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Most amateur bands copy the original versions of songs they cover note-for-note. Their aim is to perfectly recreate the studio versions of the songs live on stage. Even guitar solos, the obvious place in a rock song where a musician could go wild and do his own thing, will often be an exact copy of the original recorded solo. Or, at least, an attempt to be an exact copy of the original recorded solo. However, there is one main reason why you should consider breaking away from the blueprint of an original version when covering a song. This is to change key to help the singer sound the best they can with their particular voice: Transposing songs to different keys Once you have considered your singer’s vocal style and approximate vocal range when selecting songs for the band (see blog post #5: Choosing which songs your band will play), you should now work with the singer to figure out precisely the key that will be best for them to sing each song in. Have the singer sing through each song in different keys. Are low notes or high notes difficult for him/her in the different keys? Hone in on the best key through trial and error. You don’t need to do this as a band. You can accompany the singer alone on your acoustic guitar or keyboard in order to decide on a key for each song. On the guitar, this is easy: just use a capo on different frets and play the same chord shapes. Obviously, you shouldn’t put the capo on fret 11 to play when on stage at a gig (your guitar will sound like an out-of-tune mandolin), but you can do this when settling on the best key for the singer. If it so happens that the best key is when your capo is on fret 11, you can figure out afterwards how to play the same chords in a more comfortable position further down the neck. In some cases, transposing a song to another key will not be possible. For example, when a song has an iconic electric guitar part using open strings, such as is the case with some Jimi Hendrix songs. Changing keys means the iconic guitar part cannot now be played. So, a choice has to be made: totally rearrange the guitar part (many amateur guitar players will resist this idea!) or drop the song and choose another. For the most part though, you will be able to change the key of an original song to better suit your singer. This is the sensible thing to do. As mentioned previously, the singing IS the song, literally. So, how the singer sounds should be the first consideration and the rest of the band should fit in around the singing. Lengthening a song Another reason you may want to break away from an original version of a song you are covering is to lengthen it. Studio recordings of the past were often limited to three minutes due to the constraints of vinyl singles and radio airplay. These constraints don’t apply to live gigs. And, often, if the band is grooving and members of the audience have started to get off their seats to dance, three minutes is a bit short. It will be disappointing for the dancers when the song ends so soon. Here are some examples of how you might consider altering original versions to lengthen them for live performance:
Ending a song Even if you are planning to cover original songs note-for-note, some creativity will often be required at the end of a song. This is because many studio-recorded songs fade out to silence, something that is not easy for a live band to coordinate. Instead, it’s better that you invent some snappy, synchronised endings. Check out other live bands to hear how they end their songs. This will give you some ideas if you are struggling to come up with good endings of your own. Avoid too many uncoordinated ‘drizzle out’ endings. A drizzle out is when the band reduces intensity and slows down slightly over the final chords, perhaps playing these chords as single strums on guitar and single hits on the cymbals, before playing a final sustained tonic chord. The band holds this last chord for a while and then band members go silent at different times in an uncoordinated way. Perhaps the guitar player will have a last little inconclusive tinkle after everyone else has stopped. The audience is confused. Is it over? They don’t know when to clap. They may not even clap at all, due to the sad and uninspiring demise of the song. Drizzle outs are not big applause getters. Crash! Bang! Wallop! endings are better applause getters. A Crash! Bang! Wallop! ending is a coordinated and snappy ending where all the players stop dead at precisely the same moment. The abrupt silence that follows shocks audience members and has the effect of an electric cattle prod spurring them into spontaneous applause, for some reason. This technique rarely fails. If you will be performing your own compositions or radically different arrangements of other artists’ songs, here are some things to keep in mind: Avoid too much predictability and repetition in your arrangements Years ago, I played in a violin/guitar duet. We played background music in restaurants. One of our songs was Elenor Rigby by the Beatles. There are two different sections in the song: an A and a B section. Our arrangement of the song was a very unimaginative A B A B A B A B format. It was easy for us to remember this way. One evening, when we were in the middle of the song and had just started playing the third A section, I distinctly heard one diner seated close to me groan and say “Oh no! Not again!” Little did he know we were only a little past the halfway point of the song! It’s best