Getting Along With Band Members

[LilOrange]

Hey, guys!

 

How important is getting along good with your band members? How important is having the same type of approach to work? I recently decided to form a band to be able to perform my songs live, but also do some covers. One of the band members has a really strict approach to work. Everything has to be written down correctly and throughly, whereas I prefer to lay down the basics and then develope things as we rehears. It kind of annoys me and I don´t know if I should go on with his requests or just find other people. What do you think? I live in a smaller city, so finding people isn´t that easy. He is pretty experienced...What is your experience on this subject?

 

Greets!

 

 

[tomcollins]

lol , it is always a challenge , if it clicks at first , give it time , the best thing you can do is know , we all have our way of doing things as do others , no two are alike , now put 3-5 artists together and well , mayhem  or bliss, because you end up spending more time with them then friends or whom ever , best thing , keep an open mind and flow with the punches, the fun real begins on a tour bus  ,lol 

good stuff and fun times, keep it simple and try to have fun !!

rock on !!

[TapperMike]

It all depends on the personal maturity of your bandmates and yourself.  My first band the drummer and the singer would argue over the time of day, which was a good thing.  They were brothers and usually they could blow off steam at one another without taking it out on the rest of the band.

 

 

I've walked into three bands where..They knew all the material and I'd have to learn it by ear on stage while performing.  Quite maddening. Usually after one does this for awhile playing blues or trad jazz or classic rock it gets easier.  Mostly it's hell.  

 

In Blues and Jazz there is an element of improvisation which the audience expects. In "Pop" performance of covers there is an expectation of adherence .  The audience wants the music to sound exactly like it is on the record. When not performed to an exact standard the audience quickly loses interest.  Many band members go to extremes with their rigs so the equipment sounds the same as the equipment used on the record.  Those who most faithfully recreate songs make the most money.  Those who can't do a decent cover usually get pushed back on open mic night to give someone else a chance.  

 

Learning a song by verbal instruction is extremely difficult in as far as retention.  A simple chord chart can go a long way in learning a new song that is currently being written. 

[Rudi]

What kind of music are you doing?

What form does the 'writing down' take? Is it charts for sight reading or just a few notes of chords and a structural outline?

 

If its something everyone can follow, why not give it a try.

 

If it turns out that only he understands it properly, or that its a slow way of working, then point this out & suggest trying your informal way.

[LilOrange]

Well, we were supposed to play pop music and then go in direction of pop/rock and pop/jazz. Some of the songs are dance songs remade to be played by a live band, so some of them have literally 3 chords that repeat themselfs. I don´t think it´s a big philosophy. I wrote the titel of the song and, for example, those 3 chords that are played over and over again. But he wants it to be written like Intro, Verse1, Chorus, Verse2, Outro.....and how many times like :|| etc. He said, he can´t tell by my writing how much times he needs to play and he needs to listen to the song to know. Well, of course one should listen to the song. But, the thing is, i find it pointless cause it´s always the same! I was rewriting it a couple of times as he said, but he was never satisfied. Anyway, I did what he wanted AGAIN (I guess) and send it to him, but he didn´t reply. Oh, well....guess i should look for other artists

Edited May 8, 2015 by LilOrange

[JessePatrick902]

It depends how serious you wish to take music. As a musician and songwriter I've worked in several band's. I can tell you one thing for sure, attitude is everything. I have fired musicians for having bad attitudes in the studio. A good business relationship requires a certain relationship involving respect and dedication. Having different approaches to how things are done can be great business wise being that you have different strengths and weaknesses. My singer is not good at organization but kills PR. I am good at the managing and organization. Together we work different but parallel But don't mix business and friendship. Hopefully this was a little informative.

[Rudi]

But he wants it to be written like Intro, Verse1, Chorus, Verse2, Outro.....and how many times like :|| etc. He said, he can´t tell by my writing how much times he needs to play and he needs to listen to the song to know. Well, of course one should listen to the song. But, the thing is, i find it pointless cause it´s always the same! I was rewriting it a couple of times as he said, but he was never satisfied.

 

 

Since you are asking, I feel bound to say that what you are being asked to do seems entirely reasonable. 

 

But there is something I find strange. If he cant understand your writing, why not help him write them himself, or append what you've provided? 

None of this seems like a big problem to me. 

[TapperMike]

Sometimes people have skills as a performer and not skills that have to do with arranging. I don't have the skills I used to in regards to listening translating into retaining / performing. Fortunately I do have some basic arranging and relative pitch skills.

 

About ten years back a buddy of mine got a touring gig with a band that had been together since the 60's The problem was while he was a great guitar player he had no arranging skills and very limited relative pitch for harmony.  The rest of the band (drummer / bassist / singer) where useless in guiding him along.  I ended up doing video chord charts ala band in a box and a screen video capture program. I spent about 30 minutes per song and I did 30 songs for the guy.  The band wanted me to do more but they never paid me.  I no longer score other peoples works. Technology is at a point where it's better and faster then my personal abilities. 

