Posted in: Musical Ensemble by Bob Craypoe on June 10th, 2009 | 0 Comments
Most problems that occur in a band situation are not as a result of how it is being run but as a result of how it was formed. This article explains why that is and how a musician can avoid many issues that can cause a band to fail.
There is a saying that a business usually fails not because of the way it is run but because of the way it was set up. Well, if having a band is a business venture, then the same rule could apply. Let’s look at how that could apply and what can be done to avoid having those problems that would cause it to fail. But let’s first look at what a failure might consist of.
There are a number of different things that could go wrong in a band situation that could be defined as a failure. The most obvious would be a complete breakup of the band. The next problem in severity would be the rdeparture of one or two members of a band. Another might be a general lack of progress or very slow progress.
So how could the likelihood of the above mentioned problems be reduced at the time when you are first forming a band? It starts with the individual. What kind of band situation are you looking for? Do you want to be in a cover band? Do you want to do only original material? Do you want to do a mix? Are you looking to make a career of it? Are you just doing it for fun? Maybe you just want to do it for a little extra money and nothing more.
Basically, the first thing you must do is to decide what it is you want from the band situation. So, let’s say for the sake of argument that you want to form a band that does mostly cover tunes but also does original material. Let’s also say that you want to be a professional musician. That means you want the band situation to reflect that. Or at least you should. And if that is the case, you need to find others that want the same thing.
Since you are doing cover material, what bands are you intending to cover? Everybody in the band that you are forming should also want to cover those same bands. What kind of original material do you want to do? The other band members should also be interested in that style of music.
The key to avoiding future misunderstandings is to lay out what you want, so that people know up front what you are looking for in a band situation. What good does it do to form a band and spend a few months in rehearsals just to have the drummer quit because he doesn’t like the genre of music or the groups you are covering? You’ve just wasted 3 months of rehearsal time just to have to start out again with a new drummer. It will take some time just to get the band back up to where it was before the old drummer quit. So it is obviously a step backwards.
