Cant seem to start a band...

I have been playing guitar for 6 years, and carry it all around with me and play everywhere and for everyone to hear me, and although playing solo is fun, i been trying for 4 years to try to start a band. Cant find a capable drumming that is drugged out of his mind...nor find a bassit that can keep a flowing bass line.

And to make matters worse, there must be at least 50 guitarest i know that wish to start a band with me, but they really arent cant keep rythem or know music theroy...or are just all about soloing without an idea what scale they are playing. And even if they can play effeciently, they are to busy with their job.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

 

ok . i'll have a go at it . for one , most any guitarist can play

de bass . for two , whatever concept of music theory you got
is just that - a theory . so , be a drummer , be free , to play
with anyone and everyone at the root .

 

Did you just slap the keyboard a few times to see what would happen?

You'll hear a lot of worthless advice if you ask people about this. I've been in a similar position, and I know what doesn't help.

People are going to suggest "Just get a few of your mates together an have a jam". I'm guessing if this was an option, you wouldn't be posting this, correct? Because it's a really obvious one, and if you're anything like me, other musicians are annoying wankers and thus you aren't naturally friends with them.

People will say "just keep trying". This is like the opposite of advice. Telling you to quit would be more worthwhile.

Here's some proper advice: learn to sing and play guitar. It'll help. If you can sing and play acoustic, you can write songs and play them anywhere. Once you can do this, you can play anywhere. Do solo gigs in support of people, eventually someone will come say hi, mention to them that you want to put a band together and bingo.

If, like me, the idea of playing set of solo acoustic numbers is as far from what you want to do as drinking napalm, I'd recommend getting a decent software package such as Cubase, and making a demo of your songs. It doesn't have to be perfect (don't spend ages trying to make the drums sound real, for example, because you won't fool anyone), but if you can get vocals, bass and guitar down you'll have a good guide to how you want your stuff to sound.

Then, advertise. Put up ads in yr local music shops and venues. The point is, you're going to be better able to get decent musicians if you have a demo, as you can give them a much better idea of what you want to sound like than you could by just naming bands.

You have to be willing to be a bit firm with people; it's hard to do. Music scenes are close knit, and often you find that, if someone can't drum for shit and you indicate this in any way, all their mates and their mates' mates hate you. This is something you'll have to cope with. If you're lucky, it won't happen much.

Other than that, I have fuck all to say. I'm still at the "making a demo" stage, but I'm having more fun than I was going to auditions for bands who I couldn't bear to hang out with for more than five minutes before and after, or trying to form bands and ending up having to finish them because the shittest member who you would sack if you could happened to be mates with everyone else. It's a shit business, you can only make it better for yourself.

But yeah, don't listen to people who give you feelgood advice, most of it is stuff that is insultingly obvious, like you'd be asking the question if you lived in a massive commune full of excellent musicians and you just hadn't noticed.

 

Finding a guitarist who knows fair theory (enough to write progressions and melodies atleast) shouldn't be a problem. If it is, you know you're living in much too small a place. The real hard part is finding a good singer and drummer.

Go here:

www.taxi.com

That's all I can tell you to do, my friend.

You could also try posting your music on your personal website with personal information, or posting them on www.iuma.com if you have a way to record it.

 

Thats some really good advice, thank you. I think i could work on doing the acoustic/singer thing, once i can get my vocals down. I have worked on them for awhile and so far im not to confident on how they sound...but thats something i could just practice on.

i know several places i could play, but the advise on posting advertisment could really come in handy. As for a demo, i have been working on one for a bit, and have some guitar down, just not vocals.

 

I'm not trying to be an asshole at all, but do you mean to tell me that you came here to ask for advice before posting up ads in local music and record stores? I'd have to ask, how much legitimate searching for a band have you really done? This idea should be about number 3 on your list, man.

 

well ya i suppose i should of posted up ads loooong ago...not to bright of me eh?

 

That aspect of your plan? No, not so much.

 

I fit the drummer description very well but i am not in your area, sorry i couldnt be of any help dude

 

Well, I have two things to say.
--Listen to SelfControl, he's a good man
--You're a guitarist, so you're not in very high demand. In fact, you're about worthless. Sorry. What you really need to do is find some way to seperate yourself from all the other shmucks out there who play guitar. Do something interesting. Have a two or three really wild solos on that demo that stand out alot. Also, hang out in music shops, because(just incase you did'nt notice) that's where musicians hang out.

 

haha, yeah, ain't that the truth? Everyone and his brother, sister, aunt Mary and dog Skip play guitar. You have to be really well educated at it, well versed on how the industry works and still have a lot of luck to make it (as in, make good money, anyone can survive as a guitarist) as a guitar player. Drummers are lucky in the sense that they are in high demand, but unlucky in the sense that they've got to beat those annoying skins all day. lol

I wonder if he meant a drummer who is not drugged out of his mind. It would be strange to see someone post in an advertisement "looking for accomplished and experienced drummer, must be very fucked up at audition and be an irresponsible burn-out,... sober drummers need not apply.".