[Nick]

^{Everyone you play with will be different.}

 

^{It's important to get on with people generally. I don't think you could play very long with someone you genuinely can't stand. Personally I've fallen out with lots of people in bands mostly though my propensity to drink lots. Don't do that these days so hopefully that will make it easier for others!}

 

^{How quickly people pick things up is such a range. I am lucky to have played with some people who are VERY quick to pick things up and have wonderful ears and musical abilities. I've also played with people who relatively take ages to pick things up. And then would take eons working on every nuance of light and shade on the song. Only to play it completely different when we played it live so it was a bit of a frustration.}

 

^{I'm off to Scotland in a couple of weeks to meet up with a friend who is a very able professional musician. I'm the lucky one in that he will put up with me.  When we used to play a few gigs he used to launch into fiddle tunes or songs that I had never heard or played and he trusted that I'd probably be ok - and I probably was. But later in the year I am supposed to be playing at a public gig in quite a big venue with someone who I only know a bit and for that one you can bet that I will want to be much better prepared.}

 

^{Best thing is probably to ask. And if the music is worth it and it sounds good and doesn't drive you mad then it is worth the initial (relatively small) pain.}

 

Edited May 13, 2015 by Nick

[McnaughtonPark]

Holy cow Nick, You have good eyes. 

[Nick]

Haven't quite worked out the font sizes on this site - I just increased the small post to 18pt and that is NOT 18pt type. Anyway...

I am meeting up with someone tomorrow night who would like me to play some of his fiddle tunes for some gigs that he has written and work out some accompaniments. He is a guitarist/banjo/mandolin etc player so will no doubt have his idea of what he wants. Also quite keen that I use a DADGAD like sound etc

 

Which is well and good.

 

So my aim is to as quickly as possible get to know those tunes so that I can add to them hopefully. I have decent ears for fiddle tune accompaniment and have sat in quite a lot of sessions so I reckon tomorrow will probably go like this (with one BIG proviso which I'll put further down). For each tune

• I'll ask him to play through it and just try to get a feel of playing along as I hear it to get some thought of how I think it might go
• At the same time I'll record what we do on my little Zoom H2 recorder so that I can take it to bits at my leisure
• If he has the dots too I'll grab a copy of them to save me time working them out. If he hasn't no problem
• I'll also ask him how he hears it and whether there is a chord progression that he has
• I will want to know the structure and whether or where it repeats
• I probably also want to know how much he is prepared for me to do it my way

That tends to be the way that I'd work with something new. But in short my aim is to find out as much about it as quickly as possible so that I can make a positive contribution. If it is an Am - Em - G thing we'll get there quite quickly and I can then go away and really get to know it. If it has lots of precise and important changes then I'll need something more precise.

 

if it doesn't work out that way I'm quite happy for us to work out how we get to the point where I can play it with him so that we are both happy and satisfied so that we can make it better and better until we really 'know' it.

 

But my way isn't everyone else's.

 

If someone hasn't got great ears for chord structures or whatever there is no point, in my view, in letting it get in the way of a decent result in a short period.

 

The few things that I have written and the songs that I play often exist in little books (if I'm organised) or scraps of paper. And if someone else wants a three bars of C and two bars of D and then three of F etc approach I probably already have it to offer.

 

As I say in my mind the aim is to get to playing as quick as possible with as few barriers as possible.

 

We had a young fiddle player who was going to come and play who wasn't sure what we wanted. So to help I sent along a recording of the song, a midi file, and a suggestion of the sort of thing that I heard in my head. BUT with lots of things saying 'you bring what you want - it doesn't need to be like this'. It seemed easier than spending hours of time potentially wasting four or five people's time in person. And once you have done it once you always have it to give to someone else.

 

Just my view

 

I wonder what size the font will be this time...

Edited May 13, 2015 by Nick

[starise]

It is obvious that his style of working grates on you. We don't always know what a situation will be like until we get involved in it. You aren't comfortable with the situation, and you have already alluded to "getting someone else". I feel you have mostly made your mind up and simply want confirmation.

 

I can't really give you confirmation to boot him. If you are the one in charge this is a choice you must make. I would say that you will never run out of people who might be difficult to work with...and they might think this of you. Teams are almost always some kind of a compromise in some ways and a benefit in other ways. The optimistic approach would be to see different approaches as an advantage. JMHO.

[Helmut]

I really can imagine that you feel a bit fed up, cause elaborating by writing down takes a lot of efforts and time. And it's a lot of fun going to the rehearsal room and just to play.

 

You said he is pretty experienced, does it mean professional or pedantic?

 

I think both ways will lead to problems, as all muscians should match. If he works professional, and the rest of the band doesn't, he will sooner or later leave by leaving a big gap too. If he is more pedantic the rest of the band is hindered to *play*.

 

I think every band has different characters, and that is neccessary and good. If all were equal it would sound boring.

 

And if you write own songs the music should make all members glue together. In my band the members are pretty different from thinking, as well from the circumstances. I e.g. earn twice as much as our drummer, but he feels uncomfortable when I pay extra money. He wants to be one of five, with the money as well with his opinion and his musical contribution. Of course there will be always differences, Markus e.g. never wrote harmonies or lyrics, but he is the best "listening drummer" I ever played with. In the band we give advice one another, everybody may say what he likes, or what we dislikes. We are recording every rehearsal, and we are pretty often sending eMails telling "check out for your play in song 20150426-2212-AnySong, that is really good". We all love our songs, they are our babies, and everyone cares for them.

 

Even our ex rhythym guitarist, he rejoined the band cause he still loves the songs. He left the band for making more RnB (our band has no style but songs of lots of different styles). He came back and described his former decision as big mistake. Can't imagine having better band mates, there are surely better musicians, instrumentalists, lyricists, whatever ...

... but you need musicians working on the same aim. If music is the aim any personal differences disappear, the best basis to make (own) music.