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How do you connect with your band?

#41
Depending on the degree to which you embrace technology, the app BandHelper can be very useful. It will manage almost everything band-related, from songs, lyrics, charts, to gigs, notices, auto-posting to a web site, notes, lighting, stage plots, and on and on and on. And it's one co-ordinated spot for communication - between band members and with performance contacts, with built-in follow-up reminders and on and on. Check it out:

BandHelper
 
#42
Once a form of communication is chosen, then how it's done can make a difference. I play in a 19 piece band, with frequent subs. We even get subs for rehearsals. The BL has a very regular schedule of e-mails for attendance and other issues. It helps that he's a good organized BL in the first place. Before every gig, he sends out a detailed set list and precis of everything we need to know.

It generates a lot of "reply to all" traffic, but those are easy to manage by just deleting them. Social chatter and stuff that only involves one section, goes to those people and nobody else.
 
#43
tb-player said:
Curious how those of you in bands communicate with your fellow bandmates. I feel like I always have about 10 group messages going at once with a few group Messenger chats going on as well. Throw in the occasional dep who gets included on a chat and I have no idea who they are... it's a lot to juggle.

Granted, in one of my bands, a couple of the guys are a little older. One, in particular, is technologically challenged. I think the group chat is probably already more than he can handle... lol. In my church gig, they use Planning Center, which is really a perfect tool for what we do. I wish there was something like that for bands... or is there?

Anyone have an efficient solution for band communication? WhatsApp? Slack?
Click to expand...

Planning Center works great. We used that at my last church were we had about 40 members in our praise and worship team including singers and musicians.

A band was in a few years an ago the BL ran a band calendar and email on Gmail. The band I’m in now uses email and the telephone. We’re so old I’m surprised we aren’t still mailing letters…..
 
#48
tb-player said:
Curious how those of you in bands communicate with your fellow bandmates. I feel like I always have about 10 group messages going at once with a few group Messenger chats going on as well. Throw in the occasional dep who gets included on a chat and I have no idea who they are... it's a lot to juggle.

Granted, in one of my bands, a couple of the guys are a little older. One, in particular, is technologically challenged. I think the group chat is probably already more than he can handle... lol. In my church gig, they use Planning Center, which is really a perfect tool for what we do. I wish there was something like that for bands... or is there?

Anyone have an efficient solution for band communication? WhatsApp? Slack?
Click to expand...
Group text
 
#53
99% of communication is a group text or texts between individual band members (yes, we talk behind each others backs all the time). The other 1% would be documents that are emailed. One band member does not have a smart phone, so this works just fine.

InhumanResource said:
The pics of a setlist via text thing kind of bugs me. Shared documents are so easily available nowadays!
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I was in a band where the BL did this. He was literally a rocket scientist, yet couldn't get on board with sharing a text document.
 
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#54
3Liter said:
I have a group text going with one band. That was a.long time coming because one guy had a flip phone. Even still people miss things or ask the same question that was addressed 4 messages prior. One guy is always late to respond despite literally holding his phone through rehearsal. He's shopping for a better offer I'm sure.

I have a new project brewing still trying to sort put all the players. It's all email. Sometimes 3 concurrent chains with the BL sending emails from his two accounts. It's nutty.
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My case is similar to yours. I’m an “older” person - if 60 is older - work from home in IT, so I’m the one trying to get everyone on the same page. What’s worse is the BL sends PICTURES of the excel set lists and expects me to print them out. One of the deciding factors that made me quit that particular band. He’s resorted to using smoke signals.
 
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#55
Usually FB Messenger for most of my bands, to keep things organized. One band just uses a group text. I prefer Messenger, as each group is labeled by band name, which is helpful.

I used to prefer email, which is nice for searching for keywords/song titles, etc.
 
#56
FB messenger group chats are fine for me. But I could see how it might not work for everyone. Within a group where everyone kind of knows everyone else’s schedules though it works really well. For example other band members having long conversations talking about non band related stuff in the group chat while you’re at work, sleeping, or whatever.
 
#60
juancaminos said:
Our BL is technically challenged. So he writes out things like set lists. Then takes a picture and shares that picture with band members. The problem with that is that sometimes the picture has a pink tinge and other times it's blue. For set lists he writes out three or four pages. My printer uses a lot of ink trying to match the blue of pink tinted paper.

So me being a nice guy have resorted to typing it all out on a single page Excel spreadsheet. Which I email to the others. Except the band leader because he doesn't know how to open attachments or print.
Click to expand...
Tec tip--- set your printer to print B&W for his set lists.
 
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