Starting a Band.... - Page 4 - Guitars101

GtrAngel · 01-22-2008, 07:34 PM

Zarco, don't complain simply adjust your aim in another direction to get your music out there.

GtrAngel · 01-22-2008, 07:36 PM

Zacro, sorry for the name mispelling.

zacro · 01-24-2008, 04:18 PM

Ya know somethin', I think I have a plan! It's a secret one though!
By the way, don't worry about mispelling my screen name, my real name is Zack and 99% of the people who spell Zack spell it Zach, so i'm used to it.

lornemusic · 01-24-2008, 07:37 PM

Zar - if it isn't who you are that is stopping you, it's where you are. I know there are tremendous musicans all over the place in po dunk towns with little talent around and nowhere to play. If there is no music scene in your town and your serious about wanting to play, it's time to find out where the scene is and go there.

zacro · 01-26-2008, 09:01 PM

I am very serious and i might just try that. I do live in a little town and i always feel closterphobic. I always feel that i just need to pack my bags and try to carve a name for myself. Guitar is the only thing I'm passionate about. I'm even trying to lose a bit of weight so i look the part of a guitarist a little bit more. No offense to all the shawn lane fans out there. Although i must say, i'm not neary as fat as he was. No disrespect meant to shawn.

smash · 03-24-2008, 09:25 PM

Best bit of advice...never let the lead guitarist be the sound engineer.

Mulletman262 · 05-01-2008, 01:13 PM

I'm 16 and I'm a guitarist in a band. We have two guitarists, neither of whom can play their instruments (the other can barely walk without crutches, and his guitar is one you can't really play sitting down, so he can't practice), a bassist who only has an acoustic guitar, and I've never even met him, and a drummer who has an IQ of 5 and is more concerned about twirling his sticks than playing. He doesn't have a kit.

Yup, were gonna go far.

Sorry about the giant runnon.

mcapas · 01-14-2009, 07:19 AM

Problem with my former band was the bass player was gf of the rythmn gtr...so right from the start they always had the power of 2...at one point there were 4 members so many decisions were deadlocked.....

also...the bass would always be too loud..when we asked her to turn down she'd ignore the request...when we asked rythmn gtr to talk to her about it he refused...he didnt want the confrontation....dont allow bf/gf in your band...bad news...

....I walked away

RockHungry · 03-24-2009, 02:37 PM

I agree that without the same mentality, the band will fall apart pretty easily

diyguitarmods · 04-30-2009, 10:57 AM

I've found that playing with people who have the same sense of humor leads to a great atmosphere and stimulates creativity.

http://www.diyguitarmods.com

striker · 05-17-2009, 09:41 AM

All the advice on here is very true. Egos will kill a band. Everyone needs to mesh. If the chemistry isn't there, the band will never get anywhere. You can have all of the talent in the world, but if everyone is not on the same page, the band won't go very far. I usually try to find musicians that are in my age group, like the kind of music that I do and that don't have an attitude, a huge ego and won't cause drama. I hate drama and it has no place in a band.

If you are trying to start a band, you can check on craigslist for available musicians. You have to be careful though. There is a lot of crap on there. You can also join bandmix which is better than craigslist, but it's not free.

tmacfan · 05-27-2009, 08:19 AM

Awsome guitarist + awsome drummer = Great band, rest of the guys can be replaced.

PeteTheWheel · 06-21-2009, 10:47 AM

hmm..starting a band, heres a few observations from an old warhorse...

Its probably easier if you already have any kind of scene in your location. You may want to consider joining up with an alraedy existing band. I met the guitarist in my main band back in 94 when I was knocking around the coffee houses in Danbury with an acoustic, we started doing acoustic gigs and oneday I got a call from the band cause the bassist was n/a and I took over his slot. That was a thousand gigs ago. They already had the band since 1982! The thing is, it dosnt have to be a big scene, we met a a coffee house. If youre near a bigger city, check out the parks,I was in NYC a few weeks ago in Tomkins sqare and it seemed like everyone was playing!

The past few project bands Ive had outside of MTW all seemed to start at open mic night so that is probably one way to do it. You go couple of weeks running and see if you can get the same 3 or 4 guys on stage each time and see what works. Usually youl find people lookin to play at open mic, you can also see if they CAN play instead of finding out when they show up at the rehersal. if you are getting to know each others playing while onstage in front of people, odds are everyone will be trying to play their best and you get a good indication of what they are capable of. Sometimes you wind up with the 'all star band' ie i.e all people from other bands..that can be a good or a bad thing or both.

For one of my other projects we did the ad in the paper thing for a drummer and a singer. The process sucked, it was like doing job interviews but in the end we got just what we needed , a drummer with a passion for the Who like ours and a singer with the pipes to cover Daltry. We never were able to get the keyboard slot filled though and wound up using loops.

One other thing, format. Ive spent mosyt of my career in power trio format. I like that cause 1- you cant hide in a three piece. It makes you play and play well cause if you stop or make a mistake it really sticks out. You always have to be playing something interesting. If yer a guitar or a bassist, it make you learn to play and sing at the same time..that is a BIG plus..in our band all three of us sing too, the drummer has a headset mic. 2 -in a trio you cant step on the other guys too much, its just gur bass , drums, each has its own sound - 3 You only have to split the money 3 ways!!!!

That said, the drawback in a power trio, ego presence and identity, Some power trios cant contunue if one member leaves (imagine rush with out geddy or zztop without Billy)..if you pwer trio has very strong identities it migh not work if one guy leaves no matter how good his replacement is. You may want to consider a an ensamble format with 5 or six guys with a clear leader(s) that way if one leaves for whatever reason, you replace 'em and the band rolls on ..its your call. (Hint- if you go the ensamble route, a female backup singer or two nevers hurts!).

Someone else here mentioned the imprtance of putting on a show. Unless you are gonna be a jam band or somethng prog enough where the actual music is the spotlight, you you may find that what your playing is visually more interesting to you onstage that the 90 percent of the people in the audience who arnt musicians - remember this is showbiz. To keep them interested you gotta have something, clothes, guitar & drum tricks, a certain amount of stage choreography lights smoke, effects, whatever..as long as it is intersting. They key is to not to over do it.

One last thing,, rehersal space, in our town we are lucky enough to have a bar with a good size stage that owner dosnt mind if we set up on a Sunday and make some noise..while its good to get started in the basement, see if you can find a place like that to try it out in front of a few people, dont worry about gettin paid for now the object is just to see if what your playing actually goes over and it will help get you used to playing on a stage with a minimum of angst.

Sorry for the 'war and peace' hopes this helps.

PTWheel

ljsayat13 · 10-21-2009, 06:19 AM

One important thing to establish is how things are done. For instance, some people subscribe to the thoery "Practice is for learning." Our band doesn't work that way. We pick songs, then everyone goes home and learns their parts thru the week playing along with the songs. When we get together the following week, it only takes a few times thru and we've got the songs locked. This way, we're not spending an hour or two hours learning "Train Kept A Rollin'." We also do drills where everyone but the drummer stands back to back and we play the song. That way we know who's been doing their homework and who's not. That may not sound fun, but it actually is. You wanna prove to the rest that you're as dedicated as they are so you make sure you have your parts down pat. It's a real confidence booster when we do the "back 2 back" drill and the songs sound good.

acetribute · 11-13-2009, 06:07 PM

Get to know as many people in the music industry as you can. As with most things, a lot comes down to who you know, not, what you know. Do some research on how many "famous" muso's got their 'break'...so to speak because of a friend, family member, another 'famous' muso friend.. etc etc.....there are a lot.

Good Luck.