Im playing guitar for 8 or so years now, mostly in my room along with CD's and Mp3's but thats getting quite boring and to keep my intereset up i decided to put out an add up online for some musicians to do some jamming.

After weeks of waiting i a call from a drummer, and literally 5 mins later, a bassist interested in setting up a blues/rock covers band.

They both have some experience at arranging rehersal space and gigs so its not an issue that im new to the whole band game!

Its early early days, but im real excited now. could be setting myself up for a fall but if you dont try how will you know what could have been! really looking forward to this now!

Going to update this thread as the story develops in hope it might help other people considering starting a band, but unsure of how it works or where to start.

Setting yourself up for an experience, is more like it. Have fun, man.

Congratz on getting a band started man. Go for it and have fun

Good move mate - I hope there's going to be stuff posted to youtube for us with the updates?

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Steve

very cool schmintan! Have fun, keep us posted on your bands progress.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Sweet man, have fun and play loud!

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riley

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

So, we have provisionally agreed on 5 tunes to get us going in our first jam together, so that we dont just turn up and have nothing prepared. better to know the tunes, and be able to work on timing and other issues than be learning the songs during practice, which is unproductive in my opinion.

Mesin with the kid - Rory Gallagher
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
Thrill is gone - BB King
Pride and Joy - SRV
Sunshine of your love - Cream

all pretty much standard blues tunes, but all great fun to play. im guessing for a first meeting and first jam there will be loads to work on in these 5.

If we get 5 down in this session, and perhaps the same in the next 3-4 sessions, we will pretty much have a setlist. im not optimistic it will go straight forward and so will prob take 6-8+ sessions to get a setlist together. Its a start though.

Good luck. You're going to need it.

Playing in a gigging band has been one of the most rewarding, as well as one of the most blindingly frustrating, experiences of my life.

My advice?

Get together and play as often as possible. Get a bigger amp. Get used to spending all of your money on gear. Buy extra picks. Buy extra strings. Devise a scheme by which you practice constantly while avoiding musical boredom. Buy strings. Get used to your fee for the evening failing even to cover the bar tab. Become accustomed to staying out until 4am on weeknights, humping gear from the club through the snow to the truck. Buy strings. And have fun.

We had our first practice last night! Was a lot of fun but also a lot of work.

We had 5 songs laid out to have prepared, so we could get straight down to it. Immediately an issue surfaced, some folks had only learned one or two of the songs, and other folks thought that different versions of the songs were better , and learned them instead.

This held us back while trying to go over the song for the guys who didnt learn them, and to figure out the what the guys liked from the other version so we could incorporate it into the song. This was a bit trying, as we had clearly decided on what versions we were playing beforehand.

Next issue was with the key. I believe the key should rest wtih the singer and what they are comfortable playing. one member really wanted to play a song in a much higher key as thats how he learned it. took a while to convince him otherwise.

Final issue, which will only be resolved by time is our tightness. initially we were awful, but i could feel us getting tighter even after only 3 hours practice.

What ive learned so far is:
- If someone doesnt like a song, or a version of a song, i need to get them to speak up before practice, so we are all playing off the same music sheet come practiceday, and not wasting time and money.

-If people dont have time to learn the material, they should inform the group before practice. i appriciate time is at a premium with our busy lives today, but it doesnt cost much to send a quick mail a few days before hand and say i dont have time for those two songs, or whatever.

-I need to learn how to use my gear. I have a line 6, which i get great tones from at home with a small set of pc speakers, but when i plugged it straight into the crappy marshall that was there it sounded awful. ended up just using the marshall and not using my pedal at all, just to get a semi usable tone.

Next practice is just over a week away. hopefully we will be a little better prepared next week. Despite the teething problems i still had a great time and learned lots.

Next update after next practice.[/list]

thanks for the update schmintan, very cool. looking forward to your next update

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

i am in a three person folk group and first practice i was so nervous. These people played multiple instruments and i only played guitar. I was freaking out but i learned really fast that the stuff they knew i knew so it worked out.

I would say be yourself, talk about your musical interests and back rounds and go from there

Hi there, I am new to the forum and liking what i see so far. nice to meet you all!

plrarticles5, welcome to the Forum!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Keep at it...and good luck!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Hey all, havnt been here for a while, but think its about time i replied on this thread, seeing as i said i would in the beginning.

So, with the band i played a few gigs. went pretty good. but then they guys started arranging gigs at very short notice ( 3 in one weekend, giving me 3 days notice). this isnt a problem for any of them as bassplayer is a student so lots of free time,singer is a graphic designer who works for himself so sets his own hours, and drummer has his own business, also setting his own hours.

I work for a corporation and have to work the shifts assigned to me. i can swap, but not usually at 3 days notice.

I explained this to the guys again and although the singer and bass player understood and said we would try to work around it in future, the drummer just told me to " i guess you know where your priorities lie".

I enjoy the band but yea, despite his smart remark, hes correct, my priorities lie with a job that allows me to have a home, car, food etc, and a band thats for recreation is much lower on the priority list, so i ended up leaving the band rather than holding them back.

Sucks but what you gona do. Havnt played guitar much in the 2 months since that happened, but pushing my self to become motivated again.

So endeth the story of my short lived band!