Hey, dude, let's start a band!

I have been very fortunate, in my limited little music career, to have been involved in a number of groups; either as guitarist, guitarist/singer, or singer. I love performing. I love the feeling it brings me to be on stage and feel emotion and energy from stage to audience collide. It really is a unique experience. I enjoy (nearly) every performance. It's like a gift that you not only give, but receive at the same time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees it this way. :) And so, being part of a musical group has been a large part of that experience. Over the years (wow that makes me sound like a middle aged rocker), I have discovered a few things about bands, and what IMHO really MAKES a band a band.

When I was 17 and had been playing guitar for a very short time (seemed like a couple of hours), I got together with a good friend of mine who was a drummer. We decided we needed a band. We didn't know who. We didn't even know where to find who. In fact, we didn't know that there would ever be a who. But there WAS a who! (Sorry for the Suessisms here) Kinda out of the blue, the right musicians just appeared to us. A brother/sister guitar/keyboard asset, and a rathe interesting fellow I once saw play bass in a hardcore band stepped up to play bass. We had a band! We played music together for a good while, and in our own rite, were very successful. We never sold out arenas or sold millions of copies of albums, but we played good music and had fun. It was this band, the very first experience as a beginning musician, that I have judged every other band. Why? We were friends. We cared for each other. We enjoyed hanging out after practice more than we enjoyed practice. We melded well as a band because of that I think. See, in a real band, (again IMHO) your relationship determines how good your musicianship will be. As in all things, this band moved on. But our friendships survived and thrived. That's better than going platinum, take that to the bank! So, point one, a real band will employ true friendship to enhance the music.

In college, I played in another group with some friends. It was not, again, a big time group, but nevertheless, I feel it was successful. We had a blast and played for fun. We really pushed the limits of what we could do, or what we have actually done. In other words, this was new and different. We used different instruments than I had ever been involved with. We had a horn section, 3 singers, keyboard, and full rhythm section. It was MASSIVE!!! Obviously, we never really got paid for anything. Who can afford a million piece band! We played to see if we could, and to attempt something new. I loved this band. LOVED it!!! But I learned two big lessons in this band. The first one was obviously "try new things." That was the easy one. At some point in the band's development, it changed from being about new things and fun, to being professional or "trying to make it." In this case, I think it was a bad idea. That is in retrospect. Notice as you drive away sometimes, that when you look in your rear view, you can actually see more than you could in the moment. I thought it was going to go somewhere. Really did. IT didn't. And I had to fire two good friends from this band, in my attempt to "make it." So points two, and three, try something different, and don't try to "make it." It's either gonna happen or not, and you could make bad decisions trying to force it to happen. Be professional about what you do and have fun.

My last band example is probably the one I put the most of myself in. I spent, by far, the most time in it, and had the most visible success. I was literally, pulled into this group without knowing anyone in it. All I knew was that it was a band playing the kind of music I liked, and I needed an outlet. Turned out to be the band that gave me the most experience on almost every level of being a musician. We played a ton. Had a weekly gig. played almost every weekend. Sometimes two or three times!! It was awesome!!! We played for us and not the crowd. But we had fun, so the crowd had fun. It worked. We joked on stage and loved being there. Even when there were only 4 or 5 in attendance. We played together, in total, about 5 or 6 years. (please don't hold me accountable for my year math) We played parties, clubs, festivals, weddings. It was a blast!! After one of my best friends, who was also the manager of sorts, left the group, I stepped up and ran the band. The problem with this band? We all got to the point where we realized that we were making decent money for what we did. Then it seemed that everytime we had something scheduled, at least one of us would say, "how much we gettin?" And at some point, we didn't want to play where we weren't getting paid anymore. We wanted remuneration for what we did. It didn't change the chemistry on stage really, just made it more cumbersome to book gigs and make sure we were getting enough. I don't want this to sound too dramatic, we were and are still great friends. It is really a natural thing as a musician to want ot get paid for your service. It was just a turning point for us. We went from fun loving college band, into the transition of semi-professional musician, and that, for better or worse, changes things. So the last point I'll leave you with, keep in tune to what is important in music; fun, enjoyment, excitement.

It's really interesting to look back at the things you've done in life and see how you've grown.... even in a short time. I look forward to learning more and being more as a musician each time I play. If you're not a musician, these points still apply. Develop friendships, try something different, be professional but don't force things, and remember why you do what you love to do. I promise it will make you better and more appreciative of what you do.