Give Us Your Tips: Being in a Band

GuitarBizarre · 02-17-2012, 06:02 PM

1 - If one of your band members tries to teach you something, shut the **** up and learn it, THEN change it. They didn't write the part so they could feel like you're fighting them before they even understand it. Sometimes **** sounds weird on its own, but fine together. Learn it, play it, and then change it. That order.

2 - If one of your band members asks you to do something and you don't know how, make it a point to learn what that thing is before the next practice. I've been to practice sessions with guitarists who don't know what an A chord is before, and there's nothing more painful than having to explain that to someone 3 practices after they found out they didn't know it.

3 - STOP TRYING TO FIT YOUR BAND TO A SOUND, FIT A SOUND TO YOUR BAND. Its fine to be an uptempo hard rock band, it really is, but nobody ever got anywhere by having an album full of songs that all sounded the same because the band decided they wanted to sound a certain way before they actually wrote anything. If one of your band members wants to write a slower song, a heavier song, a weirder, more proggy song, give them some room to do it. Until you're playing gigs, to an audience, who are expecting a particular thing, then it DOES NOT MATTER if the song you're writing fits with the style of band you think you are.

4 - Always bring extra EVERYTHING to a practice. The checklist is simple: Extra strings for BOTH guitarists. Tools for any locking tremolos. Extra batteries for effects pedals. Extra picks for everyone. Extra guitar cables. An extra power cable.

All that stuff together doesn't add a whole lot more to your luggage, and it will SAVE. YOUR. ASS. Not to mention it will get you into the habit of planning for every eventuality, which will save you a ****load of hassle when you come to play live and everything goes wrong.

5 - Nobody who isn't in the band, gets to come to a practice. I don't care who they are. Not in the band? Not in the practice room. Ever. If its your girlfriend, you aren't going to be giving the band your full attention. If its a friend, you aren't going to be giving the band your full attention. If its another musician you want to see your practice, tell them to man the **** up and get a ticket to a show. If you aren't playing shows yet you aren't good enough to impress anyone anyway. Get out of my ****ing practice room and let us get to business.

6 - Get down to business. Food, banter, jokes, and jams are all fine, but you're not paying for a jam room. You're paying for a room where you can get down to doing some work. Every minute you're playing a 12 bar blues instead of one of your own songs, you are spending money for no reason, and you're getting nothing out of it. You can practice 12 bar and jamtracks at home. Leave it there.

7 - Don't **** around with the equipment. Practice rooms are dirty, dingy, smelly places where you're lucky if the equipment even half works. If you stumble upon something that ****s up in a strange, amusing way, DO NOT SPEND TEN MINUTES FREAKING ABOUT IT. You're paying for the room, and, presumably, the PA system you're laughing at. If its ****ed, ask for one that isn't. Don't make it **** up over and over again, you're only breaking it more and you WILL be asked to pay for it if the guy who owns the rooms assumes the breakage is your fault. You take that **** straight back to the office the moment you find a problem you can't live with. A busted input when the others work fine? Thats really not an issue. But if the PA periodically cuts out or clips for no reason when it really shouldn't, then you have bigger problems than a loose connection.

8 - Bring a ****ton of water with you, and nothing else. Alcohol is not a practice room drink, especially for singers. Practice rooms are NOT well ventilated. They're sealed up tight and usually the walls are carpeted. THats great for noise, but you WILL dehydrate in there, and you will do it FAST. Alcohol is not for practice rooms. ALCOHOL, IS NOT, FOR PRACTICE ROOMS.

9 - Bring earplugs. ****ING BRING EARPLUGS. BRING GODDAMNED EARPLUGS. As a sufferer of tinnitus, I can tell you right now, that ringing in your ears after you are somewhere loud for 4 hours straight is NOT going away over time. You are just learning to tune it out. It is cumulative damage to your hearing and it WILL **** you over before you're 40 if you're not careful. BRING. ****ING. EARPLUGS. You'll be able to hear things more clearly anyway because the earplugs will serve to block out weird aural anomalies like standing waves and beaming. The whole band should be doing this, and I do not give a **** how "Uncool" you think you are for wearing them. You should be wearing them onstage too. There's nothing you can't hear with earplugs IN onstage, that you would be able to hear without them. Sure, between songs you'll be shouting, but that just makes you seem to have more stage presence, rather than being a member of the crowd you seem commanding and powerful.

