General Music Chat

Frustrated again,
I responded to several ads on Bandmix and I wish people would, at the very least, send a not interested reply. Is that so hard? A simple reply so that people seeking can move on and not wonder if they have found what is needed for the band. I am a drummer/percussion player with one guitar player seeking band members in Northwest New Jersey. We need a singer and a bass player or just a singer and we can fill in the rest or close to it. We play everything from acoustic music in small rooms to large out door venues. We have played Blues, Folk, Jazzy feel, Classic Rock and more.

Bwood,
There is alreadv a discussion about this topic underway.
See the Posting - 'non-responding people,' - you might want to read it.

Thanks,
I looked at the Non-responders and I see it's a big problem.

Thank you for your response.
Bwood

Bwood when you say "non-responder", do you mean musicians that you have contacted in order to hook up, them not getting back to you, or a general lack of initial connections from them on seeing your ad?

This point confused me a bit from the older thread on the subject.

Hi Irminsul,
I saw some people looking for a band and I contacted them through BANDMIX to ask if they were still interested. I must say so far 2 out of 8 have emailed me and we have started the meeting process. I hope to have a band out playing again, if it all works for us. My original post was about contacting BandMix ads for musicians seeking bands and not getting a response back. Thank you for your reply.

Bwood

Oh I see, thanks for clearing that up.

It sounds like you're running into the flake factor, an afflication that, sadly, plagues the greater society of performing musicians.

I'm having the same problem down here in south mississippi. Nobody seems interested in making any money gigging. I got gigs, equiptment, a cd released, and nobody will even respond to emails???

Not only can musicians get jaded about making any money at their craft (especially if they have too many setbacks in that area), professional music performers are even sometimes looked down on for earning money from their performances. Strange, but true.

I can't say for sure if this is why you're not getting responses, but let's just say I wouldn't be shocked if it were a factor.

well I finally did get a response from a drummer, and a good one at that. But it was not from this site. It was from a posting at a local music shop. Maybe this site is not what it's cracked up to be.

I dunno, I'd be real happy with a bass player now. Got people calling, just dying to pay real money for real music!

A lot of these cats down here just want to play the same ole tired tunes at the same ole tired bars. It's hard to find serious people do do something fresh, something original.

Don't make sense.

It's the "comfortable chair" syndrome. Very few musicians are actually adventurers, or think outside the box (as that tired old saw goes). They like the well trodden territory because, simply, it's tried and true and doesn't tax the creative juices. And that's OK, as long as you're honest about it.

Secondly, as far as the effectiveness of places like BandMix. This is a beautifully designed and implemented site, and for that my hat's off to the BandMix creators and administrators. But (and this goes for pretty much all sites of the type) it's effectiveness is very limited, for the reasons you posted and the fact that it gets kinda clique-ish. Take this forum, for instance. Great idea, but do you see how few people actually use it to connect? A phenomenon I call the "Forumistas" takes place, meaning a few folks end up using it as a chat room while the vast majority of those on a given site really don't participate.

While I've gotten a few bites here, I'm finding lately that there are more coming from my local area - as a result of my talking in the right networks. It's strange to think that it might have required the internet age for us to rediscover the value of connecting with our own physical neighborhoods again.

I have to totally agree with Irminsul.....just a few bites, but not what I am looking for on my profile. We all have more viable contacts locally anyway.

It is a strange syndrome. Back years ago, all the musicians would connect at the music stores, bars, etc. Everyone in a given area knew everyone and what was going on. Who was playing with who and where.

Now, people are sitting in their home studios, some doing really fantastic work, and nobody knows them.

It's ironic that you may meet them on a forum like this and they live next door!

I think you're right about the home studio thing . . .
More people are staying home, recording.
Instead of making music with other musicians, they sit home, playing with themselves.
But - what the heck are they going to DO with their recordings? Play them for their mothers?
Music is meant to be HEARD. And - heard live.
.
Hey - anybody with a tape- recorder can record, & push rewind, and record a song over and over and over again, until they get it right.
Now it's a computer, tweaking & re-mixing, until they finally get it perfect.
.
But hand them a guitar - can they PLAY, in front of an audience, and still sound good?
If they can - what a WASTE of talent . . .
Alan