to break up a Verse/Chorus or A/B format. For example, you could play Verse Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Middle 8 Verse Chorus Chorus. (A ‘Middle 8’ is a contrasting section.) Alternatively, you could play Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Instrumental Verse Chorus. To avoid being too repetitive it’s best not to play a third verse after having played Verse Chorus Verse Chorus. The same applies to playing a third A section after having played A B A B. This is the curse of the third verse. Something different should occur after the second chorus/B section for the sake of variety. Add dynamics Many guitarists start playing at one dynamic level and maintain it throughout the entire song. There is no light and shade in their playing. No variation in intensity nor energy. When arranging songs, aim for all instruments in the band to have varying dynamics throughout each song. Have some instruments drop out for sections. Or have them play less notes or less heavily at certain moments. Make verses dynamically low and build to crescendo for the choruses (without increasing the tempo too much at the same time, which is a common issue when crescendoing). The band sound will then burst into the musical equivalent of glorious 3D technicolour. Think frequencies When arranging songs, think frequencies. Especially in regard to the vocals. If the musicians learn how to play the vocal melody of the song on their guitar or keyboard, in the same octave as the singer, they can then better make decisions about which notes they should play to stay out of the way of the singer. If the singer is having a hard time being heard clearly you can arrange the other instruments to give him or her some space. For example, the guitar player could play chords with reduced notes in them, rather than full-on barre chords. A related point: if the singer is finding it hard to pitch their voice at a moment in a song, another player may be playing a note that conflicts with the note the singer is trying to sing. For example, somewhere within a guitarist’s chord, there may be a note one semitone away from the note the singer is trying to sing. Have the guitarist replace or get rid of the offending note in his chord in this instance. Fills I have played the song Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix a lot in bands and at a lot of jam sessions over the years. The format of the song is two bars of singing (over the chords C G D A) then two bars of no singing (over an E5 chord). When there is no singing, the musicians can get creative and fill this gap, i.e., play a fill. In some renditions of this song that I have been involved in, ALL the musicians in the band pile in and start going crazy during the E5 part: they all play different fills at the same time. Some of them highlight the minor third (a G note). Some highlight a major third (a G# note). It can be pretty chaotic. When arranging and rehearsing songs, it’s best to figure out who will fill where. What sounds good in your bedroom may not sound good in a band setting For example, in a student band I was recently involved with, Censorious John and the J-Pegs, the guitar players started playing Rock Around the Clock using full barre chords strummed like a thrashy punk song. It had a lot of punk energy. You couldn’t hear the singer nor the walking bass line clearly. At home, when practising, the guitar players had probably gotten the most satisfying sound playing this way. Their chords included bass notes and their many strums produced a lot of energy and rhythm. They created a full sound all by themselves. However, when with the other instruments at rehearsal, this maximal way of playing was overkill. In the original Bill Haley version of Rock Around the Clock, the guitar chords use only the higher notes and relatively few strums every bar. It’s a sparse guitar part and it sounds great. The bassist and the drummer provide all the other stuff to fill the sound out. And there is space for the singer to be heard clearly too. Be aware of what the other musicians are doing in your band. It’s okay to do a Phil Spector* and double up parts for a fuller sound. Often though, you’ll want to reduce the amount of notes you play for the band to have a clearer, less cluttered sound. Especially if you are playing chords on guitar or keyboards. You can reduce the notes you play both vertically (i.e., reduce the number of notes you play in a chord) and horizontally (e.g., reduce how many times you hit the chord over, say, two bars). * Phil Spector was a producer in the 1960s, famous for his ‘Wall of Sound’. This was a technique of recording many musicians in a room, all playing at the same time. Often there would be a doubling or trebling of certain instruments. For example, two or three guitars. Phil Spector produced records had a dense, orchestral texture that sounded good through the speakers of the radios and record players of the time. Summary Even if planning to copy original songs faithfully, consider changing their keys to better suit your singer’s range. Consider lengthening each song. You don’t need to be constrained by the three-minute format when performing a song live. You will have to create your own endings to some songs. For your own compositions and also unique interpretations of originals, consider these aspects of song arrangement: variety (avoid the curse of the third verse), dynamics, frequencies, fills and restricting individual parts so they fit better with the rest of the band.