10 - In line with the above - When you practice, face all amplifiers to the drummer, turn them down to minimum, have the drummer play, and then turn your amplifier up until the drummer says he can hear you over himself. Repeat this process for the other guitars, the bass, and the vocals. That way you'll practice at a level that isn't insane, you'll have more clean headroom, and the room you're in will contribute less distortion to your final sound. Everybody wins.

11 - Really, this is sort of a 10b, but think about this. If you hear a man and a woman say the same thing at the same time, its very easy to seperate out which voice is which. The reason is obvious, the woman's voice is much higher than the man's. If you have two men say the same thing together, you may well find it much more difficult to seperate the two, since they'll have more similar voices.

The same applies in sound mixing, both onstage and in practice. If you find you can't hear one instrument over the other in practice, try changing your TONE before you change your VOLUME. A guitar with the mids cut out, playing over a guitar with the mids boosted, will retain more of its own voice than two guitars with a flat EQ. A vocalist with a very low voice will probably have to ask the guitarists to turn that frequency down on their amplifiers. A bassist will have similar concerns.

Generally speaking, if you have a bassist at all, guitars don't need to have a very bassy tone. Its more important that they cut through, and have just enough bass to stop them being weedy and thin. Conversely, a bassist doesn't need a lot of treble to be defined within a band, as long as nothing is stomping on his low end.

Also, avoid guitar tones with too much treble in. You'll overpower the cymbals. The guitars voice is in the midrange. You want to be sculpting that range, you DO NOT want to be adding in too much bass and treble through excessive EQ. a little goes a long way.

**Frownland** · 02-17-2012, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

9 - Bring earplugs. ****ING BRING EARPLUGS. BRING GODDAMNED EARPLUGS. As a sufferer of tinnitus, I can tell you right now, that ringing in your ears after you are somewhere loud for 4 hours straight is NOT going away over time. You are just learning to tune it out. It is cumulative damage to your hearing and it WILL **** you over before you're 40 if you're not careful. BRING. ****ING. EARPLUGS. You'll be able to hear things more clearly anyway because the earplugs will serve to block out weird aural anomalies like standing waves and beaming. The whole band should be doing this, and I do not give a **** how "Uncool" you think you are for wearing them. You should be wearing them onstage too. There's nothing you can't hear with earplugs IN onstage, that you would be able to hear without them. Sure, between songs you'll be shouting, but that just makes you seem to have more stage presence, rather than being a member of the crowd you seem commanding and powerful.

10 - In line with the above - When you practice, face all amplifiers to the drummer, turn them down to minimum, have the drummer play, and then turn your amplifier up until the drummer says he can hear you over himself. Repeat this process for the other guitars, the bass, and the vocals. That way you'll practice at a level that isn't insane, you'll have more clean headroom, and the room you're in will contribute less distortion to your final sound. Everybody wins.

11 - Really, this is sort of a 10b, but think about this. If you hear a man and a woman say the same thing at the same time, its very easy to seperate out which voice is which. The reason is obvious, the woman's voice is much higher than the man's. If you have two men say the same thing together, you may well find it much more difficult to seperate the two, since they'll have more similar voices.

The same applies in sound mixing, both onstage and in practice. If you find you can't hear one instrument over the other in practice, try changing your TONE before you change your VOLUME. A guitar with the mids cut out, playing over a guitar with the mids boosted, will retain more of its own voice than two guitars with a flat EQ. A vocalist with a very low voice will probably have to ask the guitarists to turn that frequency down on their amplifiers. A bassist will have similar concerns.

Generally speaking, if you have a bassist at all, guitars don't need to have a very bassy tone. Its more important that they cut through, and have just enough bass to stop them being weedy and thin. Conversely, a bassist doesn't need a lot of treble to be defined within a band, as long as nothing is stomping on his low end.

Also, avoid guitar tones with too much treble in. You'll overpower the cymbals. The guitars voice is in the midrange. You want to be sculpting that range, you DO NOT want to be adding in too much bass and treble through excessive EQ. a little goes a long way.

I knew that reading your wall of text would provide at least some insight. These closing three tips are fantastic.

GuitarBizarre · 02-18-2012, 07:08 PM

I think my wall of text may have killed the thread via truth aneurysm.

mr dave · 02-19-2012, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolverinewolfweiselpigeon

It's the concept I'm worried about. She wants it to be a duet where one of us the the sun and the other one is the moon and we're in love and singing back and forth to each other.