 

Ill play with you lol.. hehe

peace
chickens

 

where i come from the city has such a small population that finding good players is really difficult. so you just have to make do with what you can find. and you have to expect bitching. bitchyness is what the music scene is all about, especially behind people's backs!

 

Man, you've been getting into bands with the wrong people. The guys I'm in a band with I would practically die for. They're like brothers for me. I would never,...never say a bad word about them, even if the band breaks up.

You should move to L.A. It's really dirty, but there is band fodder everywhere, and I'm not talking just guitarists. There are drummers falling out of the sky there.

 

Hey backtothelab, while you're crawling around up my butt can you see if I swallowed any coins when I was a kid? I could use the cash.

I always feel a bit weird giving advice on this subject: I mean, I know it's better advice than being told to "stick at it" ("Well gee, I never thought of it like that. Problem solved!"), but other than that, I don't know if it'll work. I mean, it hasn't worked for me. Or at least.... um.

I've not been in a band, and that is still something I want to do. But since I've got my laptop I've realised what I really want to do, first and foremost, is to make music. The whole social aspect, touring, live performance, etc. I dunno, it doesn't hold the same appeal to me as it seems to for a lot of people. Many of my favourite guitar bands (Mogwai, Joan Of Arc, Aphex Twin, Brick Layer Cake, etc.) rarely play live, and construct songs in the studio. They are more devoted to making music for themselves than other people, I think. That or they're just anti-social buggers.

Eitherway, a label back home has said they'll put out a CD for me, the guy in charge wants me to play live but I've told him how I feel and he seems ok with it. There's a lot of people like me, who got so sick of the way musicians and promoters behave that, rather than give up entirely we just tried to do what we love our own way. So that way, if it doesn't work it's only your fault, but funnily enough, it doesn't fail nearly so often.

 

Question:Why are you giving advice on how to get into a band if you yourself have not yet been in a band? I'm not being an asshole at all, I'm simply wondering how one without experience with getting into a band would be qualified to give such advice to another who is in the same position. I'd think you'd have to have been in a few bands to understand legitimate ways to get into one.

 

I know, I'm a big hypocrit, ain't I.

But I have tried to get into bands for bloody ages, and so while I don't know the secret formula that means you will definitely get into a band, I know what advice doesn't work.

I was in a sort of a band, it was just me and another guy and a drum machine, we spent nine months rehearsing together and looking for other members but in the end it never went anywhere. It was annoying, because we were proficient enough to play with just the drum machine, but it wasn't really what we wanted to do.

The negative experiences I've had are pretty common, apparently: I've been in bands for a couple of practises and either I've not been asked back, I've got bored and left, or they've just generally died of a lack of enthusiasm. I've been in bands that had three good members and one shit one who was mates with them, and the bands would benefit hugely from getting rid of that one member but they won't do it because he's their mate. I've been in bands where no-one has any ideas and it really hasn't gelled at all, and where if you come up with a riff off the cuff during one of those awkward silences they say it's good and then expect you to have written albums of stuff. I've been in bands where people don't turn up to practises, or turn up an hour late and everyone acts like this doesn't make them a **** in any way and you're just stood there listening to them all being mates thinking WHAT THE FUCK?!

When I say I've not been in bands, what I mean is that I haven't been in bands that have gone the way I wanted. Generally if one is shit I'll give it three chances, three rehearsals where I'll do everything I can to try and improve it. But if it doesn't work after that, there's just no point in staying. I suppose some would call this over-critical, but meh.

So yeah, I'm not qualified, I just wanted to help the guy out by offering some constructive advice, because when I've asked similar questions of people who are in bands, they've generally responded with "just keep trying" and other pieces of "advice" which range from glaringly obvious to borderline insulting. If you tell them that what they've advised you to do doesn't work they accuse you of whining.

I personally think there is a certain type of person who just naturally sails into bands. If you grow up having friends who get into music and want to make music with you, it is much easier to say that getting into a band is jsut a matter of patience. When you're having to actively seek out musicians, and then when you find them they're nothing like what you actually want, it's very disheartening, and being presented with the same bollocks advice time and again doesn't help. The most successful (in terms of longevity and creativity) bands tend to be ones where the people involved are all friends, ideally with healthy conflict between them. It's a long way from picking up musicians from adverts. I know that seems pessimistic, but it's the way things are and rather than slog away at something that doesn't work it's at least more enjoyable and probably more effective to explore other avenues.

[/rant]

 

well, i suppose what i have been trying to say is that i can find people who can drum and play bass and what not...but with 3 drummers i know, one just got into rehab, one is hooked on heroin, and the other just cant drum for shit. I have been looking at want ads for guitarests(found none), or putting up ads looking for a band, however i dont have transportation, so it makes things a little difficult. At this point, im just going to go for the solo act and record a demo.

 

Well I'll tell ya what, we can split it 40/60. You can use your share on TP.

 

Sure you could, you could jam over the web....
then record seperately like Pink Floyd used to do.
You could be huge like Steely Dan without ever doing a gig.