(Some names of individuals and bands mentioned in this blog post were changed to protect identities.) Mark Baxter (c) 2024
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Most rock musicians start off playing in cover bands. A cover band is one which performs versions of famous artists’ songs. Some of you reading this blog post may alternatively wish to form an ‘originals’ band and play your own compositions from the get-go. However, I will concentrate on how to go about choosing cover songs for a band here. Choose easier songs Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes always goes down great with audiences in bars. So does Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Audiences sing along to both these songs. On a scale of difficulty from 1 to 100, Seven Nation is a 4 and Bohemian Rhapsody is a 96 (in my estimation at least). An amateur band could perfect a version of Seven Nation within 20 minutes at a rehearsal. Bohemian Rhapsody would take many, many more hours to perfect. So, choose to play Seven Nation Army. Unless, that is, you happen to be in a band with great technical musicians who love a challenge, have a lot of spare time on their hands and who can also sing four-part harmonies in tune. The same thing goes for Wild Thing by The Troggs and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Wild Thing is a 2 and Stairway is a 70. So, choose Wild Thing. Your audience will love a polished, grooving version of Wild Thing over a sloppy, hesitant and mistake-ridden version of Stairway any day. They won’t appreciate the daring involved in attempting a difficult song. Most of them won’t even understand that Stairway is a difficult song. They will only know that your version was somehow a bit naff and that all of a sudden they felt an urge to finish their drink, say good night to their friends and go home to bed. Of course, I am not suggesting here that ALL amateur rock bands on Planet Earth should play Seven Nation Army and Wild Thing. My point is that beginner bands would be wise to choose songs which are easier to accomplish given that audiences don’t care about song complexity. They love simple and difficult songs equally. They may even tilt in favour of preferring simple-to-play songs come to think of it. Every time a band stomps out a good rhythm and plays a recognizable melody or memorable riff, regardless of the difficulty level of the song, an audience in a bar will be very appreciative. It’s as simple as that. By choosing easier-to-play songs, you’ll dramatically reduce the amount of rehearsal time it will take to prepare your band to gig. You’ll also improve the band’s performance at the gig. The band will be less stressed about playing easier songs. They’ll be unburdened by the fear of a potential cock up and this will free them up to spray some confident rock and roll attitude in the direction of the audience. The audience will soak this up. Furthermore, your band won’t use up all their processing capacity recalling complicated structures and constantly thinking... “What comes next? What comes next? What comes next?” The band will have attention spare to concentrate on other things such as keeping time, grooving, locking in with fellow band mates and incorporating subtlety and dynamics in their playing. If you are just starting out playing in bands, beware of shooting too high, too soon, and falling on your bum. Not all rock songs were created equal. Some are massively more difficult than others. To help you to judge song difficulty, something which is not so easy when you are starting out, I’ve come up with a list of classic songs that rock cover bands play organised according to difficulty. As with the examples above, I have given them each an approximate difficulty level out of 100. A song with a difficulty level of 20, for example, would take a band around four times the amount of preparation (individual practice time at home and rehearsal time with the band) as a song with a difficulty level of five. I have taken into account the complexity of the song structure AND the level of technical skill required by the players. For example, some songs may have a relatively simple structure, but a tricky guitar solo that most guitarists covering the song would feel compelled to attempt. These songs are rated higher than similar songs without a tricky guitar solo. ALL of the songs in the following list are great songs in my opinion, no matter the difficulty level. Song difficulty list Difficulty level out of 100. Song (Band) 1. Gloria (Them with Van Morrison); Free Falling (Tom Petty); Horse with No Name (America) 2. Wild Thing (The Troggs); Louie Louie (The Kingsmen); Hit the Road Jack (Ray Charles); What’s Up (Four Non-Blondes). 3. Stand By Me (Ben E King); Twelve-bar blues such as Sweet Home Chicago (The Blues Brothers); House of the Rising Sun (The Animals); Creep (Radiohead); Can’t Always Get What You Want and Sympathy for the Devil (both The Rolling Stones); Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash); Mustang Sally (The Commitments). Anything by the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. 4. Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes); Come Together (The Beatles); You Really Got Me (The Kinks); Zombie (The Cranberries) 5. I Follow Rivers (Triggerfinger); Let It Be (The Beatles); Where is My Mind (The Pixies) 6. Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix); Sweet Home Alabama (Lynard Skynard); Rocking in the Free World (Neil Young); Brown Sugar and Honky Tonk Woman (both The Rolling Stones); People are Strange (The Doors) 7. Suzie Q and Proud Mary (both CCR); Get Back (The Beatles); Paint it Black (The Rolling Stones); Should I Stay or Should I Go? (The Clash); My Babe (Little Walter); Gimme Some Loving (The Spencer Davis Group) 9. Wonderwall (Oasis) 10. Brown-eyed Girl (Van Morrison); I Shot the Sheriff (Bob Marley/Eric Clapton); Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones) 12. Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis); Cissy Strut (The Meters) 15. Sharp-dressed Man (ZZ Top); Thrill is Gone (B.B. King); Roadhouse Blues (The Doors) 20s. Black Magic Woman (Fleetwood Mac/Santana); Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen); Superstition (Stevie Wonder) 30s. Sunshine of Your Love (Cream with Eric Clapton); Shot in the Dark and Highway to Hell (both AC/DC); Wild World (Cat Stevens); Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry); American Pie (Don McLean); Ruby (The Kaiser Chiefs); Smells like Teen Spirit and Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana); Seek and Destroy and Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) 40s. Crossroads (Cream with Eric Clapton); Mary had a Little Lamb (SRV); Killing in the Name of (Rage against the machine); Under the Bridge and Californication (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) 50s. Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple); While my Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles with Eric Clapton); Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix) 60s. Back in Black (AC/DC); Red House (Jimi Hendrix) 70s. Sweet Child o’ Mine (Guns and Roses); Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin); Hotel California (The Eagles); All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix); Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix/SRV) 80s. Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits); 90s. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen); Anything by the band Yes. Consider the singer’s style and range Another major consideration when choosing songs for your band will be your singer’s vocal style. It’s no good forcing a female singer with a delicate voice, like Bossa Nova legend Astrud Gilberto for example, to sing Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy. Likewise, it’s no good pressuring the lead singer of the death metal band Cannibal Corpse to growl Tip Toe Through the Tulips or The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, as amusing as this may turn out to be. Your singer’s vocal range should also be a consideration. Vocal range is the distance between the lowest note and the highest note a singer can comfortably sing. I told a story in a previous blog post about Mr X of the band O’Beast. Mr X desperately wanted O’Beast to cover Michael Jackson’s Beat it. He never stopped going on about it. He wanted to perform the flashy guitar solo on this song, as originally played by the great Eddie Van Halen. He wanted to play it so much that he completely overlooked the fact that O’Beast’s singer, Ted, had a voice pitched a solid one octave below that of Michael Jackson. Ted was a big man with a low baritone voice. Perhaps it was even a bass voice. Jacko was tiny man and with high tenor voice. Beat it was an impossibility for Ted without the aid of helium gas. Alternatively, Ted could have sang Beat it one octave lower than the original, which would have been pretty funny to be honest. If your singer’s vocal range is somewhat similar to a particular artist’s, then you can consider covering one of their songs. You can change the key of the song (transpose) to better suit your singer’s range if necessary. I will cover transposing songs in a subsequent blog post on the topic of arranging songs. Introducing new songs 20 to 24 songs will be sufficient to play two 45-minute sets. This is the usual amount of time a bar or venue would expect a band to play at a gig. It takes a lot of work and dedication to build up your repertoire to 90 minutes, but nevertheless, as soon as you have done so, one member of your band will immediately start suggesting next songs. It makes no sense to carry on learning more songs at this stage. Instead, make the existing set list tighter. Continue to fine tune. And then play some gigs with this initial set list. After a few gigs, perhaps you can consider learning new replacement songs. I would suggest that