For example:

Hey Luna.
How's it going, Ray?
How is your night?
How is your day?

That's not a horrible concept, but those are horrible lyrics, maybe using that angle to do a rewrite could work as a compromise.

As for tips about being in a band...

1 - LEARN TO COMMUNICATE! Figure out what being a musician means to you, figure out what being in a band means to you, figure out what being successful means to you, then figure out a way to say all of that clearly to others. Then either learn to compromise or be patient and wait until you meet other people with similar goals to your own. Otherwise you'll always end up pissed off and resentful at something down the road.

2 - SEE NUMBER 1

Really though there's no right or wrong way to run a band, whether a band exists to make money, have fun, be the next Led Zep, whatever, but everyone within it needs to agree on its direction and focus otherwise it doesn't matter how many well organized practice sessions you have, it's not going to last.

Dr_Rez · 02-19-2012, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

I think my wall of text may have killed the thread via truth aneurysm.

Maybe, but it was a great post. All of those things are very true. Especially the using your time in a practice wisely. I have a few friends whom whenever we try to sit and actually work on somehting they just start jamming and doing other things. To them I give no further thought about being in a band with, if you cant have the discipline to learn a single song fully then you cant handle playing out.

mr dave · 02-20-2012, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RezZ

Maybe, but it was a great post. All of those things are very true. Especially the using your time in a practice wisely. I have a few friends whom whenever we try to sit and actually work on somehting they just start jamming and doing other things. To them I give no further thought about being in a band with, if you cant have the discipline to learn a single song fully then you cant handle playing out.

This is the exact kind of situation I tried to describe and warn to avoid. Using your practice time wisely is all relative to the individuals, your friends who just want to jam out and fart around might be leaving the jams feeling totally fulfilled regardless of your disappointment and frustration.

It sounds like you still play with these people too. If so, why? What's the point of continuing to string each other along if you don't share the same goals for the group?

Personally I was the guy who never wanted to bother learning stuff like a 'proper' band. What I always told the other guys was that there were 6 other days of the week when they could do whatever else they wanted, if they wanted to do covers, or work on vocal harmonies, or 12 bar blues or whatever, fine - ANY other time besides my night. Only 1 of the other three guys actually bothered getting something else going, the other 2 kept thinking they could change my fundamental attitude (and in reality just pissed me off to no end).

Be honest, be upfront, and if someone gets upset be the bigger man and leave the backdoor open for them in case they ever smarten/grow up.

Another point of general advice - A BAND IS NOT A MARRIAGE! Seriously, some people act like it's a more intimate relationship than any kind of interpersonal relationship out there and that's just insane. There's nothing at all wrong with playing in multiple groups and in fact it will likely make everyone better musicians by allowing them to stretch out more and pursue their own goals independently while still collaborating on compromises within other bands.

