Starting A Band

Hey!

um, well, I started this topic for everyone out there who is just starting a band, considering starting, or even dreaming of starting one. you can talk about anything relating to starting a band, from finding members to getting local gigs. also you post your stories about starting bands for others to read.


Okay, so here's my story.

At the end of last year, 3 of my friends and I decided we were going to start a band. None of us could play any instruments that we wanted in the band.
(I played piano, trumpet, trombone and cello, but we didn't want them in our band.)

We talked about it and talked about it before deciding, that in the new year we were going to talk lessons. I was going to learn bass, seeing as I could already play cello, and should pick it up quickly. One of my friends was going to learn guitar, one was going to learn drums, and the other one said she was going to be the singer. The problem was, she thought she was amazing, while the rest of us gagged. We really wanted to kick her out, but she was still our friend, so it was awkward.

The 3 of us discused it long and hard, and decided how to kick her out nicely. But at the same time another problem came up. My friend who was going to take drum lessons wasn't allowed to by her parents, but she was allowed to learn bass. I volunteered to swap with her, so I would learn drums. We told our other friend, the one that couldn't sing, that the guitarist would sing. She actually took it okay.

So at the start of this year we all put our names down for lessons on our instruments. We havn't actually had a practice or anything, and we are still deciding on names. Hopefully we will be playing together within a few weeks. We can all play some covers, we haven't tryed playing together yet. We also have a couple of our own songs, which we are working on writing music to.

I always dream on starting a band, but it's difficult over here.

All my friends like music but none of them play any instrument...

I had a band.. kind of..
Two guitarists, a drummer, and no singer. We'd kind of just sit around the drummer's EXTREMELY cramped drum room, on amps and tables, and just make up stupid riffs, yell.. profanities, or do bad covers.
It turned out the lead guitarist was a manipulative, lying poser, and we kind of quit being friends, and haven't jammed since.
It was fun while it lasted.

i think starting out with a band of mates is good in some ways especially if you all start at the same ability. However you can end up giving people places in the band a bit too readily, like with our first drummer whos a cool guy but was just always too busy to practice, so were looking for a new drummer at the moment.

i created my own band. I'm the lead singer and i've got a guitar player and a drummer.I've yet to ask my cousin who play the bass in church. I've already got a stage name (St.Dude, my username lol) and clothing (hoody and reversable pants). and I've got musical talent. Now I just need a name for my band. My band's a rock band I forgot to mention. Written 2 sucky songs and working on my 3rd which I think will be better than the 2.

Dom:

i think starting out with a band of mates is good in some ways especially if you all start at the same ability. However you can end up giving people places in the band a bit too readily, like with our first drummer whos a cool guy but was just always too busy to practice, so were looking for a new drummer at the moment.

i totally agree. my band's line up has changed so much over the years. we've had people leave, kicked people out, and had someone leave and come back. i usually just find someone, listen to them play once, and pretty much allow him/her into the band because we're always desperate for members. it's hard to find decent players these days that aren't already in bands.

and i've also had a drummer who was always too "busy" to practice. he was the first member to get the boot. *sigh* and drummers are the hardest to find too.

Franny.:

Dom:

i think starting out with a band of mates is good in some ways especially if you all start at the same ability. However you can end up giving people places in the band a bit too readily, like with our first drummer whos a cool guy but was just always too busy to practice, so were looking for a new drummer at the moment.

i totally agree. my band's line up has changed so much over the years. we've had people leave, kicked people out, and had someone leave and come back. i usually just find someone, listen to them play once, and pretty much allow him/her into the band because we're always desperate for members. it's hard to find decent players these days that aren't already in bands.

and i've also had a drummer who was always too "busy" to practice. he was the first member to get the boot. *sigh* and drummers are the hardest to find too.

lol we almost resorted to using the drum machine on the keyboard in our practice room. far more reliable.

My stories;;

I started out on the guitar with my best friend. We were both playing guitar, and I was the one to sing. We got this dude my friend knew to play the bass, no one on drums. We split up before we even had one band practice.

Then I started on the drums. I joined up with my best friend at the guitar, and another friend as singer. We found out that my friend couldn't sing at all, and kicked her out. That's not too long ago. We're soon having our first band practice, still looking for bassist and singer (:

Me and a couple of my friends decided to start a band. The name of our band is supposed to be Sex Rash ( Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Clash) but I don't think it will work out cause only me and the girl who's supposed to play bass actually know how to play our instruments.

