Fun Stuff > BAND

Getting into/forming a band and staying with/in it!

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glyphic:
I have had to resort to craigslist for my last two bands. Bah.

Keeping them together is tough. Everyone needs to be dedicated. But not obsessive-dedicated. People who are 150% about the band ALL THE TIME make it seem like you can't have fun with it. So you really want to have eight hour practices three times a week even though we all have jobs? That's cool. If we don't make enough progress in a practice session, you're going to rant and rave about how we aren't serious about the band? Makes sense.

 Of course, people who aren't very invested can make the songwriting process almost as fun as oral surgery. What's that, drummer? You just want to speed the whole song up and do a punk beat throughout? Sounds fantastic! It's not like the other members and I have spent the last two weeks writing technical parts that you just haven't bothered to practice or anything.

But seriously, a set practice schedule serves several purposes. My favorite is to see if your bandmates are responsible enough. If they don't show up or are constantly calling off, then you probably need new guys. Then there's always the guy with the job whose schedule changes every week. You may hear that he has to work a week in advance or the day of the practice.

If you've got songs you've written yourself, be prepared to change them. Generally I find it best practice to come up with a few parts that you love and go together and then ask what else to add to the song to make it cohesive. That way you don't feel like people are ruining your masterwork. I'm not saying that you have to dumb down your music to placate your friends, just that you should leave some room for additional input.

Christophe:
Ok, so hopefully possibly in a week me and some friends will be jamming quite soon. Considering that the two guys I want to have play music with me don't know each other yet, are there any good ways to break the ice? Maybe ask them both of them to prepare to cover a few songs to see where we stand as far as chemistry? Would it be rad to sort of play a song or two of mine for them and see if they can play along? Or just jam from the hip and hope for the best?

sean:
just whip yr cocks out and nothing can go wrong

Patrick:
I'd totally suggest asking them to learn and practice a couple songs. After that, start introducing other things that maybe the two of them have both heard of. If you know their musical tastes really well, that'll help.

Also if you start playing blues jams you might as well just quit because if they start just jamming all the time they'll turn into Phish, and I swear to god Chris, if your band becomes the next Phish I will stop sleeping with you.

Christophe:
Well, me and my band just had our first practice. Long story short, it was pretty fucking rad.

About two weeks ago I recorded an EP of five songs I wanted the band to do; we did three in practice. Two of them we nailed pretty well, and one of them we have to work through because the bridge is absurdly long and complex but it seems doable. Our drummer understands the songs pretty well, I leave the second guitarist to do as he pleases regarding my songs and he comes up with interesting parts, and the bassist takes a little while to learn them but he's pretty committed to doing it and he does pretty well after we write up the tab for the songs.

The best part about it is that all the guys really gel together; if not as musicians but also as people. While we took a break for water we were all just talking for fifteen minutes about stuff and having a good ol' time.

For the next batch of songs I'm going to write I think I'm just going to record them for solo guitar + voice so I can give my bandmembers a lot more freedom when it comes to coming up with parts.

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