Somewhat of a Rant

Jazzin' · #1 11-16-2006, 07:52 PM

Well I joined this "youth" bigband a few months ago. It's really a semi-youth bigband because half the players in this band are over 30 and the other half is under 25. It was a new band starting out and it needed an electric bassist. I am a newb at upright bass, so I joined on the condition that I could play upright for them. It would be a good challenge for me and the music they were playing was for beginners.

We would have a rehearsal every Sunday from 12 to 2. The rehearsals were boring and I would miss the beginnings of the NFL 1 o'clock games but I continued to go because I was getting good bigband upright bass practice out of it.

The band was quickly growing from absolutely nothing into some kind of corporation with an agent, director, conductor.

Then just this week, I get an email from the director regarding a letter being sent to all our parents. I just got the letter today. The band was literally incorporated and now they really have a chairperson, treasurer, secretary, counselour, legal counselor, administrator, administrative assistant, band manager, two sound & recording engineers, technical support assistant, a graphic/website designer/photgrapher, someone encharged of equipment maintenance and transportation and then a band director, conductor, and a few indivdual instrument instructors.

It sounds insane to me. To top it all off, each band memeber is required to give a minimum MONTHLY donation of $100 in order to stay in the band. We can also donate $160/month if we wish to have private instrument lessons and then $295/month if we wish to have double the amount of lessons as well as a bunch of useless goodies.

I have been slightly considering quitting the band, but now they gave me the ultimate reason to quit. I am not paying at least $100 a month to be in a band with boring easy music. I will not be a slave to this corporation that will just use us to for gigs to make money for themselves while we do not get payed to play. It was kind of fun while it lasted, but not enough to be worth the $100+ per month.

bassteban · #2 11-16-2006, 07:58 PM

I used to kvetch about playing for free, but to pay(through the nose)for a flippin' 'corporation' to do all that gobbledy-gook- man, you need to edit your title. *Semi* indeed.

Jazzin' · #3 11-16-2006, 08:01 PM

I wont be surprised if half the bandmenbers quit. And I wont be surprised if the whole corporation just collapses.

Jazzdogg · #4 11-16-2006, 08:06 PM

The Little League mentality rears its ugly head once again.

Life is too darned short to be taken so seriously. When are all of these bureaucratic souls going to get a clue that they're killing the Golden Goose?

emils · #5 11-16-2006, 08:27 PM

Since they want to go that way and act all pro just charge them for your services. See how they react to an invoice from you.

FrigginChris · #6 11-16-2006, 09:45 PM

that's ridiculous, there's no way i'd pay to be in a band.

invader3k · #7 11-17-2006, 06:57 AM

What a bunch of idiots. Run far away from this "band" and don't look back.

Oh, and just to put them in their places, it wouldn't be a bad idea to send them an invoice for your past time contributed. Of course they'd never pay, but maybe it would send them a bit of a wakeup call.

pointbass · #8 11-17-2006, 07:06 AM

I've never been in a band where I didn't have to pay for something at some point (rehearsal space, demo's, PA system, etc) but at least I'd get the money back sooner or later from the gigs. And I could almost see wanting to pay the $100 a month if you were getting a ton of very good experience from it, almost as if you were paying for lessons.

But your situation just seems stupid to me. If you want to play for the sake of getting DB experience, there will be plenty of places you can volunteer your time (church groups, local theatre companies, etc) ...

guy n. cognito · #9 11-17-2006, 07:34 AM

You should be able to get private lessons for about $100 per month. I would quit this "band" with gusto.

NickyBass · #10 11-17-2006, 07:49 AM

What gets me the most, though, is that they are paying for a chairperson, treasurer, secretary, counselour, legal counselor, administrator, and administrative assistant, but they're charging the talent. Pretty much sums up the music business. Sounds like they had a good thing going, but it became too corporate.

Dr. Feelgood · #11 11-17-2006, 07:52 AM

That is mad! Quit, my friend!

I must confess that I have actually inputed money into a band! It wasn't "paying for staying", it was about $100 from each member to produce, master, print, etc our album, which we now sell at gigs.

ric1312 · #12 11-17-2006, 07:57 AM

Hey try to find out if one or two of those titles belong to the same person. Sounds like a scam to make money off of young musicians to me.

We have a guy doing something similar. He would get local acts on cable show, and make them pay $300 dollars and have the kids sell tickets to cover, none of them could. Either way he got 300 a band x4 or more every saturday. you do the math.

FretFree · #13 11-17-2006, 08:33 AM

How absurd...

... keep us posted on the demise of this organization!

i_got_a_mohawk · #14 11-17-2006, 08:41 AM

Id have a chat with everyone else in the band, and try and keep it together, but move out of this corporation ****, even if its only half of you jamming away.

but, if your wanting out, damn, id be out too!

Roger Pounders · #15 11-17-2006, 08:48 AM

Stupid, the guy who put it together aught to reasses his business skills.

I was in a band once where our pay was based on whether or not you moved gear. The drummer was such a tool that he devised a pay scheme that only 10 % of your pay was based on your talent, the rest was based on moving his PA.

BassChuck · #16 11-17-2006, 10:14 AM

I'm guessing the person in charge of all this nonsense is NOT a musician. Sounds like someone with a business degree and no musical sense has too much time on their hands.

Baryonyx · #17 11-17-2006, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emils

Since they want to go that way and act all pro just charge them for your services. See how they react to an invoice from you.

+1

Drop the bomb on them!

**bassybill** · #18 11-17-2006, 10:29 AM

Some good points made in this thread.

Run away, they're using you and the others (and parents natural desire to support their kids) to make a business out of it. I've seen this sort of setup before, it's almost child labour, or a thinly disguised version of something very like it.

Immoral, exploitative and disgusting; I really wish people weren't dumb enough to fall for this.

Spoiled Grape · #19 11-17-2006, 11:06 AM

Seriously, it sounds like a scam. I mean, someone, somewhere might be honestly thinking they are doing a good job by giving these kids a "real" experience, but ultimatly, it's a scam. It's like travel leagues for soccer, some people are having a good time, but it's a waste of money.

With that said, I've put ALOT of money into music. My gear is a testament to that alone. I've put in gas, CD funds, etc. I've also made some cash back, it's a give and take. Unless they are going to pay you for each gig and all those peopel they hired are somehow going to land you 2,000+ paying gigs off the start to compensate your band (big band, split down the middle plus manager and everyone else is goign ot want a chunk) than it's not worth it.

invader3k · #20 11-17-2006, 11:39 AM

The more I think about it, the more I'd be tempted to give the person in charge a good thrashing for taking something that's supposed to be a simple learning experience and turning it into some kind of pay to play scam.