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Low drama hobby bands - share your tips
- Thread starter alex1fly
- Start date
My untested scheme for keeping it from becoming pointless is to play out a few times a year. I don't know how many open mics are open to an entire band, but my plan is doing this as a church thing.
Work up a set of songs. Play it at various members churches. Gives us a few months to work up a set of tunes, and we get to use em a few times. (My vision here involves a bunch of horn players who still want to play but aren't into the bar thing. Those guys have almost zero opportunities or incentives to keep up their chops.)
A variation on this that could work outside of that is a multiband "tribute". An evening of Rush. Or Gordon Lightfoot, or 70's country, etc.. This fall we do a different band. This way everyone hopefully gets a little something, and its not like you're devoting your life to being a "Penguins" tribute band.
Work up a set of songs. Play it at various members churches. Gives us a few months to work up a set of tunes, and we get to use em a few times. (My vision here involves a bunch of horn players who still want to play but aren't into the bar thing. Those guys have almost zero opportunities or incentives to keep up their chops.)
A variation on this that could work outside of that is a multiband "tribute". An evening of Rush. Or Gordon Lightfoot, or 70's country, etc.. This fall we do a different band. This way everyone hopefully gets a little something, and its not like you're devoting your life to being a "Penguins" tribute band.
In my experience, ego problems dissapear with age, so the more I get old the less drama I experience in the bands I play with.
I wonder if it's a general rule, or just my lucky experience?
In my current band, we all get along super well, and we're able to achieve good rewarding results without tensions.
- We're all aware that we'll never become rock stars, just playing for fun, yet want to play great music.
- Each one of us have room to express his musicality
- We get rid of members pretty quickly when the start creating tensions (we get rid of 3 members in 10 years)
I wonder if it's a general rule, or just my lucky experience?
In my current band, we all get along super well, and we're able to achieve good rewarding results without tensions.
- We're all aware that we'll never become rock stars, just playing for fun, yet want to play great music.
- Each one of us have room to express his musicality
- We get rid of members pretty quickly when the start creating tensions (we get rid of 3 members in 10 years)
I'm with you - my band is in Liverpool, so a bit of the Beatles back catalogue is expected, but it has to be good, or you will know the audience's displeasure. So we polished a few and use them as appropriate. The guitarist tries to introduce more and more (he plays them VERY well, too) and has recently taken to introducing them as songs "by the Stones" or any other band to try to catch me out (I'm the only one in the band not born and bred in Liverpool
). Things that go down well and are fun to play are (for us):Here Comes The Sun, Honey Don't, Act Naturally, Something, Can't Buy Me Love, Get Back, and Blackbird (just singer and guitarist - done absolutely beautifully).
To come back on topic: We play perhaps 6-8 gigs a year, pretty much all for folks that know we play. Our practice schedule is agreed in advance and, barring emergencies, adhered to. We'd like to play more, but are keenly aware of time constraints, and we enjoy the hang and the music. We break even on band expenses, so money is no detriment, but the day jobs are not in any danger. We have conversations about our motivations, and our limitations, too. No-one is under any illusion about everyone else's level of commitment and we have fun.
Songs that are not generally well liked are tolerated to an extent, provided it is shared. Everyone makes an effort to accommodate other tastes, but there is a limit. It is a joint project, and the personalities involved are luckily mature enough to realise that it has to be give and take for everyone. Of 10 proposals for new material we typically end up adopting about half, the others either don't work well, or are beyond us or are simply not to everyone's taste. BUT: Everyone tries to play all proposals, none are dismissed out of hand, and we all make an effort before rejecting anything. All in all we built up a catalogue of 70ish songs that can be performed at the drop of a hat.
Special dreams? Do a side project, no problem at all. We'll even come and see you and cheer you on if you go and perform.
TLDR: Communicate, be flexible but reliable, respect others' tastes, propose things that are in line with everyone's abilities and tastes, and generally try to be a good egg all round
.
BobDeRosa
Commercial User
- May 16, 2012
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- Owner, Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps
I'm sure you're aware that hobby bands often grow restless and want to perform. Be prepared because that can change everything.
My basement jam started as a way to up my chops on some blues standards to play at blues jams and such. Sometimes we'd all go play at the jams, sometimes just me. Then the guys wanted to gig out ourselves. That added a layer of extra stress since I did a lot of the legwork. C19 killed that. We've devolved chops wise but still GTG every other week on average.
my humble opinions:
1. keep it to as few people as possible. Less people = faster/easier decision making, less schedule conflicts and less people to disagree with.
2. Work with reasonable, mature, generally positive people with whom you can hash things out, even disagree, without someone becoming butthurt. If its a hobby band, choose reasonable-person-with-less-ability over talented-yet-difficult person
3. Substances. If they get in the way, then its a problem. And it won’t get fixed or mitigated with rules. If it’s not a problem, not really hurting, ignore. If it is, run.