you do so slowly. Drip-feed new songs into your set list. Perhaps you could introduce one new song every two months. One of your jobs as band leader will be to fight off attempts to introduce more songs than the band can comfortably incorporate in a given period of time. Inevitably, one of your fellow band members will flood the band’s Whatsapp group chat with song suggestions, which you and the rest of the band will then have to spend time dutifully listening to and reacting to. If you do not defend against these attacks on band time and resources, bad things may happen. In an upcoming blog post, I will write about Colin Europe and Fabiola Tantrums and the effect that their constant pushing for new songs had on their respective bands (i.e., disgruntled band members, disastrous gigs and lost bookings). Band member resistance to songs Invariably, one or two band members will not be happy with some songs chosen for the band’s set list. They may even deploy the underhanded tactic of not practising the songs they don’t want to play. Excuses will be along the lines of… “Oh, I didn’t know we were still going to play this song” or “I only had time to practice the other songs last week”. Their overall aim will be to push back the rehearsal of their disliked songs until these songs are either forgotten or the advocates of the songs admit defeat and voluntarily withdraw them from the set list. Fussy, rhythmically-challenged musicians I’ve noticed that band members with poor rhythm are always the most fussy when it comes to song choice. If a song ticks all the right boxes (i.e., good for the singer, not too complex, suits the style of the band, most of band members like it), the fussy player may still object to the song. My theory is that this type of player was initially attracted to music because of the cool ethos of certain performers and the depth of meaning in their lyrics, not the rhythm or groove. In their teens, they probably preferred sitting on a beanbag in their bedroom with headphones and contemplating the deep poetic meaning held within the words of a song, rather than turning their speakers up full blast and pogo-ing up and down on their bed playing air guitar like a mad man. Their initial love of music was intellectual rather than visceral. They were not touched by the raw, shamanistic rhythms of the great rock songs. They never really ‘got’ this aspect of music. I’ve noticed that David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson are particularly admired by these non-rhythmical musicians. The simple messages yet great grooves of Rock Around the Clock or Louie Louie are not going to get their juices flowing. On the other hand, lovers of rhythm can find enjoyment playing most songs. Their is a magic and depth to rhythm in good rock music which the poets remain unaware of. Jazz allergy Another subset of musicians may be averse to playing anything sounding even remotely jazzy. They are deathly allergic to jazz. Even a relatively simple D9 chord may trigger a strong objection, a histamine rash or a threat to quit the band. They would much prefer that the D9 was a simpler D7 or, even better, a plain old unembroidered D. Many Jazzophobes are older gentlemen who came of age during the punk and new wave scenes in the 1970’s. This is when pop music was stripped down to its essentials. The punk aesthetic was a no-frills aesthetic. The excesses of jazz music are totally unnecessary in the eyes of the Jazzophobe. One Jazzophobe once told me, “I can’t see the point of trumpets”. So, you may need to keep in mind the preferences of certain players when choosing songs for the set list. You may have to drop some otherwise perfect song choices in order to maintain band harmony. Summary When choosing band songs: choose easier-to-play songs; consider the singer’s style and range; introduce new songs at a snail’s pace; make some allowances for fussy and rhythmically-deficient players’ likes and dislikes. (Some musician and band names in this article have been changed to protect identities.) Mark Baxter (c) 2024  The Shiny Exciters, live on stage somewhere in Belgium In a nutshell, the overarching principles and fundamental truths to bear in mind when forming a band are as follows:
