r/bandmembers

I have a problem with my originals band, and I'm thinking on quitting tbh.

We've been rehearsing and making original music for a year, and the drummer is planning on making concerts around the entire country for 2027. To be clear we haven't made a concert yet. They want to skip the "playing on local bars and clubs" phase, are very obssesed with the visibility on social media and making songs sub 3" so people stuck to listen to them.

The thing is... I only want to play music, i don't care about being famous. They were thinking on taking days off on 2027 to go play on the streets somewhere 1000km away ( we are on our thirsties, with morgages and adult duties), and to be honest, I don't think we sound nearly as good to make it as they think.

How would you have a conversation around it? I'm thinking on suggesting I record the songs we have booked on the studio with them and play the local concerts we have planned while the look for another bassist.

I'm a rhythm guitarist and back up vocalist for the punk band I'm in. We would like to cover some green day songs but have never covered music before. and we collectively decided I should lead. I'm best at singing in a bass vocal range. The main thing I'm asking about is how I should alter the guitar tone of the original songs to better complement my range. The other thing is how to improve at singing while playing 😂 I'm usually playing while singing bits during shows but not full lengths like I'm gonna be. Any advice is appreciated.

As I want to bring my live experience to the next level, I suggested to my core band members of 3 years to invest in a personal in-ear monitor system (transmitter and receiver ranging from $250-$350) so that we can mitigate the issues in the past where we had issues with playing tracks (not being able to hear what we need). I usually give my personal IEMs to my drummer to prioritize keeping tempo.

They felt that it's not their investment to make and that either:

• I, as the leader, need to provide them
• The in-house sound engineers of said venue or festival need to provide them
• Or that I hire a sound person to fit our needs for the show (currently no budget for

I look at having our own personal IEMs as backup to situations that can't fit our needs.

I believe that this investment would be good for the band, but also for the other bands they play with. However, they told me IEMs aren't a requirement for them outside of working with me, and they will rely on them being provided for them or using the wedge monitor. But I don't want us to continue complaining when the sound isn't right or having the inability to hear the track, vocals, etc. All I can do is lead by example and show how helpful they can be in the long run.

What is the standard? Does the leader provide the entire in-ear monitor system, or should this be a shared investment? Seen a few forums/videos saying that it should be a shared investment. Should i find a solid team willing to make the investment?

Hey there, first time posting here and new to this subreddit :) It's summer vacation, and the school term is over! I want to work on practicing in public at a park. I am nervous about how I will be received, though! I have been playing for 17-ish weeks now and want to start working on public performance confidence :) One of my summer goals is to play confidently as a street musician and earn tips :)

Should I just bring the instrument, sheet music, and stand, and just start playing? I would love to know how to start doing this :) I have a couple of practice books. Would it be okay to just play some bits from the practice books and do exercises?

Any advice would be extremely appreciated <3 <3 Thank you so so much <3

Every post on socials has his face, think I've been on... 2 posts? Maybe? every comment from strangers and friends are about him, every time I want to put in more work mixing, recording, or talking to other bands, I get met w "oh, yea.. for sure" or he "forgets" or only works on things after I go to bed (we live together)

My bass guitar skills are so so but I have years of musical experience,, ik he's got more expertise in this specific area of music but even when I start noodling or try to add smt other than root notes he'll stop playing and tell me the chords like I didn't already know.

I moved in w him to prove this is the life I want. We both want to make something out of our music. Yet all the glory is his.

I dont want to be center stage w my name on the flyers or whatever, I just want to feel like this is MY band too, and right now I just feel like a lackey following him around.

He started the band and ik how precious it is to him but this is a team effort here. I feel like a tool. Just there bc he can't be in 2 places at once.

Ive explained this to him twice and both times I get an "aww, no! This is ur band too<3" and thats it

...then why doesn't it feel like it? Why does every effort i end up going nowhere?

What do I say? What do I do? Im so at a loss with this feeling.

Hi fellow musicians! I've been playing classic piano for years and finally have the opportunity to experience in a pop song band for the first time in my life.

I have a Yamaha YC88 keyboard I can carry around (although I've heard it's specialised for organs wth?!).

At this planning stage there's only the singer and me, and I want to showcase to her what I can do as a keyboard player.

The singer has already made all the songs using software and her own beautiful voice.

Soooo what can I really do? I'm COMPLETELY NEW to being in a band. I have heard "looping" although I'm not sure if YC88 supports it.