02-17-2012, 06:02 PM	#31 (permalink)
GuitarBizarre D-D-D-D-D-DROP THE BASS! Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,730	1 - If one of your band members tries to teach you something, shut the ** up and learn it, THEN change it. They didn't write the part so they could feel like you're fighting them before they even understand it. Sometimes sounds weird on its own, but fine together. Learn it, play it, and then change it. That order. 2 - If one of your band members asks you to do something and you don't know how, make it a point to learn what that thing is before the next practice. I've been to practice sessions with guitarists who don't know what an A chord is before, and there's nothing more painful than having to explain that to someone 3 practices after they found out they didn't know it. 3 - STOP TRYING TO FIT YOUR BAND TO A SOUND, FIT A SOUND TO YOUR BAND. Its fine to be an uptempo hard rock band, it really is, but nobody ever got anywhere by having an album full of songs that all sounded the same because the band decided they wanted to sound a certain way before they actually wrote anything. If one of your band members wants to write a slower song, a heavier song, a weirder, more proggy song, give them some room to do it. Until you're playing gigs, to an audience, who are expecting a particular thing, then it DOES NOT MATTER if the song you're writing fits with the style of band you think you are. 4 - Always bring extra EVERYTHING to a practice. The checklist is simple: Extra strings for BOTH guitarists. Tools for any locking tremolos. Extra batteries for effects pedals. Extra picks for everyone. Extra guitar cables. An extra power cable. All that stuff together doesn't add a whole lot more to your luggage, and it will SAVE. YOUR. ASS. Not to mention it will get you into the habit of planning for every eventuality, which will save you a load of hassle when you come to play live and everything goes wrong. 5 - Nobody who isn't in the band, gets to come to a practice. I don't care who they are. Not in the band? Not in the practice room. Ever. If its your girlfriend, you aren't going to be giving the band your full attention. If its a friend, you aren't going to be giving the band your full attention. If its another musician you want to see your practice, tell them to man the up and get a ticket to a show. If you aren't playing shows yet you aren't good enough to impress anyone anyway. Get out of my ing practice room and let us get to business. 6 - Get down to business. Food, banter, jokes, and jams are all fine, but you're not paying for a jam room. You're paying for a room where you can get down to doing some work. Every minute you're playing a 12 bar blues instead of one of your own songs, you are spending money for no reason, and you're getting nothing out of it. You can practice 12 bar and jamtracks at home. Leave it there. 7 - Don't around with the equipment. Practice rooms are dirty, dingy, smelly places where you're lucky if the equipment even half works. If you stumble upon something that s up in a strange, amusing way, DO NOT SPEND TEN MINUTES FREAKING ABOUT IT. You're paying for the room, and, presumably, the PA system you're laughing at. If its ed, ask for one that isn't. Don't make it up over and over again, you're only breaking it more and you WILL be asked to pay for it if the guy who owns the rooms assumes the breakage is your fault. You take that straight back to the office the moment you find a problem you can't live with. A busted input when the others work fine? Thats really not an issue. But if the PA periodically cuts out or clips for no reason when it really shouldn't, then you have bigger problems than a loose connection. 8 - Bring a ton of water with you, and nothing else. Alcohol is not a practice room drink, especially for singers. Practice rooms are NOT well ventilated. They're sealed up tight and usually the walls are carpeted. THats great for noise, but you WILL dehydrate in there, and you will do it FAST. Alcohol is not for practice rooms. ALCOHOL, IS NOT, FOR PRACTICE ROOMS. 9 - Bring earplugs. ING BRING EARPLUGS. BRING GODDAMNED EARPLUGS. As a sufferer of tinnitus, I can tell you right now, that ringing in your ears after you are somewhere loud for 4 hours straight is NOT going away over time. You are just learning to tune it out. It is cumulative damage to your hearing and it WILL you over before you're 40 if you're not careful. BRING. ING. EARPLUGS. You'll be able to hear things more clearly anyway because the earplugs will serve to block out weird aural anomalies like standing waves and beaming. The whole band should be doing this, and I do not give a ** how "Uncool" you think you are for wearing them. You should be wearing them onstage too. There's nothing you can't hear with earplugs IN onstage, that you would be able to hear without them. Sure, between songs you'll be shouting, but that just makes you seem to have more stage presence, rather than being a member of the crowd you seem commanding and powerful. 10 - In line with the above - When you practice, face all amplifiers to the drummer, turn them down to minimum, have the drummer play, and then turn your amplifier up until the drummer says he can hear you over himself. Repeat this process for the other guitars, the bass, and the vocals. That way you'll practice at a level that isn't insane, you'll have more clean headroom, and the room you're in will contribute less distortion to your final sound. Everybody wins. 11 - Really, this is sort of a 10b, but think about this. If you hear a man and a woman say the same thing at the same time, its very easy to seperate out which voice is which. The reason is obvious, the woman's voice is much higher than the man's. If you have two men say the same thing together, you may well find it much more difficult to seperate the two, since they'll have more similar voices. The same applies in sound mixing, both onstage and in practice. If you find you can't hear one instrument over the other in practice, try changing your TONE before you change your VOLUME. A guitar with the mids cut out, playing over a guitar with the mids boosted, will retain more of its own voice than two guitars with a flat EQ. A vocalist with a very low voice will probably have to ask the guitarists to turn that frequency down on their amplifiers. A bassist will have similar concerns. Generally speaking, if you have a bassist at all, guitars don't need to have a very bassy tone. Its more important that they cut through, and have just enough bass to stop them being weedy and thin. Conversely, a bassist doesn't need a lot of treble to be defined within a band, as long as nothing is stomping on his low end. Also, avoid guitar tones with too much treble in. You'll overpower the cymbals. The guitars voice is in the midrange. You want to be sculpting that range, you DO NOT want to be adding in too much bass and treble through excessive EQ. a little goes a long way.

02-18-2012, 07:08 PM	#33 (permalink)
GuitarBizarre D-D-D-D-D-DROP THE BASS! Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,730	I think my wall of text may have killed the thread via truth aneurysm.