I will now write about each of these rock band maxims in more detail: Benevolent dictatorship A rock band is best run by a benevolent dictator. Democracies don’t work in a band setting. Committees don’t work. Endless discussions about song arrangements or artistic direction will get you nowhere. The band needs one competent, hard-working and slightly overbearing chieftain whose leadership and vision for the band is respected by the other members and who they happily follow for the most part. The irony here is that popular music has never really flourished in countries run by authoritarian regimes. I’m sure we all prefer to live and to pursue artistic aims in largely free and democratic countries, but if you want your band to play a gig any time soon, go the dictator route. Dictators get things done fast. And, in case you are unsure who the benevolent dictator of your band is, it’s YOU. Networking In order to acquire the best possible members for your band (a blend of musical talent and agreeableness), you need to draw from a large pool of potential players. If you do not cultivate a wide network of musicians in your local area, you will have less options and you risk being stuck with either talentless players or loonies, or worse: talentless loonies. You don’t want that. As you will discover in the following blog posts, a sizeable percentage of amateur musicians fall into these undesirable categories. When it comes to forming a good band, having a large network is as important as practicing on your instrument. I must admit, networking is not my strong suit. I’m reclusive by nature. If, like me, you prefer to stay at home of an evening watching humorous cat videos or Amsterdam magnet fishing videos on YouTube, then you must force yourself out to local gigs and open mic nights in order to meet other local amateur musicians and grow your network. You can also connect online by joining groups and befriending musicians in your local area on Facebook and other online places. Consider the singer first for the best overall band sound Sometimes, an individual band member can view the band as a vehicle for promoting his or her (normally his) own talents. This is what led a guitarist I once knew, Mr X, to suggest the very deep-voiced singer in his band sing Beat it, a song by the very high-pitched Michael Jackson. Mr X selfishly wanted to play the flashy Eddie Van Halen guitar solo that features on this song. He didn’t seem to care that the singer would have needed the aid of helium to sing this song. Either that or he would have had to sing it one octave lower than the original. This would have been laughably ridiculous. I propose the radical idea that the overall band sound should be the first consideration when choosing and arranging songs, not the desires and preferences of individual players. In most cases, this means building a set list around the singer: choosing the style of songs their voice is best suited to singing and choosing the best key for their vocal range for all songs. The rest of the band should fit in around this and support the singer. In this way, you’ll build the best overall band sound. After all, the singing IS the song, literally. So, it’s best to consider the singing first and then build the other musicians’ parts around the singing. As band leader, you should largely ignore guitar players’ requests for songs. Occasionally, songs guitarists would like to play and which show off their skills will align with what is good for the singer. In this scenario, you can throw them a bone and play their song to keep them happy. If all the band members have their eye on what is good for the band’s overall sound, and not on servicing their own rock star fantasies, the band has a better chance of success. Good singers and drummers are rare It is a fact of life that good drummers and singers are very rare. Good guitarists and bassists, on the other hand, are relatively common. If you have a large enough network though, you should be able to find a good drummer and singer for your band. Be aware that good drummers and singers know they are a rare commodity and may act like divas because of this. Sadly, you may have to put up with a degree of diva-ish-ness and annoying behaviour if you want to form a decent band and actually play some gigs. In a future blog post about Chaotic Divas, I will help you to identify and deal with the inevitable diva you will come across on your rock band journey. Vet players well before committing The best approach to auditioning players is extreme caution. Have an initial audition and if the player impresses you and your band mates, invite them to another session without committing to them joining the band. You may notice certain flaws in their playing only after the first meeting. And, the player may reveal themself to have some annoying personality quirk only after a first session, such as being argumentative, being a Guardian reader or being a serial killer. So, it’s best to tread gingerly with potential new band mates. You will spend a lot of time with them if you invite them into the band, so you need to make sure they are a good fit, as far as you can. It sounds crazy, but inexperienced players sometimes commit to other musicians before even hearing them play. I’ve made this mistake myself in the past. For example, you meet a guy at a social event who also happens to be an amateur musician. He talks a good game. He talks like he is a good player. He seems knowledgable about music and mentions all the great musicians you also love. You get friendly with him. You bond and become brothers in arms. You talk about a musical collaboration together and set up a first meeting. In your heads, you are already planning a