General Music Chat

New here, and now a paying member for a few months to see how this goes. Just wondering what regulars feel about how one should go about contacting other members. All business, cut to the chase? Low key casual? Tips? Advice? Admonitions? Warnings?

I'm sure people will say "Be yourself." Just wondering about any typical protocols and processes.

Put some music up to start, It will give you some immediate credentials.
Don't be afraid to share either because I have been fortunate to listen to some really good music from most of the folks here, the ones that need help are usually and kindly steered in that direction. You being a bit older I would most likely expect something more than a 12 year old.

GOOD LUCK!

Yeah, the music part is tough. Not exactly a geek at PC stuff. Plus I have nothing but some vids in MOD format which have proved useless for uploading to youtube, etc. Wish I knew that before I got the camera.

Is older stuff okay? Not the best quality. Someone sent me a bootleg CD of the long since past album. I don't even really play that genre anymore. I'd like to put up something. Just don't know what.

That would be wonderful!

[Notice a bit different response than the last guy looking for help]

When I developed our band using this service I would use the search function almost daily and send a "letter of intent" to each individual to whom I thought might be a match for our needs. I soon realized that I needed to expand my search by contacting everyone in our area whom advertised the appropriate skill ( IE drummers and bassist ) irregardless of my initial feeling about them.
I did this for months with only a few responses received vs many messages sent out. ( probably a 20-1 ratio )
After some time I was able to arrange some interviews and auditions and round out our line up.

As a note our drummer Steve-o has mentioned many times how amazed he was to get the contact, and that he was at the point of actually considering selling off his trappings.
He placed his profile here as a whim and I snapped him up after just a few days.
Be persistent and consistent.

Too many people expect fast food / McDonald's type of service from every aspect of life.

Persistence pays !!

That would be wonderful!

[Notice a bit different response than the last guy looking for help]

I think it took me over a year to get something up on my profile. Actually, I needed BM help to post up Coffee Break 9.

I agree with Sans. It took a couple of months and the co-writer I was looking for, contacted me instead. We have been working together for over a year now. The guy is great, couldn't be happier. When you do contact someone I would suggest the first meeting at something like a bar. Just so you can get a feel for where the person is at.

I also had a no show for an initial meeting, which although disappointing wasn’t terrible, with a few beers and a dinner at a Chili’s. It’s rude to just not show up, with no call no explanation. Just to say you will run across folks who don’t actually know this. So do the initial meeting somewhere that’s enjoyable for yourself.

I also had an audition which went absolutely horrible, but it did serve a purpose to teach me a hell of a lot. Mostly that anyone who can’t take the time to do a sit down before hand to discuss the details of what they are supposedly passionate about, has absolutely nothing to offer that I want. During the meeting see what the other person is about. Occasionally you may run across folks who are so far off the page you’re on, they lost the book. It only becomes obvious, after an extended face to face conversation.

What are you doing covers or originals? What style music? Are you planning on winging it at an open mike, practiced gigs, or is it studio recording you’re interested in? What are the end goals? Who has what equipment and what will be needed, what’s available at the location? What scheduling is involved?

Yeah now sure it says a lot of that on most profiles, “assuming” the other person actually reads it. First impressions are awkward enough, no need to add stress to the first gig by throwing in a missing amp, or a difference in what the expectations were etc.

Yeah any audio is better than no audio. This may help set up your computer for recording: http://forum.bandmix.com/viewtopic.php?p=24267#24267 and the imbedded link is a thread to a few free software offerings that are capable of decent audio recording.

I wonder if there's a way I could take songs from the album off a site that has them? The whole album is on various sites, which has astonished me being 30 years since we recorded it.

Is it appropriate to direct people to where stuff can be heard, or is that one extra step no one will bother with?

Being as you asked first & not just expect it. Most wont mind a detour. Some wont detour, some like myself are indecisive LOL Sometimes I will, sometimes I wont.
In your case I probably will. Whenever I correct my player issues.

Hello There! I am new here too. I am not a paying member but I have been contacted many times here in bandmix. Through my experience, the musicians I have met here are veteran players and have been working the musician circuit for a while. The age bracket would be 40+. So I suggest the best approach would be the professional one. My last contact here was a group of gentlemen that needed a guitarist for a fusion performance. They sent me their charts via PDF and rehearsed 2 times before a show. It worked out well. Most of the people I come in contact with are just for temporary performances which I prefer since I am involved with a secure project. I think location has everything to do with this site as I am getting many hits even though my profile says I am not looking. So in retrospect, having a good straightforward profile with a series of uploaded music is the best way to go.

Guess I should get busy trying to figure out how to upload something to the profile.

Thanks all. And keep adding things for my own mental files, and for other newbs, too.

Well, I posted a few links in my profile. We'll see how that angle fares for right now.

I have a question though. Why is there this rather blatant observation that many, many times people are contacted and receive no kind of reply? If people come here to find musicians to play with or hook up with bands, how can they be so impolite and irresponsible to just let a contact from someone else go unanswered? Why bother coming here? Even if contacted by someone representing a genre you have no interest in, why not at the very least send back a message with a one-line response - Thanks for the contact, but not my thing - or some kind of quick response? Would this silence be representative of a less than professional attitude right out of the box? Why would people wanting to make contacts respond with silence? Makes no sense to me.

There's also one thing I am seeing overall after looking at dozens and dozens of profiles and hundreds of search entries (looking for genres and instruments) - so little info from people in their profiles. I met my wife on-line, a dating site. It seems the same thing here. So little info, some with no personal pics. After awhile of looking you just kind of glaze over and stop seeing much of anything at all because there's so little to see.

Also the vast majority of people have no sound files. It seems logical that one would supply a bunch of info to make up for not having any sound files for someone to gauge what you are into. For me, at this point, lack of info is like the profile is not even there.

I'm kind of getting the over-all flavor of this site. Like most anything else, you get out of it what you put into it.

There are also personal spams sent to our private message boxes. A lot of people don't even check their personal mail. I only check my personal mailbox when I get a notification from my regular email addy that I have a message. And then only if I think it might not be spam. The other thing is that a lot of people just consider " no reply" a simple no thanks not interested. So there are more them a few reasons you do not get replies to every email, or any maybe? Some of us just go to the section that interest us. We don't even see that we have personal mail. And if you are a premier member, those that aren't can not reply to you.
If you haven't figured it out yet, you are living in the "Me" generation. Not a lot of courtesy anywhere on this planet. It is what it is. No reason to take offense, but some do.