Starting a band

Hidden Driveways · Post by **Hidden Driveways** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:31 pm

Rave wrote:I am thinking of starting a small band i.e. me and a singer/song-writer.

I am guessing the best way to approach this is to work with a couple of vocalists and see how it goes with their contributions.

Any tips?

Thanx

Use as few people as possible, but, a live drummer will make all the difference. Keep the laptop out of the way. Let human interaction come first, electronics second.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:39 pm

Vocalists, that is a tuff one!

Crash · Post by **Crash** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:42 pm

Put some instrumentals on a download server and have interested vocalist put down their parts and send them in. That way you can decide by voice and talent and filter out those who don't know how to record themselves. Although you may miss some voice talents because of technical barriers then.

Aequitas123 · Post by **Aequitas123** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:44 pm

THE most important, and difficult part of forming a band is finding talented and reliable members. That should be your focus.

And i agree with the above points; keep it small, use real drums and stay away from the laptop.

pixelbox · Post by **pixelbox** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:00 pm

Aequitas123 wrote:THE most important, and difficult part of forming a band is finding talented and reliable members. That should be your focus.

And i agree with the above points; keep it small, use real drums and stay away from the laptop.

Actually, I'd say emphasize "reliable". There are plenty of talented people out there, but many of them are flaky as hell.

logic_user99 · Post by **logic_user99** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:15 pm

Finding a good drummer who is happy to work around Live is a tricky one, too. And '+1' to keeping the electronics out of the way in favour of the song; make sure that it sounds natural at all times!

With the vocalist thing, I'd always make sure I've got a bunch of stuff to show when trying to thrash out a song. Have a bunch of 'sections' so that you can comp stuff together when needed.

Hidden Driveways · Post by **Hidden Driveways** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:20 pm

Also - all of the band members need to be on the same page. If you are doing this just for fun - as a distraction from your day job - fine. Find like minded members.

But, if you want to do it for real, if you want to make music your career, then you absolutely must find band members who want the exact same thing. If you find a great drummer who likes Live and you get along really well and make good music, it doesn't mean shit if that drummer isn't fully on board with the plan to make the music your careers. If they have a pet dog and a significant other and a kid and they like to hang out and make music but cannot commit to the band 1000%, then it's not worth it.

This is not to say that people with kids and careers and such cannot be in serious bands. This is just to say that if the members are not fully committed to making the music their career - then the music certainly will not become your careers.

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:36 pm

Hidden Driveways wrote:Also - all of the band members need to be on the same page. If you are doing this just for fun - as a distraction from your day job - fine. Find like minded members.

But, if you want to do it for real, if you want to make music your career, then you absolutely must find band members who want the exact same thing. If you find a great drummer who likes Live and you get along really well and make good music, it doesn't mean shit if that drummer isn't fully on board with the plan to make the music your careers. If they have a pet dog and a significant other and a kid and they like to hang out and make music but cannot commit to the band 1000%, then it's not worth it.

This is not to say that people with kids and careers and such cannot be in serious bands. This is just to say that if the members are not fully committed to making the music their career - then the music certainly will not become your careers.

+1 to that,

i have wasted years of my life on people that didn't want what i wanted.
in 1 band i was hoping the drummer would change his mind and in another band the singer just straight up lied about wanting to be serious about music.

which brought me to ableton live.

my band is a duo.. me on double bass and ableton and a female singer whom also plays keyboards and clarinet.. and she is learning ableton too.
sometimes we bring in a sax player but 90% of the time its just us.

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:36 pm

Hey, good luck. I'm desperately looking for a songwriting partner or group. Not that I couldn't do it all on my own, and probably better. I just need someone to keep me on schedule.

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:59 am

One more tip..

If you find a singer, and that singer is female, and she is cute.
Under no circumstances should you have sex with her.
This only leads to trouble.. often BIG TROUBLE!!!

Oh!
And don't call gjm up and ask if he is into starting a band.
He won't come to your house 50 miles away to pick you up..

astromass · Post by **astromass** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:34 am

use craigslist , especially if u live in a shitty town

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:35 am

Homebelly wrote:One more tip..

If you find a singer, and that singer is female, and she is cute.
Under no circumstances should you have sex with her.
This only leads to trouble.. often BIG TROUBLE!!!

Oh!
And don't call gjm up and ask if he is into starting a band.
He won't come to your house 50 miles away to pick you up..

my girlfriend is a really good singer.

OHH NOW I GET WHY WE NEVER RECORD.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:36 am

Be open minded. Musicians are are pretty much freaks, and vocalists and drummers tend to be the biggest freaks. AFA the laptop etc. I dunno man? you get a good looking or interesting singer and really are people going to be looking at you playing a keyboard more than a laptop?

Don't look for 100% perfection out of the singer, you'll never get what you want if you don't accept that it's impossible to find your clone in a 'vocalist'. Realize finding a vocalist that works at all is very valuable, don't take that for granted.

Be flexible. If you've never played with a band before realize that small changes in a song are not going to kill it. You add people to

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:18 am

do you have a practice space? if so, you are halfway there.

are you physically attractive, if so, then you need to find a practice space.

are you neither of the above?

then you will need a pair of jumper cables, because there are at least these types of people that form a "successful" (one that stays together long enough to put enough songs together to get a gig) band:

one with a practice space, but not much talent
one that is physically attractive, with some talent, but an attitude
one that has reliable transportation, not much talent
one that has unreliable transportation, fair amount of talent
one that is talented and is insufferable

basically, if the ones that don't have the bulk of the talent get along, they can endure the ones that have talent until the band breaks up.

your band will break up when:

the one with the practice space gets married/regular girlfriend
the one with the attitude goes crazy/gets spiritual/gets too drunk too often
the one with reliable transportation gets a real job
the ones that are talented find a better band.

And then you can get back to making music with just a computer.

don't thank me now for the time I've saved you.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:27 pm

mikemc wrote:do you have a practice space? if so, you are halfway there.

are you physically attractive, if so, then you need to find a practice space.

are you neither of the above?

then you will need a pair of jumper cables, because there are at least these types of people that form a "successful" (one that stays together long enough to put enough songs together to get a gig) band:

one with a practice space, but not much talent
one that is physically attractive, with some talent, but an attitude
one that has reliable transportation, not much talent
one that has unreliable transportation, fair amount of talent
one that is talented and is insufferable

basically, if the ones that don't have the bulk of the talent get along, they can endure the ones that have talent until the band breaks up.

your band will break up when:

the one with the practice space gets married/regular girlfriend
the one with the attitude goes crazy/gets spiritual/gets too drunk too often
the one with reliable transportation gets a real job
the ones that are talented find a better band.

And then you can get back to making music with just a computer.

don't thank me now for the time I've saved you.

Well said, try the Zappa approach. Sketch out some stuff in AL and then pull in some musicians to jam it out with you. If you don't like any element of any particular musician you just tell them to leave and find another one. Good Luck!

Starting a band

Re: Starting a band