nationwide tour of clubs and theatres. Alas, when you meet up again, this time with your instruments, you know it’s not going to work within the first two minutes of playing together. His timekeeping is terrible. You then have to see the rest of the two-hour session out and afterwards try to extricate yourself from a lifelong commitment of music-making with this guy. You can save yourself a lot of hassle by asking a prospective collaborator for an example of their playing. With video cameras on phones these days, nearly everyone has a video of themselves playing that they can show you. You’ll get a good idea of their skill level from this and can then decide whether or not to take things further and arrange a meet-up with instruments. Be frank with other musicians If you don’t want to start or to continue a collaboration with another player or a band, it’s best to tell them this as soon as possible. Honesty is the best policy. In my experience, there is always a cost to not being honest with other players and continuing collaborations way past their expiry date. At band auditions, some amateur musicians find it very difficult to say no to the player auditioning, even if they are terrible. It is hard to tell another human to their face that they are not good enough. It’s easier in that moment to just invite them to join the band! This is especially the case if another person has recommended the player auditioning. By saying no you stand to disappoint both the musician AND the matchmaker. Before hosting an audition, be prepared to be brave and say no to the auditioning player. If their skills are lacking, you are only delaying the inevitable by not saying no there and then. A favourite trick of many musicians is to do a Homer Simpson. There is a popular internet meme of Homer Simpson backing up slowly into a hedge until he is completely engulfed by the hedge and disappears from view, presumably to get out of some tiresome social event. Many dissatisfied musicians will back away from a musical collaboration they no longer want to be part of in similar fashion: they will attend fewer and fewer rehearsals, offering a variety of excuses. They’ll sometimes annoyingly cancel at the last minute and then go off the radar for long periods of time (i.e., not answer calls and messages). Finally, their band mates get the message and stop contacting the musician. And so the musician succeeds in leaving the band with zero face-to-face confrontation and nothing being said explicitly. Mission accomplished! (This strikes me as being similar to the old urban myth of the husband saying “Sweatheart, I’m just going out to buy a newspaper” and then walking straight past the newsagents, catching a bus and starting a new life in another town.) The final interaction the cowardly musician has with the band is an awkward few minutes when he bumps into the singer in the sauces and condiments aisle in Asda two months later. I urge musicians not to ‘Do a Homer’. Just tell the other musician(s) straight, save everyone a lot of wasted time and annoyance and then move on with your separate lives. Musicians are often not unique snowflakes I first started playing guitar in the 1980's. Since then, I've taken part in many jam sessions and open-mic evenings. I've been a member of various amateur and semi-pro bands. I've met many musicians through the decades. And it's possible to group a surprisingly large number of them according to their shared characteristics: their personalities and their behaviours. I will mention many of these musician 'types' over the course of this blog. In future posts, you will meet Chaotic Divas, Dadolescent Rockers, Excessive Goosers, Rampers, Gear Nerds, Gearophobes, Wonky Subdividers and The Rhythmically Dyslexic, among others. If you have already done any kind of playing with other musicians, then you have probably already met some of these characters in real life. If you are yet to play with others, then expect to meet them in real life soon. The perfect musicians for your band probably don’t exist The perfect players for your band, musicians who are both impressively talented AND socially well-adjusted, probably don’t exist. So, forming a band will be a balancing act: on one side of the scale will be the musical quality of the band; on the other side, your own sanity. If you strike a good compromise, all your efforts of putting a band together will be well worth it. These are my general principles to keep in mind when forming a band. Mark Baxter (c) 2024 |
Blog: How to form a rock band. Also, how NOT to form a rock band.About this blog
These blog posts contain info I would like to pass on to my music students when they form their first bands and start to play live gigs. I explain more here in my first blog post.
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Mark Baxter, musician, music teacher, guitarist, bassist, drummer. English expat living in Belgium.
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