Unhappy with my band

[Ripper91]

I joined my first real band towards the end of secondary school (that’s high school for you Americans ). I've now left school but the band has carried on and we've been playing a few gigs at clubs playing some of our own music.

The main problem with the band is that none of us are particularly good at writing the music and I've found that I’ve ended up writing most of the material of which is fairly average in my opinion.

I'm also the vocalist as well as bassist because we where never able to get a singer and while I'm fairly confident about singing but I know that my voice isn't that great I've suggested we look for a singer and I could sing backing but no one is particularly keen to do this.

Am I expecting too much from what is essentially a high school band here? Does everyone play in a few crappy bands before they find something that clicks?

[RiseAgainst]

I think most people do have to play with a few crappy first bands before they find a group of other musicians who know what it takes to write good music.

It looks like your band is lacking in will power and inspiration. either talk it through, try some covers or something to reignite why you all started playing music in the first place....or start looking for a new band.

[Stumbo]

Sounds like you need to move on to a new challange and find some more accomplished musicians.

edit: You're the bassist, vocalist, songwriter and you have musicians will to play your songs.
You may not find that setup again. Maybe try to take more advantage of it. Try taking some vocal lessons.
You say the songs are average. What's the audience say? Maybe spend more time improving your tunes or writing new ones. More the better. Break down some tunes written by your favorite artist and see how you can apply what you learn.

How about doing a side project and keeping this band going as well.

[Andy419]

Ya don't stay in a band where you are the only one putting an reasonable amount of effort into it. I've been there, since my two guitarists in one band were in another band and TOTALLY more dedicated to that. I haven't formally left that band, but I think it's kind of an unspoken agreement that we r done at least as a formal band. But the drummer is cool and I'd still like to jam with him.

Maybe that's what you need. Don't formally be in a band but just jam with them sometimes and hey maybe it'll take off from there.