Then I had this deal with another friend of mine and my cousin to start a band. We don't have a name yet and we still need a bass player and a singer.

Franny.:

Dom:

i think starting out with a band of mates is good in some ways especially if you all start at the same ability. However you can end up giving people places in the band a bit too readily, like with our first drummer whos a cool guy but was just always too busy to practice, so were looking for a new drummer at the moment.

i totally agree. my band's line up has changed so much over the years. we've had people leave, kicked people out, and had someone leave and come back. i usually just find someone, listen to them play once, and pretty much allow him/her into the band because we're always desperate for members. it's hard to find decent players these days that aren't already in bands.

and i've also had a drummer who was always too "busy" to practice. he was the first member to get the boot. *sigh* and drummers are the hardest to find too.

We got lucky, our drummer's my little brother and he's pretty reliable...it's our singer who doesn't do a damn thing and never shows up. and everybody else around here who wants to sing at all wants to sing screamo, and that's just not the kind of band we want to be. So we're basically in the market for a singer... and a bassist who can actually play

Well... I guess you could say Im in a band... But we're not really going anywhere. I play guitar, my one best friend plays drums, and the other plays guitar. We all have different playing abilities, which is hard. We're looking for a bassist, and a singer.. We always have arguments on who's being lead singer. They keep wanting me to do it, but I want one of them to do it.

It's really hard for us to play things together because we dont know the same songs. We've tried writing our own stuff, but we're not exactly at that level yet. The good thing is, we've all made a commitment of having band practise a few times a week, and we've all made goals to learn a certain amount of songs in a certain amount of time.

Hopefully that helped some people here.... Oh, and if anyone knows a bassist that lives in Canada, lmao let me know. XD

My friends started a band but didn't want me in it because of my music taste and the fact that I wanted to play something different

I started a band, but now it's kinda failing. We've been looking for a drummer for about a year now, and most of the drummers in my town are already in a band, or else they don't have much experience...

I play in a band, We practise two times a week.
Once at the drummers house and once at my guitar teachers house.
We get to use all my guitar teachers gear, so its kinda cool being 15 and playing over $100,000 worth of gear.
We have about 5 of our own songs.
We also do some crude covers.
We play a similar style to Green Day, well the kerplunk Green Day.
I'm in the process of finalising a myspace i'll link you guys up soon.

yellowstickerface:

I play in a band, We practise two times a week.
Once at the drummers house and once at my guitar teachers house.
We get to use all my guitar teachers gear, so its kinda cool being 15 and playing over $100,000 worth of gear.
We have about 5 of our own songs.
We also do some crude covers.
We play a similar style to Green Day, well the kerplunk Green Day.
I'm in the process of finalising a myspace i'll link you guys up soon.

lookin' forward to it

I can't find anybody to be in a band with me. I don't know any bassists that aren't assholes like this one guy, nor can I find any drummer that is committed.

This is really difficult. I'm a guitarist that writes her own songs and wants a band. Badly. But luck really isn't going my way.

i've been trying to start a band for awhile now. i did have one last year w/ my 3 best friends but only me and one of the other girls were totally being serious about it, and then i had a falling out w/ them and therefore we are no longer friends (well now i am w/ one of them anyways). but lately i've been trying to start a band with one of my guy friends and we're both pretty serious about it, the only problems are i don't think we're certain on all our member. we have ppl who are willing but we haven't gotten together w/ them. also the biggest problem is that it's hard for me to get together w/ this guy cuz everytime i try to invite him to my house he can't, and he lives like a half hour away from me so my mom doesn't like driving me there. it's really frusterating. but i think if i can get things to start working out we'd make an awesome team! any advice would be lovely =)

I play bass and my friend Shania plays guitar. I really want to start a band with her, but the only drummers in our town are guys and they don't want to play in a band with girls.

I've made like...three attempts to start a band. I took up acoustic guitar but I suck. I can sing okay, though. I have songs written but no music to accompany. I lost two drummers. The first one joined another band and the second one took one drum lesson, said "I can be the drummer!" and then quit drum lessons because she's a skanky bitch.

I've wanted to join a band now for a while, me and a few friends might be doing it. =]

We got guitars, drummer, but no bassist, but bass is pretty easy anyways