inspired by the responses of my own thread about knowing musical instrument , i also would like to know if any of you guys have your own band or play for any band ? hows the experience been ? :m:
See my response under the topic, "Do you play any musical instruments" ...or somethng like that! But it's a bitch, it's tiring, it's boring, it's low, low paying, it has almost no future, the health benefits suck, the unemployment compensation sucks, ....I really could keep going on and on, but you get the idea, right? On the up side? It's fun, for the most part, AND you can usually drink booze until you float away into the sunset ....fat, dumb and happy! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Baron Max
I'm in a pop/rock band called Need For Panic. Been together on and off for about three years. We just released our third CD, 'The Girls in Black' at what was probably our best gig ever. I mainly play bass guitar in this band, but sometimes I bust out the old Yamaha trombone. It's always good to add a new element to performances. band web site (site is currently undergoing a lot of revamping, so there's a lot of old stuff on there)
Oh, right. The exprience? My best experiences have been with my band. But I'm lucky. I'm tied with a very smart and talented group of individuals (or else they have at least developed that way since I've known them) with whom I've learned to work very well with.
actually organising a 'band' is too much work, we just play music togther when we have the spare time
I've been in bands that played original music. That felt oh so artistic and it was very satisfying. Except for the fact that no matter how good your original music is, it's almost never good enough for anybody else to want to listen to. So you don't get any gigs. Original-music bands that get noticed and get gigs so people can find out if they're any good are all in their teens and early twenties. If you're older than that, forget it. There's no way to get heard unless you have a friend or relative in the business. Bands that get work play covers of tunes everyone's familiar with in bars. The most popular bands in a major metro can make $1000 a night sometimes. The really good ones make $400-$600. The ones that are good enough to dance to and the crowd has a good time and spends a lot of money on drinks but nobody really follows them around from gig to gig play small rooms and make about $300 max. Unless they play "classic country" music, which is pretty easy, they rehearse at least one night a week. They have a lot of money invested in equipment, and you don't get anywhere without an agent who finds your bookings and takes fifteen percent (and earns it). Sometimes you take gigs so far away that you get home at 4am. Sometimes you take gigs on week nights and you have to go to work in the morning. It's a lot of work, a lot of driving, and sometimes you find yourself playing for ten people. You don't really net a lot of money after your expenses. Although I do know a couple of guys in the "really good band" category who play six to eight nights a month and make just about enough money to notice the difference in their income. But if you like playing music and you don't have a stick up your ass about insisting on playing your own compositions, it can be a really fun thing to do despite the drawbacks. After all for a lot of people the alternative is sitting on a sofa watching TV. The problem all bar bands run into sooner or later is that they start to get pretty good so they're more in demand and their agent gets them more frequent gigs. Everybody's ecstatic--for a while. Then they start to find that they have less time for all the rest of their lives. Eventually one member just can't handle it. The one with three teenage kids, or the one with the most responsible day job that they can't always leave at 5:00, or the oldest one, or the one who falls in love, or the one who decides to go back to college, or the one who doesn't get along with one of the others, or the one who'd rather play a different type of music. Then the nice tight group you had that knows each other's thoughts and works together like a symphony orchestra becomes a brand new band again and has to work doubly hard to avoid losing momentum--if they don't have trouble replacing the one who left. If I've dwelt more on the down side than the up side, it's probably a fair reflection. Most bands don't keep the same lineup for more than six months and most of them don't stay in business for more than a couple of years. But some individual musicians just keep finding new bands. I know a bassist who's been playing fairly regularly for more than 20 years. The key to success is having a good singer. There are thousands of really good guitarists out there. The singer makes the band. Not just good, but knowing how to handle each individual song. If you've ever heard somebody sing "Drift Away" in a voice that sounds like James Hetfield (I have), you know what I'm talking about.
Fraggle...thanks, that helped a lot. I've noticed that the bands that stay together and have distinctive carrers are the ones with singers whose voice extends beyond the standard, scream and coo, fare.
I did some managing of a few bands and also have worked on recording bands. I worked at a place called Tone studios in Miami for awhile on a 32 track board.
