Failure after Failure

[scourge]

IMO, there are 2 approaches to being in bands and making music:

1. Being creative and playing music you truly love. Take your time and assemble a group of musicians that you get along with and have basically the same goals. Create music that turns you on regardless of whether or not anyone outside of the band likes it. If people like what your doing and come along, all the better.

2. Play music for the sake of playing. Join a band that is playing out regularly and have fun. Join an original band or a cover band and just play. Sometimes its nice to let others drive the bus and just enjoy the ride. There should be plenty of opportunities for a bassist to get into a gigging band.

There's no reason you can't do both.

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I think being in a band is all about compromises. Most of the time you'll have to compromise on song selection, musicianship, showmanship, individual parts, etc...

What you need is to find people with common goals and people you can get along with. After that, nothing is going to be perfect for everyone but it can still be an enjoyable experience for all involved.

[JLP]

That,s it. The group I play with now; it,s so easy. It has taken me longer than others to find it, but now I,m having a great time with it. We play originals and covers with the same enthusium, and keep the girlies dancing. That, the fun part. Working out song parts is the hard part. You make a choice and move on.

[Reckless]

Originally Posted by dulouz

+1
Get to know the working musicians in your area. Surround yourself with people the know the business end of the music scene. Stick with the people that know how to run a band, get gigs, etc...

Don't give up because one band flops. You never know what the next one might lead to. Also, try getting gigs as a substitute. That is how I broke into my local music scene.

It's not that one band flopped for me, it happens to be quite a lot ever since I've started 8 years ago. Band after band, same result from time to time.Getting up to the local music scene seems like difficult task for me. I was in the loop for like 6 months and then after I could never get back into it.

[JLP]

Sounds like you.re disappointed and frustrated, which is common trying to work with other people. I suggest you keep at it if you enjoy it.

[Reckless]

I've always enjoyed it.

Kind of feel like I'm just going in circles now.

[Martin Bormann]

If you want to keep a band together, best way to do that is to pay them. I mean pay them the going rate for their time per rehearsal. It's always hard to quit a paying gig.

[mambo4]

I used to jam in the basement with my friends and never play out, for years.

What cured it was seeking out and joining bands whose music appealed to me, but which already had gigs, or at least a history of getting out and playing shows.

An added bonus I was that even if I was not terribly fond of the music, or proud of the quality, I was at least padding my resume and making connections, which have all come back to my benefit later.

Also, I had been playing bass seriously for about 8 years before playing out became common...so don't lose patience.

[Reckless]

Originally Posted by mambo4

I used to jam in the basement with my friends and never play out, for years.

What cured it was seeking out and joining bands whose music appealed to me, but which already had gigs, or at least a history of getting out and playing shows.

An added bonus I was that even if I was not terribly fond of the music, or proud of the quality, I was at least padding my resume and making connections, which have all come back to my benefit later.

Also, I had been playing bass seriously for about 8 years before playing out became common...so don't lose patience.

Thanks for your reply,

My friend says that I should be doing just that "padding my resume and making connections". I was really losing my patience , but I guess i'll have to play it out until it works.

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by Reckless

Hi everyone at talkbass,

I'm new here at talkbass, but have always had this issue. Why is it always that most local bands fall apart before they even touch the stage?

Of course I'm speaking on personal experience. Maybe it's the people, the location, the style of music, or a combination of the above. I don't mean to go on a rant, but for someone who has been playing for 8 years this is very irritating. I've only had one band that actually played on stage. While the other X amount of other bands have seemed to fail. Sometimes I get to the point were I don't want to write any more songs, because I know this group will end up like the rest of them. Before I became 21 I tried my hardest to play in bands that I found in classifieds. Time after time they denied me simply because of my age. Most of these bands wanted someone at least 21 mostly due to them playing in bars.

I've tried playing in different style groups, yet they end up the same. My coinfindance in local music doesn't' exist. I'm simply just a bed room rocker.

Wasting a year on band to only see it fall apart piece by piece and then longer exist is depressing. Can anyone share there opinions?

Again I do apologies for sounding like i'm whining.

I am sorry to say, but this is exactly the way I feel. I have quit playing originals. Now I join mostly cover bands, or bands with originals, but only if I can be just a sideman. And sadly, I found out that these bands also break up before the first show. But I am still trying, not doing originals help a lot, since there are less ego battles.