4. selecting bandmates that are geographically near each other is really helpful. Otherwise it puts a lot of strain on people long-term if they have an annoying commute to gig and rehearse. More so if some have a bad commute and some have an easy one
5. Remember, all bands are always on the verge of breaking up
So don’t stress too much.good luck!
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When we started, the drummer was a heavy drinker. Like lots of beers. (I'd played with him before at somoene else's house and it was lot of drinkng - me too). He rushes and this made it worse. When we played at my house, it was one or two (me too) until I stopped, because we played on Monday nights and my playing suffered. One player had a DUI so he doesn't drink outside his home and the others were sort of take it or leave it. Eventually, drummer rolled it back and then stopped entirely. Nobody ever said a word to him as far as I know. So this is a sucess story.
The secret to any "hobby band" is personnel. You have to be friends ( not necessarily close friends, but friends). Everyone has to be on the same page with respect to material, scheduling, deportment (including a dress code) and compensation. Ensure communication, and if you have a problem child, deal with that person immediately. My two cents.
OK....here's the rub. If you're a well known artist, and you're hiring me to play with you (and paying me well for it), then you can have that kind of control. If it is a hobby band, none of that above applies, and I'd need something else to join up. If you're controlling everything, then I have no input, and....I'm gonna go elsewhere.
I think you'll find this to be a sticking point with musicians - you have to let others contribute, or you'll be facing a lot of turnover in personnel. Remember, if you have a lot of turnover ("we've had 5 guitarists in a year"), it's probably not them, it's probably you.
"Krazy Chester," my band for the last 15 years, existed with no drama. We all had known each other from previous bands when we got together. We first decided, if one of us suggested a song, and either or both of the others didn't want to do it, we'd simply move on to the next suggestion with no discussion. This prevented a lot of possible conflict. As I often said..."No drama...no conflict...no Skynyrd."
It helped that we were all older...about 55 when we formed. We had been through it all before. We were all over the partying. Two of the three of us quit drinking decades earlier. We avoided playing the standard bar band fare, as we all had our fill of those songs.
We entered this band with the idea of playing songs that we loved. We introduced each other to songs the others had not played before. We became a blues/Americana band for the most part. Our songs were not immediately familiar to our audiences but they were upbeat, danceable, fun and played with joy. We did throw in a few bar band chestnuts, but only those we loved playing. I've played "Mustang Sally" in every band I've been in since 1967...different versions and styles and still love playing it. We played an enthusiastic "Wilson Pickett" version in this band.
We split a few months ago. Playing 4+ hour gigs was not a problem, but at our age, the hauling, setup and teardown and long hours was getting to us. It was time to hang it up. But it was the most fun and satisfying band I've ever played in.
Each of us was in the habit of listening to the other two, and playing what it took to support each other and make us sound as good as possible. We were tuned in to each others' playing.
As "geezers" we'd get strange looks from the younger audiences at the places we'd play. It was always fun to see the looks on their faces when we'd start playing. Playing in Northern Wisconsin, our audiences were very white. But it is a vacation/tourist area, and occasionally we'd get some black folks in the audience. They would watch us old white guys playing pre-Beatles era blues and soon start smiling and dancing. It was always fun to see how long it took for people who heard us for the first time to "get us."
Play what you love and show it.
It helped that we were all older...about 55 when we formed. We had been through it all before. We were all over the partying. Two of the three of us quit drinking decades earlier. We avoided playing the standard bar band fare, as we all had our fill of those songs.
We entered this band with the idea of playing songs that we loved. We introduced each other to songs the others had not played before. We became a blues/Americana band for the most part. Our songs were not immediately familiar to our audiences but they were upbeat, danceable, fun and played with joy. We did throw in a few bar band chestnuts, but only those we loved playing. I've played "Mustang Sally" in every band I've been in since 1967...different versions and styles and still love playing it. We played an enthusiastic "Wilson Pickett" version in this band.
We split a few months ago. Playing 4+ hour gigs was not a problem, but at our age, the hauling, setup and teardown and long hours was getting to us. It was time to hang it up. But it was the most fun and satisfying band I've ever played in.
Each of us was in the habit of listening to the other two, and playing what it took to support each other and make us sound as good as possible. We were tuned in to each others' playing.
As "geezers" we'd get strange looks from the younger audiences at the places we'd play. It was always fun to see the looks on their faces when we'd start playing. Playing in Northern Wisconsin, our audiences were very white. But it is a vacation/tourist area, and occasionally we'd get some black folks in the audience. They would watch us old white guys playing pre-Beatles era blues and soon start smiling and dancing. It was always fun to see how long it took for people who heard us for the first time to "get us."
Play what you love and show it.
Communication. Routine comms but also communicating expectations around musicianship, bandsmanship and showmanship.
The worse bandmates I ever had were usually terrible communicators.
The worse bandmates I ever had were usually terrible communicators.
Closest I ever got to "hobby band" was one in which I became bandleader by default. I got to play all my favorite songs! But I was not a good bandleader. Didn't take long for me to realize that a four-piece band playing to an audience of 5 for $5 was not a viable situation.
