General Music Chat

What does it take to get people to back up what they say and follow up on their initial contacts?

Yeah this is another flaky musicians rant...

Contacted a couple of bands on Craigslist, trying to get some thing going. Now I'm not your run of the mill barely able to play 3 chords guitar player, so I think I have a good chance of getting hired if I ever manage to actually get an audition...

So first I contacted one Big Joe Shelton, ad says he's looking for a good guitar player for blues festival circuit, I got in touch, he emailed me back with a link to his page with some sound clips, said to let him know if I was still interested. I sent a link to my Bandmix profile and let him know that "Last Train" was not the sound he is looking for, but does show that I can play. that was about a month ago, haven't heard a word since.

Contacted another band in east Texas, somewhere near Palestine, a week later and several emails the guy emailed me yesterday and said they decided to carry on 3 piece.

Frustrating...what does it take to find somebody who will actually make up their mind and at least let you know if they are not interested??? Makes me want to sell my guitars and go to work as a plumber...

Nothing going on here at all, as far as I can tell nothing within 4 or 5 hours of here, and the only ones I've found so far either won't get back in touch or can't make up their minds what they want...and I won't get into the whole trip across the country thing again.

Anybody need a carpenter? Computer tech? Hell, I'll go back to fixing lawn mowers right now if I have to...YUKK...

Your friendly neighborhood frustrated musician...

OK I'll stop ranting now...

Hey Billy, listened to your music and have to tell you I hear alot of talent and commitability. Don't get to down on looking for other band members. Keep writing and playing. You sound great man......
Bobby

Same kinda stuff here, Dont let it get you down. Just keep doing what your doing and somthing will happen.

PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Relax Pete, I know you can play well.

You have to remember that everyone has their own agenda.. Thus if you sound too good, that will get you eliminated from the show all by itself.

Finding people to play with is not only about them sounding ok, it's about the interaction that you get with them.

If you play with someone and it sounds ok, but you don't feel it. (you know what the deal is)

Then other times, you feel like you played so well that the world must know and things go poorly. (that's them getting all flustered because they think you might show them up)

The world is a vampire, carry a cross and some holy water. Don't let a minor few influence your major most.

Form your own band. Get together a repertoire of all the songs YOU play well. YOU'RE NOW THE BAND LEADER. YOU recruit a bass player, drummer, and lead singer. YOU tell them this is what we're going to do. Find people that can play reasonably well and play part-time locally. Keep your day job. Enjoy YOUR new band. Whatever gigs YOU get enjoy them and don't worry about getting into an existing band. Life's too short to be frustrated, especially with YOUR talent. Music should be fun first and foremost, not frustrating.

Well, I have shared your frustration in many areas of my life.

I do think it was a mistake to send a sample song that was out of their preferred genre, however. Had I received something like that from someone, it might make me question whether my sound was what they actually sought. I may think that they'd play with me only until they found ppl in their preferred genre. It might also lead me to believe that as you step out of your usual box, the band would be taking a chance on you as you learn a new skill, & you are, after all, an unknown quanitity with these prospective band-mates. I've done this myself, though, Pete, & it's an easy mistake to make. "This is the best example of my ability" types of samples are not always the best choice to show your abilities to a "closed genre" type of person.

Remember that there ARE ppl out there who are completely dedicated to a single music form. They would prefer to play with others of like mind. I wouldn't go to some bluegrass band & expect them to understand my abilities in metal or emo or even country, or expect them to think I could apply those skills to their genre. They can't relate, & it makes them feel perhaps somewhat inferior, musically, which will also block your attempts to join their act. These ppl will usually be suspect of ppl unlike themselves, thinking that your commitment is always in question, that there are other styles you would prefer to play, or that you'd get bored with a single genre after awhile.

If a band wants a blues player, I'd find or make a sample of my blues playing to send them. Same for just about any other genre choice. If their choice covers many genres, I would send several different things from my personal library, to show my versatility.

Too much info, especially irrelevant info, is usually much worse than not enough, when trying for any job at all. That's hard to remember, sometimes, but it is a secret shared by a lot of good salesmen that I try to remember as I look for work.

Thanks guys, I just wanted to rant a little. Sometimes ya just gotta...some good points made though.

Fisherman guy - I wish I could, don't have the PA. Otherwise I'd have done it long ago.

Phil - I thought about that before sending him the link, decided to take a chance, guess it might have been a bad decision. The only tune I have that is in that genre is on my home computer, which is out of commission till I can scrape up the bucks to have all the utilities turned back on. That cross country trip thing again...I had everything turned off, light bill was 2 months overdue and about to be shut off anyway, now I have to start over, deposit and all, and no work around here. Which is one of the main reasons I'm looking for gigs out of town, this place was dead before the economy went to hell in a handbasket. Local paper mill just shut down in December, 550 people dumped into the job market and there were none to begin with. What sucks is I had it posted here at one time then took it down.

Capt - some good points there too, I've seen all that and more. I try to avoid situations where I can outplay the rest of the band, I don't want to be onstage with people that are intimidated by me, it's not comfortable...been there done that. Actually I like to be the weakest musician in the band, then I know it will be a killer band. if I have to work for it, that keeps me on my toes and I usually do best under pressure, and I also always improve as a result. Similar to doing fill in gigs - just met the band an hour ago, no idea what to expect, what key they might play any particular song in or changes they might have made, and I have to keep up. Did that for 3 years in the 80's, it made a huge difference in my ability.

I won't be giving it up, wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have a guitar or three sitting around, everybody I know would think I had finally lost it. That damn little guitar player in my head won't let it happen anyway, little bastard won't even shut up after 15 beers and several joints. Still have trouble going to sleep...No I don't drink any more, but in my 20's I did quite a bit of it, couple of six packs and a half dozen left handed ones and still had trouble getting to sleep...it never stops...except when I have to concentrate on something for a while. So I guess I'll keep looking, not much else to do it just gets frustrating and depressing sometimes and now and then I just have to rant a little...sure wish I had a PA though...

Yea, I hear ya, man.
Hopefully, you're less frustrated by now. Hey, that gives me an idea. We should have a whole section dedicated to rants and just rants. No, really.

Hey Paleopete-GET A PA. Keep it simple. Buy a used Peavey powered mixer like XR684 and used mains (Black Widows). Keep the band concept simple. You can probably buy an entire used PA for under $1500, including a few good microphones. If you recruit a professional singer that person should have some PA equipment. Don't let that stand in your way. This is a new year. Your New Year's resolution should be: I'M NOW THE BOSS. Later...

fisherman guy - Yeah I'd love to, it might be possible later on but right now I have trouble putting $20 together to fill the gas tank. I've been checking the pawn shops around here for ages, no PA stuff has been showing up, aqt least not when I had the money for it. I really screwed up when my father died, the little bit of estate we got was around $3000, and instead of grabbing a PA first thing I held out for a vehicle, found nothing around here but 4 wheel drive and/or gas hogs, finally ran out of money trying to keep bills paid...should have grabbed a PA and worried about wheels to carry it with later...That's first on my list if anything ever breaks around here and I end up making decent money again...I won't make the same mistake twice.