to learn some of the material very well to show that you have the ability to play their stuff and play it well. The other material can be learnt over time. Don't go in there straight up telling them want material you will and won't play, you should've worked out whether you can play what they want to play ahead of time. And if you have suggestions or original material you'd like to bring to the table, wait until you're settled before bringing it up, be respectful of what the group has accomplished without you if they're an established outfit. If they aren't "wankers" they'll ask for your input soon enough.

If you're building a band from scratch and you are planning a jam with some others for the first time communicate with them exactly what you think would be good to try at your first jam. There is nothing worse than getting together for the first time and having nothing to play together properly. Even if it's one song, make sure you and anyone else attending the first jam together knows the stuff. There's nothing better than jamming with a new bunch of people (or even one other person) and being able to belt out your favourite tunes straight up, that's what you've been playing all this time for after all. Doing it this way also gives you an immediate idea of the level of commitment and playing ability of those you've joined up with. If someone appears to have hardly even looked at the material and they don't have a good excuse, are they going to be like that all the time? You want to progress and expand your repertoire as quickly as possible to get out there and play live. Rehearsal is necessary and there may be a lot of it required before you play out for the first time, but if there is no progression in the rehearsals for an extended period of time and, therefore, the group is no closer to playing out then members quickly get disillusioned. The problem of apathy towards the material even gets exacerbated in this sort of environment and you find yourself on the way to splitting or losing members real quick.

So you're on your way. Next time around we'll look at rehearsal a little more closely and examine band dynamics and the development of the band working together for the music and for the work that needs to be done by a band separate from the music side in a band.

Part Two: Is It All About The Music?
Part Three: Time To Get Gigging
Part Four: To Manage Or Be Managed