General Music Chat

1. You're always the first one to arrive at practice even though you intentionally arrive 30 minutes late.

2. One hour before practice someone sends a group text asking what songs were supposed to learned.

3. The original cover song is played a half step down on the studio recording but no one else notices.

4. No one ever tunes their instrument ahead of time and the drums are never really properly assembled

5. No one else actually knows the structure of the song by memory: ex. verse, bridge, chorus, solo, verse II, chorus II, outro

6. Singer holds the cell phone in his/her hand so he/she can read the lyrics despite the fact that you've been working on the same song for 3 months.

7. Guitar player never turns up their volume during his solos.

8. You're at a gig and half the band starts one song on the setlist, while the other half of the band starts a completely different song

9. Keyboardist keeps wanting to solo when the guitarist is supposed to solo

10. You make up a new original song during practice and everyone forgets it within a week.

These are just some of my experiences after playing in a number of literal garage bands. Please feel free to add more.

groups I associate with musically share one tuner amongst all of us in case some of the musicians tuners are not calibrated or dysfunctional/ inoperative etc.

Plenty of unorganized garage bands out there, they have no leadership and effectively no chance in the marketplace.

Then there are the ones who show up on time, are pretty well prepared as set lists and lead sheets of the arrangements were emailed a week ago. They tune up quickly and rehearse the important bits, then they are off to their next gig that pays pretty well. I prefer being part of these bands.

All symptoms of a leaderless band. Yes, you can be somewhat democratic - like the USA, more of a 'democratic republic' - meaning everyone gets a vote, but 1 person is the ultimate yay/nay person.

Yeah that was sorta the point of this thread, this is what a terribly unorganized, directionless, unserious band looks like and should probably be avoided.. when you start playing in bands at the age of 13 you don't know things aren't supposed to be like this.. Please feel free to add to the list.

Since the title of the thread is "...top 10...", I have helpfully not numbered these.

* It is more of a party than a rehearsal.
* Some notes are wrong and no one ever speaks up or stops to correct them.
* You have to drop already booked gigs because your members have conflicting gigs with other bands.
* Some members are suggesting material that is clearly at odds with the band's direction.
* You've all been in the same garage for a year with no gigs.
* Everyone has weak-ass busted equipment and are still using the same gear that you don't dare playing an actual show with.
* No one else contributes to anything. At all.
* You live in California.

Ya. I just went through that. The funny thing is, looking back, I came up with as many excuses to miss practice as everybody else did. I LOVED playing with these guys once I got there, but always dreaded going to practices.

* You hear "Shhh, he is here" when you get to practice.
* Everyone else in the band cites "punk" as a top influence.
* Everyone else leaves as soon as possible.
* You get strange looks when you say "let's count it out", or "what key is that in?"
* It doesn't matter who plays what instrument in your band.
* The chromatic key you end up in for every song is "because it sounds cool that way"
* The beer fridge or bong are the most used instruments at practice.
* No one else needs practice cuz they are "already awesome".
* Everyone is more interesting in inflating their own ego rather than trying to work together.