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Why Do We Join The Wrong Bands
- Thread starter bluewine
- Start date
Fair enough. I just wanted to stress that different people are in different situations and taking risks that wouldn't make sense in some people's situations make perfect sense for others.
This is a great post.
I've been in a few start-ups. Some have worked, some haven't. If you're an experienced musician, you can go about picking players with prior band experience, connections and contacts, and a good social network and make it work. Start ups require a lot of work and have a higher failure rate.
Even when you make all the right decisions, a band that has promise can still fail. In my experience, it's usually a result of a person (or group) over-representing themselves and their experience. Sometimes you discover it right away, sometimes it takes months.
My current band represented themselves as actively gigging and experienced. Their facebook page bore this out, and they were pretty polished in rehearsal, so I joined. I learned pretty quick, however, that they were a bit optimistic in their assessment of their future gigging opportunities, since they had burned a few bridges due to volume and personality issues. After replacing a guitarist who was the source of the problem, I rebuilt the band myself, built a new website, worked my connections to get new gigs......basically started from scratch. It was worth it due to the quality of the other musicians. Now it is what I wanted, but it took a lot of hard work.
This may have already been said, but nobody has to complain or ask advice about their good band situation...
I love my band!
I love my band!
It's not just a band issue. It's an issue for everything. At the beginning of any group there is always the initial enthusiasm etc. The honeymoon period so to speak.
After about a year it gets harder. The issue becomes choice and committment.
The truth is, most people quit when it starts to get dull or routine, or problems come up. Problems and conflicts are intepreted as bad.......when they are normal.
People are lazy. They want the band to be "fun" and not deal with problems, so they just quit, rather than go through the process of growth.
After about a year it gets harder. The issue becomes choice and committment.
The truth is, most people quit when it starts to get dull or routine, or problems come up. Problems and conflicts are intepreted as bad.......when they are normal.
People are lazy. They want the band to be "fun" and not deal with problems, so they just quit, rather than go through the process of growth.
You're both right. I'm righter than either one of you cause I noticed that....
Sometimes the band sounds good, we like the chemistry, and either ignore the warning signs or figure we can
live with it.And often, like a dating relationship, people are on their good behavior at first, and only show their true colors after a few months.
Randy
Sometimes those work out too. I was avoiding a particular Craigslist band posting, and accidentally responded to them when I didn't recognize the ad. I auditioned, there were some good players there, figured it might be worth the networking opportunity. The players weren't as good as I thought, the manager however takes care of business, figured if he can book these guys, he's got talent. I decided to stay because it was so crazy I figured there'd be some really funny stories to emerge from the experience. It helped that nothing else worthwhile was available at the time.
Some new players, some personnel kicked out, a decent working band emerged. The manager was putting together another funk/R&B/neo soul project, asked if I was interested, and now its a really good band, good singers, material I always wanted to play. Took a while to get here. Best fit for a band, people and material, I've probably ever been in. Still pretty fresh, hoping it doesn't implode due to me ignoring warning signs cause I liked the project.
Randy
Maybe this principle has been reviewed in this thread, maybe not. But how many people wound up in the "wrong band" due to their own dishonesty or failure to realize their own expectations?
Seems like a lot of points of view here are about how the band or other members failed the person posting. But what about those situations where YOU were the part that didn't fit?
In thinking back to when I was auditioning for bands, had I embellished on my own record and lied about my experience, I would have gotten a lot more auditions, and I'm willing to bet at least somebody would have offered me a job because I can play fairly well. Had I not been upfront with my expectations (1-2 times a month playing out, once to twice a week practice, money was secondary to being with a group I liked), maybe I would have gotten in with the wrong group.
So how many of you out there got in with the wrong band simply because you weren't completely honest about yourself?
Seems like a lot of points of view here are about how the band or other members failed the person posting. But what about those situations where YOU were the part that didn't fit?
In thinking back to when I was auditioning for bands, had I embellished on my own record and lied about my experience, I would have gotten a lot more auditions, and I'm willing to bet at least somebody would have offered me a job because I can play fairly well. Had I not been upfront with my expectations (1-2 times a month playing out, once to twice a week practice, money was secondary to being with a group I liked), maybe I would have gotten in with the wrong group.
So how many of you out there got in with the wrong band simply because you weren't completely honest about yourself?
I think for upper-echelon players it's hard to BS your way into a job because once you're known, you're known and like many other things, people who exist in a certain category all seem to know each other (I see this in my day job where I have personal relationships with manufacturer reps and company owners that the average field employee would never know or meet). So I guess my question was more for the lower end players like me.
It would certainly be nice to move into the "upper ranks", but for a guy like me it just isn't ever going to happen. Too old, not good enough, and too many other commitments.
It would certainly be nice to move into the "upper ranks", but for a guy like me it just isn't ever going to happen. Too old, not good enough, and too many other commitments.
Great group of talented, responsible, and considerate musicians. We have a lot of fun and even love hanging out with each other when we're not playing/discussing our music. I also like the music we play; in the sense that I'd probably listen to it if I had nothing to do with the band personally.
maybe it's not the wrong band when we join. maybe our priorities change. (didn't read the whole thread, apologies if that's been covered) it's a lot like the girlfriend analogy i think.
I'm with you Blue. I retired from my day job over three years ago after I suffered a couple of strokes. Music is all I do now. I have tons of experience as a drummer, but right now I'm gigging regularly as a hand percussionist and I'm enjoying the change.
