Band meetings

[dead-letter-chorus]

What sort of band "meetings" do you have, and how useful have you found them to be? i'm talking about times that you get together other than actual rehearsal/practice time, to discuss and make plans etc.

In most ways i'm happy with my band - l really like them all as people, and feel proud of the music that we have written/created. however i do feel a sense of frustration with the fact that things progress very slowly, a lot of talk and not much action (and it usually seems to be me who is pushing things along and nagging the others to do things ... BTW i'm not the main songwriter or frontperson).

we're having a band meeting next week. Any hints to keep things on track or will being too formal and business like just ruin the experience for everyone?

(FWIW we are an original band, we all have day jobs, partners etc in our lives, and its not likely to make us any money in the near term; however like most people with creative aspirations, if we are going to bother gigging, recording, etc i want to find and reach an audience rather than just jamming in the garage for our own amusement.)

Cheers, B

[Volini]

We don't have them. We discuss things at rehearsals but there's never much to actually discuss...other than philosophical questings which seem to happen every week. No musical issues arise and if they ever do they're shrugged at mostly and we all move on. You can probably tell we've all taken too much valium or something.

[MrDuck]

I tell the rest of the band what we're going to do, when I need to.

Sometimes I'll ask their opinion, usually I'll disregard it.

But it is good to discuss things reasonably regularly, helps keep motivation levels up.

[Doctor X]

(27-02-2009 11:11 AM)dead-letter-chorus Wrote:  What sort of band "meetings" do you have, and how useful have you found them to be? i'm talking about times that you get together other than actual rehearsal/practice time, to discuss and make plans etc.

In most ways i'm happy with my band - l really like them all as people, and feel proud of the music that we have written/created. however i do feel a sense of frustration with the fact that things progress very slowly, a lot of talk and not much action (and it usually seems to be me who is pushing things along and nagging the others to do things ... BTW i'm not the main songwriter or frontperson).

we're having a band meeting next week. Any hints to keep things on track or will being too formal and business like just ruin the experience for everyone?

(FWIW we are an original band, we all have day jobs, partners etc in our lives, and its not likely to make us any money in the near term; however like most people with creative aspirations, if we are going to bother gigging, recording, etc i want to find and reach an audience rather than just jamming in the garage for our own amusement.)

Cheers, B

My band's meetings are vital really. Especially for originals groups, you have to be pulling in the same direction. I think it can be hard if just one person is making all the running, but most bands are a bit like that. You just have to encourage and delegate.

You have to find the right way of working and organizing what you do. This doesn't just happen, and most bands have a few egos doing their thing, so you have to be aware of that.

For my band, we're too old to do the ego thing, and have a bit more life experience to know that no one's perfect and that the music is the thing, not just getting girls or being the coolest.

Sometimes right there and then in the rehearsal isn't always the best time to deal with stuff, and things can get lost in translation, or the drummer was packing up when a certain thing was said.. I find emails cced to the whole band help so that everyone knows what's going on and being said, it encourages input too.

Make an 'agenda' so you don't forget stuff, you could circulate it before so that people have the relevant info to hand and so on. Be nice, and try to get a feel for what people want.

Say upfront that you don't want to 'kill it', rather you want to make most effective use of the band's time, what with partners, jobs and so on. Most people would be happy with that kind of attitude.

[dead-letter-chorus]

thanks for the replies everyone!

had our band meeting last night ... and it all went pretty well. we all seem to be driving in roughly the same direction. Things will be slow again for a while as our singer is going overseas for a bit in April/May, but that was somewhat expected anyway, and after she returns, we now have some rough dates for recording new demo's and stuff.

[learnelectricguitar]

in my experience, bands, and particularly originals bands, will work better when there is one person in charge

obviously it doesn't work at all if the guy in charge is just a dictator, but if you have a guy who is a good communicator and genuinely considerate of what everyone else in the band wants to do and can be trusted to take that into account when they make their decisions then that is better than having meetings.

when it's a "collective" effort.. with group meetings and joint decision making.. it takes too long for anything to happen.. i've been in bands where it has taken longer to write the set list than it has to actually play through the set and it's a drag.

at the end of the day, i didn't start playing guitar so i could sit through fkn meetings. a band meeting is basically the opposite of everything that's awesome about rock and roll. if i was interested in doing them then i'd work in IT or the public service or something.

these are just my 2 cents - at the end of the day, playing music is a creative exercise and that means different bands will operate differently

[dead-letter-chorus]

(12-08-2009 08:19 PM)learnelectricguitar Wrote:  at the end of the day, i didn't start playing guitar so i could sit through fkn meetings. a band meeting is basically the opposite of everything that's awesome about rock and roll.

:lol: well said ... at the current rate we will hopefully have our debut album complete by 2018!

[system]

(03-03-2009 07:37 AM)MrDuck Wrote:  I tell the rest of the band what we're going to do, when I need to.

Sometimes I'll ask their opinion, usually I'll disregard it.

But it is good to discuss things reasonably regularly, helps keep motivation levels up.

That's the way to do it..

If you give the rest of the plebs too much input..they start getting ideas and it all turns to shit then.
Treat them like a prison bitch...throw them a scrap or two and they are happy. Give them an opinion and suddenly they think they are Napoleon.

[MrDuck]

(10-12-2009 07:37 PM)system Wrote:  

(03-03-2009 07:37 AM)MrDuck Wrote:  I tell the rest of the band what we're going to do, when I need to.

Sometimes I'll ask their opinion, usually I'll disregard it.

But it is good to discuss things reasonably regularly, helps keep motivation levels up.

That's the way to do it..

If you give the rest of the plebs too much input..they start getting ideas and it all turns to shit then.
Treat them like a prison bitch...throw them a scrap or two and they are happy. Give them an opinion and suddenly they think they are Napoleon.

[dead-letter-chorus]

(10-12-2009 07:37 PM)system Wrote:  

(03-03-2009 07:37 AM)MrDuck Wrote:  I tell the rest of the band what we're going to do, when I need to.

Sometimes I'll ask their opinion, usually I'll disregard it.

But it is good to discuss things reasonably regularly, helps keep motivation levels up.

That's the way to do it..

If you give the rest of the plebs too much input..they start getting ideas and it all turns to shit then.
Treat them like a prison bitch...throw them a scrap or two and they are happy. Give them an opinion and suddenly they think they are Napoleon.

Ah ha! i knew there was a reason why Andrea had been speaking French at rehearsal and berating us about marching off to invade Russia....