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#116119 by Drained
Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:39 am
:?: sooo does anyone have tips for a new band? other than practice practice practice?

#116120 by J-HALEY
Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:07 am
Be patient and learn to except each others faults because we all have them! :wink:

#116137 by philbymon
Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:07 am
After you learn your stuff, get EVERYONE out there booking gigs. Then you can figger out who's really good at it.

Try to get a consensus whenever you can, on any decision. Good luck with that...

#116144 by gtZip
Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:09 am
Don't settle for just hacking together songs. Do your best to make them the best you for right now.
No need to rush to play out. It can wait.
Take some time and get a good set together.

#116147 by philbymon
Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:16 am
...& don't forget the non-musical part of performance. Practice your overall presentation.

#116154 by Slacker G
Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:59 pm
Showmanship is first with a lot of the marginal talent out there today, while music takes a far second place. Remember that "guitar faces" are not that important even if some people call making them showmanship. It's about the music.
I was at a Rascal Flatts concert and their guitar player went out on the stage and started playing a couple of long sustain notes while making a lot of guitar faces.
Naturally the brain dead audience screamed all the while he was doing it. I also felt like screaming, but left in the middle of their concert instead. But I went to hear music, not to watch someone making phony guitar faces.

I heard a couple guitar players discussing how important getting in front of a mirror to make guitar faces can be to a performance.

Then I heard him play. And while I was listening I started making guitar faces.

#116161 by Tronix
Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:43 pm
Stick with it relentlessly, if a member of the band drops, keep looking for replacements, if you are the founder and proprietor of a "band" expect to go through a bunch of combinations before you stumble up on the one that will stick, it takes a bunch of like minded musicians, and honestly you're better off playing the lottery..lol

I formed my band among friends. That required me to get them on the path to actually learning how to be musicians, as they had only dabbled before. If I can make a band that still exists today (in a completely different form, but eh, whatever..lol) out of that, you can too. Were going on our third year, and we've had more guitar players than you can imagine, stick with it.

oh and guitar faces look fake and lame, never do them, unless you're doing them without knowing it, then they are ok, because they are real, and will look accordingly real.

Avoid dramatic "Scott Stapp" poses. They look fake and staged too.
And keep a flier up at school, in particular the music classes and guitar classes, and make sure you have them up in every music store within traveling distance of you.

#116163 by philbymon
Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:48 pm
Yeah, I'd rather see a guitarist smiling like he's having a good time, than one who looks like he's taking an oversized dry painful sh*t...

I like to make fun of ppl that do that...but it offends them...but I don't care - if it looks stupid I gotta say so!

#116165 by 90 dB
Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:04 pm
I always liked Eddie's s-eatin grin while he was shredding away. :D

#116169 by gbheil
Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:34 pm
Guitar faces ?? LOL

Mine comes natural. My wife & friends tell me I make the same faces when fighting or doing anything else that I'm lost in. :lol:


Band tips:
Logistics is my thing so I'm going to touch on logistics.
Have a back up plan & the equipment required to put it into effect ... always.
Assign everyone a part of the set up and breakdown procedure.
Make sure everyone has at least a functional understanding of each part of the sequence.
Scout the venue, know;
Where it is.
How long it will take you to get there.
And what you will need to destroy the objective ... oops I meant perform. LOL
I like to try to meet the person in charge of the venue ahead of time so I can see where they want us to set up and how long we will have to set up and sound check. ( I like to have at least 1.5 hours ) I over estimated the equipment requirements for our last show and the results were not as good as they could have been.

#116170 by ColorsFade
Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:35 pm
Set goals.

Realize that this is about putting on a "show" - not just a gig. There's a difference.

A gig is a bunch of musicians playing music.

A show is a bunch of musicians entertaining a crowd.

Use practice to work on EVERYTHING, not just the notes. You can work on the notes in your own time as individual musicians. Practice is about figuring out how to put on the show. Stage presence, what you're going to say between songs, how you're going to work the crowd, set lists, building momentum, when to introduce the band, how to handle changed tunings, etc.

If you're not doing it in practice, you won't do it in a show.

Be patient. Founding a band takes LOADS of patience. More than most people realize. You have to understand how to deal with different personality types and how to compromise. No one in the band is going to get everything they way in terms of songs, sets and everything else. Learn to accept that amongst each other. There has to be give and take.

Keep your collective selves focused on the goal: playing shows.

And make sure everyone understands this: priorities are ordered as such: Family first, band second, everything else third.

If people don't prioritize the band that way, you'll miss way too many opportunities for shows. You can't have a drummer who decides that hunting and sprint boat racing and dart leagues are more important than the band... They end up missing practice and shows.

Good luck. If you can get the right 4-6 people together, it's worth it. I love playing shows man.... absolutely love it.

#116177 by jsantos
Tue Jun 29, 2010 7:03 pm
Listen to each other, keep an open mind, remain positive and patient, find each other's strong point and compliment, feed of the individual's creative energy. Most importantly, have fun!

#116210 by Krul
Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:59 am
Make a decent 3 song demo, get professional photos done, get a logo, do a bio...this is a press kit! Make a physical one, and an electronic one. You'll need this to book gigs(a lot of times).

When you get established later, don't pocket all the money, if any. Take your gig $$$ and put it in a band account(where everyone signs up for the account). Any extra money needed to pay for merch and things should be spent equally, unless it's an emergency.

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