General Music Chat

My home base is Minneapolis Mn For the last 6 weeks I been trying to put together a funk band. Everyone seems to be nuts. In my ads it say try out for a funk band I say whats needed. I say the style is funk. Like james brown Parliament/funkadelic The gap band. 6 guitar players 4 bass players tried out all they wanted to play was blues. none of them knew funk. they didnt read the whole ad. This is a start up band. But for some reason they didnt read that part either. Keyboard players set up a try out date and time and dont show up dont call dont email nothing . just waste my time waiting. Back in the 70s and 80s all you had to say is im starting a band and everyone is trying to be in it. What has happen to our musician of today Most of them dont want to be in a new band because they might have to work a little to make it sound good. They want the band to all ready be playing gigs so they can start making money do no real work like creating. Now thats not bad if theres a lot of bands out there that are in need of you. But in the real world your just sitting around waiting when you could be creating something new something better. Remember a lot of the great bands out there was start up bands. I would like the one im trying to put together to be one of them. what im saying is get off your ass and join a band. Who cares if it a new one it might be what you needed in the first place.

Maybe you could start by putting some music up. Then get better at sharing with anyone that might want to play before they waste your time.

Sounds like you're getting no interest in the genre you're interested in. Maybe YOU need to be a little more flexible and compromise a little...

Six weeks is a drop in the bucket.
Have a little faith in your project, push smarter not harder.
And be patient.
Perseverance, yeah ... that's the ticket.

What you all said was good but I did all of that. guess theres no real answer. I'll just keep trying

The problem is we're inundated with posers - guys who just want to be seen on stage, at the expense of others if necessary.
Art has little to nothing to do with music for these people. They just wanna shine

I just posted on another forum for the first time...introduced myself, and explained that I believed in learning the material beforehand, rather than wasting valuable band time trying to figure out a song in a group setting. Being prepared makes sense to me, but I kind of got blasted for being "impersonal".
Apparently, I was asking too much. It's much more important to sit around b.s.ing and delving into each others' personal lives than it is to maximize the limited time we have.

And people wonder why they have to keep their day jobs. For every good (real) musician you meet (such as the folks on this site-not sucking up, just stating facts), there are 5000 posers, wannabes, etc. Sometimes I hate having so much passion for music. I'm beyond tired of getting kicked in the balls by pretenders.

I love funk and there just aren't enough funky players around. Blues is boring to me because I grew up with it, I know the real deal of it. I went to a funk festival back in August with the Original Stone City Band, the Jimmy Castor Bunch and the Brides of Funkenstein. The promoter told me he was having the same problem finding local bands to play. For some reason, a lot of people have no idea what funk is. However, there was a big crowd and the concert was awesome. I hadn't danced so much in a long time, and I was at my booth!

Hang in there. There's a lot of spoiled brat musicians these days who have more attitude and less reason for it.

Just keep trying, don't give up.

Chaeya

Thank you, guys. That helps. It clears up some things. I guess I'll keep at it. Maybe start going to the clubs were musicians hang out. try that out who knows. You cant fake the funk. lol

Another funk player and lover ... for me is all about the bass player for funk .. more than the drummer, the drummers just got to keep a steady beat and leave some space. It took me a long time to find a bass player that can funk it.

I have worked with an AWESOME Funk bass player (black female) off and on throughout the years and it is hard to find any other bass players that can measure up! She is by FAR the best bass player I have ever worked with. However the new band I am in has a great bass player!

The problem is we're inundated with posers - guys who just want to be seen on stage, at the expense of others if necessary.
Art has little to nothing to do with music for these people. They just wanna shine Evil or Very Mad

I call that the "LOOK AT ME" syndrome......

I had a bass player friend of mine I knew since childhood He had his own style wich was nice. But he could play a bass and sound just like Larry graham he said he would join me if I ever started a band but he passed away 2 yrs ago living a hard life. RIP Joey He was the best to me When you hear brown mark play bass {former bass player for prince} he sounds a lot like joey. He was teaching mark in the early days. lol

My home base is Minneapolis Mn For the last 6 weeks I been trying to put together a funk band. Everyone seems to be nuts. In my ads it say try out for a funk band I say whats needed. I say the style is funk. Like james brown Parliament/funkadelic The gap band. 6 guitar players 4 bass players tried out all they wanted to play was blues. none of them knew funk. they didnt read the whole ad. This is a start up band. But for some reason they didnt read that part either. Keyboard players set up a try out date and time and dont show up dont call dont email nothing . just waste my time waiting. Back in the 70s and 80s all you had to say is im starting a band and everyone is trying to be in it. What has happen to our musician of today Most of them dont want to be in a new band because they might have to work a little to make it sound good. They want the band to all ready be playing gigs so they can start making money do no real work like creating. Now thats not bad if theres a lot of bands out there that are in need of you. But in the real world your just sitting around waiting when you could be creating something new something better. Remember a lot of the great bands out there was start up bands. I would like the one im trying to put together to be one of them. what im saying is get off your ass and join a band. Who cares if it a new one it might be what you needed in the first place.

We are facing the same issue - no one wants to be in a start up band or do the work it takes to be successful. Many musicians as of late seem to want to be the star or be a part of a band that is already gigging/making money or the person wants to come in, take over and do their own thing to make it seem like they lead the group. In my own personal experience in trying to create this new group, we have already gone through problems with 4 people either due to not being able to really know how to sing (though the person claimed they could), being flaky/not committed or problems with the other person's ego. I think Minneapolis/St. Paul is one of the worst-case scenarios when it comes to finding talented artists who know what you're looking for and have the drive, determination and dedication to stick it out. It's been an extremely difficult uphill battle for us, and we're hoping we can come out on top. Good luck....we're both going to need it!

The problem is we're inundated with posers - guys who just want to be seen on stage, at the expense of others if necessary.
Art has little to nothing to do with music for these people. They just wanna shine

I completely agree!! It's not about the music, it's about "How much can I get paid?" and "How can I get famous/get on T.V.?" LOL