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VETO POWER

#41
TheReceder said:
As for dumping songs we've been doing, this is one of my sore spots. There's nothing worse with a new group than having a folder full of deleted song charts that's bigger than the active file. Be smart up front and you won't waste time learning songs that'll be dumped.
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This is where I'm at with a band I'm in currently. Love the band overall... great people. But the aim a while back was expressed as wanting to do more event type stuff rather than bar gigs. I'm fine with having songs on the list we don't play often but dumping them altogether is a whole different story. It essentially means I wasted time learning a song (which I might not have really even liked in the first place) when that time could have been spent learning something that would be a "keeper".
 
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#43
I played in a very successful club band in my area for six years. We all had veto power, and everyone did something different for the group. It worked for us because of mutual respect and friendship. The guitarist and drummer were the best I had ever played with, and they knew I thought that. Our lady singer was outstanding. The sax player could drink more than anyone I'd ever seen......
 
#46
In my band, when composing song parts, it is normally obvious when it works and when it doesn't. But it's always difficult when someone brings a new riff or vocal melody that the rest do not like. Nobody wants to say 'you know, this is crap'. Sometimes we carry on with it just to avoid confrontation. And those songs normally end up being discarded anyway because they wouldn't work on a gig. I guess we'd be better off if someone stepped up as formal BL.
 
#47
We have a BL, but for song selection we now take a spin on the democratic approach. Each band member selects 3 songs. All other band members vote/rank them in order of preference. Top voted song from each member are now the new songs we learn. You have to give each song your best effort. We will drop a song if the skill level/range is beyond a member and can't hack it. If so, we go to choice #2 from the list of the one that got dropped.

Song selection for a venue depends on the venue. However, we all give our input and the BL breaks any "ties".
 
#48
I think it's good to have something like that, or at least make sure everyone is alright with the fact that some songs might not be ideal. Not sure why, but in casual cover bands, there's always a member or two who always love to suggest songs that are not even close to being feasible. Yeah, let's play Bohemian Rhapsody in a 4 piece cover band with no keys and only two members even close to being capable to singing half the parts. Great idea!
 
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#49
mellowinman said:
There are enough great songs that no one should tell me I have to sing "My Best Friend's Girl" by the Cars.
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You're totally in my head. Of all the songs we've done, that's the one I really dislike singing the most. I never actually vetoed it, but I think the others started to feel like it just wasn't working, so we just never went back to it.

As for the topic at hand, my band isn't a professional gigging band. Just parties for friends and family. But it's still a band made up of human beings, so I suppose most of the same principles apply. Therefore, I would say veto power works well for us. We don't have a BL per se. But we have all been friends longer than we've been playing together, and we started with the understanding that if someone really doesn't want to do a song—for any reason—then we don't do the song. No one ever abuses that privilege, and we're all usually game to at least try a song someone suggests.
 
#50
LYNCHMAN said:
in my band we have no formal band leader...sometimes we take turns being in charge during rehearsals (last night was my turn)...and we use this thing we call VETO POWER. basically if any one of the the band members has a problem with a particular song (for any reason) they can use their veto power to make it go away. if i don't like or don't think a song sounds good, i can say so and the song gets dumped. no questions asked. and everyone has that power...so far a lot of songs have found their way to the "dumped" list. we keep track in case someone wants to bring something back they've previously veto'ed.

so far this has been working well for us and while i haven't seen a situation where someone wants to negotiate with someone else to bring a song back that they liked in order to keep another song that someone else likes, but i expect it to happen eventually.

i was wondering if anyone else uses this type of band management structure...and how it works for you...
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Every member has the right to veto any song?

This is exactly why I don't do democratic bands....
 
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#52
QORC said:
do it like the Senate....need 2/3's to override a Presidential veto of a bill. So anyone can veto a song unless at least 2/3s of the band overrides it
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So in my trio, if someone vetoes a song, and the other two of us wants to do it, then the veto is overridden. I like it, but not sure how well it would really work. A veto that really isn't a veto. :woot:
Might cause some hard feelings when the drummer's veto is constantly overridden by me and the guitarist/vocalist. But hey, its just politics..nothing personal. :D
 
#53
GBBSbassist said:
I think it's good to have something like that, or at least make sure everyone is alright with the fact that some songs might not be ideal. Not sure why, but in casual cover bands, there's always a member or two who always love to suggest songs that are not even close to being feasible. Yeah, let's play Bohemian Rhapsody in a 4 piece cover band with no keys and only two members even close to being capable to singing half the parts. Great idea!
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Seen this a thousand times. We often suggest songs on our private FB page. Someone posts a youtube video and says " hey about this one". When it is way outside of what we do or not feasible, it just get ignored. No responses, no "likes"..just crickets. I think they get the message that we're not doing that one.
 
#57
We allow vetos. It's far from perfect, but we have found it to be more workable than trying to force someone into doing a song they hate because others voted to do it. We will get everyone together and go over a list of suggestions about once a year, decide on 15 or 20 new ones everyone can live with, and then add them in over the course of the next several months.
 
#58
Office.jpg
Did he say "Bread"?!
"Oh no man -i think someone would get their ass kicked if they said something like that"
 
#59
TWolf said:
So in my trio, if someone vetoes a song, and the other two of us wants to do it, then the veto is overridden. I like it, but not sure how well it would really work. A veto that really isn't a veto. :woot:
Might cause some hard feelings when the drummer's veto is constantly overridden by me and the guitarist/vocalist. But hey, its just politics..nothing personal. :D
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oh well. if you don't do it, then you're letting one person (a drummer?) determine all band decisions? Especially which songs to play? that makes no sense either IMHO
 
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