'Band'

[mikeluke]

You can see why backing tracks are popular with solo artists....

[Nadz1lla]

Just such a shame you can't do the same thing with vocals!!!!!

It's possible to do, as long as the rest of the band sticks to the click-track with the vocals on. You can replace any instrument in the band you want to as long as you have a way of getting it in synch with everything else.  :)

[Tellboy]

Me and two of my pals tried to get our band going again. So we booked a studio for 3 hours and waited patiently for our new drummer to turn up. He didn't. 2 years I've been trying to get this project going and it's got no where. So bollocks to it.

Unfortunately unreliabilty often seems to go with the territory. I always had trouble with bass players - this is a copy of a post I did about 3 years ago   :?

"I've lost count of the number of musicains over the years who joined/left/didn't bother to turn up for rehearsals etc.

The last permanent bass player in the band I was in was a brilliant musician but had never stuck at a job for more than a month and used to spend most of his day in the pub scrounging drinks off anyone he could find who was gullible enough to buy them. After waiting in an icy cold rehearsal room for over an hour and a half for him to turn up we found him outside a pub. After screaming "Where the f**k have you been?" he calmly explained that he managed to "cadge eight pints of 6X (very strong beer for non-drinkers) during the day and had sh*t himself".
Needless to say I had no wish to check out the accuracy of his claim and decided it was time for me to hang my plectrum up for a while. I still love playing and occassionally 'sit in' with some bands but find it impossible to find any serious musicians in my (senior) age group with my taste in music who are willing to work at it."

[Frank]

The big problem with recruiting band members is that they often aren't as into your music as you might think. This really tends to show when they have to make some kind of financial commitment like paying towards studio time - band members who aren't 100% committed invariably cop out at this point.

The only real solution I've found is to pay them to do a recording session. Don't tell them they're "part of the band", just take them on as hired help and maybe see if they want to make the arrangement more permanent.

[AndyR]

The big problem with recruiting band members is that they often aren't as into your music as you might think.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this very thing. "Musical differences" is a lot more important than we tend to imagine. I love playing any type of music, for the experience... but what I want to do is play stuff that rings my bell.

If I ended up in a situation where the band wanted to concentrate on a majority of stuff I'm not really into, and wanted to "take it to the next level", then I'd find it very hard to summon up much commitment, especially if the type of stuff I wanted to play was getting left behind.

I'd like to think I'd be upfront about this myself, but who knows?

Years ago I had a bassist I loved leave my band because he couldn't get behind the material. What he brought to it was BRILLIANT, far better than his replacement, but he personally wasn't getting the sh1ts&giggles you need from playing it. He actually came to me about it, and was really upset, and afraid I'd be angry... but I was just so grateful he was able to explain it. It was so obvious he couldn't stay and had to concentrate on the other thing he was working on. We stayed friends and it was all cool.

But so many people aren't able to come out and say "look guys, I thought I would, but I'm not digging it, and I've got higher priorities now..."

There are other reasons for people not "pulling their weight" (eg they're complete nobheads! :lol:), but I reckon a lot of the strange lack of commitment that I've experienced was really down to the fact that they just weren't into what I wanted to do.

The only real solution ...  just take them on as hired help and maybe see if they want to make the arrangement more permanent.

I worked this out, and that it pretty much applied to me, when I left my last band... unfortunately, I've never been in a position to pay a band! :lol:


Anyway, Johnny, extreme bummer... sorry to hear it's still flapping about like that :(

[Frank]

The big problem is expecting commitment. Sometimes people try out other bands because they're not entirely happy with the band they're in - these people almost invariably end up staying with the band they know best.

I've become very choosy about which people I work with now, if I don't believe in their project 100% then I won't commit to it. The odd gig or recording session is ok, anything beyond that and all the usual band problems start to crop up and I can't be bothered with it.

So to answer the original question, maybe it's better to ask people to learn a few songs with a view to recording them rather than asking people to commit themselves to joining a band full-time.

[Ratrod]

As much as I would never say it to his face, the drummer in my band is a top bloke-he is 100% reliable- (even if he is a rampant bi sexual moron).

Got him on a chain, huh?

Like Animal.

[nfe]

Perhaps he stayed outside because he didn't know when to come in.


Seriously though- that is a real pain in the neck. As much as I would never say it to his face, the drummer in my band is a top bloke-he is 100% reliable- (even if he is a rampant bi sexual[/i] moron).

Err, odd thing to bother to remark upon.

[38thBeatle]

I should perhaps have left that out-it is an in- joke that obviously no-one is going to get.He will have seen this thread ( as I pointed it out to him)& he'd have been amused by it and will play some sort of prank on me at the next gig.

[Johnny Mac]

Thanks for the replys guys.
Tellboy, that was the same post you posted last year when the bass player wouldn't show up. It was the same bass player who had found this new drummer who never turned to last Sundays rehearsal. All the problems we've had revovle around the bass player and after a telephone conversation with the sax player Monday night we wouldnt be suprised if this drummer was a figment of his imagination. Seriously. I asked him after waiting for an hour for the drummer to show up, can you give him a ring to see where he is. "I haven't got his number" was the reply I got. So this drummer was going to get a train in from Essex, to a Nrt London Rehearsal studio on a industrial estate and he didn't swap phone numbers! It's all very strange. I should have took the advise from here last year and not wasted anymore time with them.

[FernandoDuarte]

:roll: weird...

[_tom_]

The problem I find with making music by yourself with "e-instruments" is it just doesn't feel right and saps all the excitement out of it, for me. Can't beat having your amp up loud and playing with real people who make the odd mistake and most importantly people who can suggest improvements to the music.

It's nice having full control though :) If I could sing I would probably have a rough self-produced album out somewhere by now :lol:

[sgmypod]

Is more fun in a band just need to be patient can take a lot of time to find members(and then right ones)

[Telerocker]

The problem I find with making music by yourself with "e-instruments" is it just doesn't feel right and saps all the excitement out of it, for me. Can't beat having your amp up loud and playing with real people who make the odd mistake and most importantly people who can suggest improvements to the music.

It's nice having full control though :) If I could sing I would probably have a rough self-produced album out somewhere by now :lol:

I do both and we're talking two different worlds. With e-music (I fool around with a lot of samples) I make music I normally wouldn't compose on the guitar. Playing live in a band is an totally different emotion. Nothing can replace the feeling of your guitar through a roaring amp.