I guess my major question for now, is how can a keyboard be responsible for as many layers of the accompaniment as possible, so the performance will sound rich and similar to original soundtrack.

I have seen musicians play on iPad one hand to add layers.

What skills should I develop from a classic piano player to a band keyboard player in a short time?

Thanks in advance!

Anybody else notice this? I feel like 2014 thru 2019ish I'd get done with a show and have anywhere from 5-10 tagged videos from the audience. Nowadays I'm lucky if there's one. It's weird too, I'm playing in a bigger band than ever, touring, and playing big audiences fairly frequently, but it's so minimal. The band's audience leans more towards Gen-X so maybe it's a different internet culture? Perhaps it's just a reflection on a different algorithm ecosystem? Or changes to how folks curate their social media?

I was going through my IG archive the other day and realized that even though I'm playing like 150-175 gigs a year, my stories have almost flickered out of existence.

I'm having a difference of opinion with bandmates and just wanted to check what other bands think.

In a previous band in my 20s (mid-00s) that gigged regularly, we rehearsed every week pretty much. That's not really feasible with my new band (in my 40s), which is fine. But the consensus among bandmates now seems to be that we don't really need to practice together at all - just learn your parts at home ("don't want to over-practice / leave some for the gig"). I was pretty taken aback when they made this clear, as I've always assumed that regularly rehearsing your songs is Band 101 (it certainly made my previous band really tight).

What do you all think? I'd be interested to hear other bands' gig:practice ratios, how long you rehearse for, why you rehearse etc.

[For context, we play alt-indie rock (drums+bass+guitar+vocals) and the drummer is really solid. We played two decent gigs having rehearsed first (at my suggestion), and are about to play our third having not rehearsed (although the last gig was 2 weeks ago so we are kind of fresh maybe?].

I’m 68 years old and been a pro bass player since 1979. At first a lot of band bookings were done by word-of-mouth, and then later agents helped out filling in dates. Hotels like Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Sheraton, etc…would have bands playing 4 to 5 nights per week, steady pay, money was good, and you could fill in a weekend with a wedding or two. Also, there weren't as many bands to compete with in the local area, maybe 9-12.

Flash forward 40 years and it's a totally different story.

Now bands have to pay Google Ads, venue-favored lists, TheKnot, TheBash, etc… to play, knowing all the while, if they aren’t on the first page, they may not be discovered.

So they give up 20-25% to an agent.

How painful does it need to get before bands realize that the old discovery system (genre categorization) that worked years ago (when there were fewer bands) isn’t working like it used to?

And that there’s strength in numbers when bands unite behind a new system of categorization.

Alright guys here's where I'm at. I got into playing music in high school, tried to make some bands work but mostly didn't, got out of it in college. A few years ago got back into music. Spent a few frustrating years getting bands off the ground till finally we got somewhere. At one point I was in 3 bands all gigging and recording. Then two of those bands fell apart, but the 3rd picked up the slack. We were playing out basically every weekend, we even did a small tour and played a big festival.

Things slowed down and I honestly fine with taking it easy for a bit, but we lost a member because of it. Took a few months to find a new member to replace him, but we managed. Right around when the new member was up to speed, another original member quit, so we replaced him and we almost have the band with 2 new members up to speed. But then the first replacement member quit out of the blue!

Here's the thing - I love playing in bands but I feel like I've done a lot of it in the past few years and I feel like I can take it or leave it at this point. I was excited to play shows with the new lineup, but I'm not heartbroken about it. The thing is, the thought of once again waiting months for people to respond to our ad for a new member, dealing with people not showing up to auditions, dealing with people showing up to auditions who clearly didn't even listen to the material, then once we find someone good showing up to practice week in week out playing the same songs over and over and over and over again to get them up to speed, after having gone through that twice already recently..... I just don't wanna do it.

There's another wrinkle too that I just got married and we're talking about starting a family now. The thing is I love music and I will always want to create it. I'm sure in the future I'll want to do the band thing again. But right now I'm just really discouraged, and with me potentially starting a family soon, I feel like the timing works out for me to walk away from this, focus on that a bit, maybe try the band thing again in a few years.

What does the community say?

Garage/indie rock band here looking for our first real PA speaker setup mainly for vocals. We rehearse loud in a garage with drums and guitar amps, and we’re starting to play small shows soon. Budget is around $150–$350 for one powered speaker right now, then I’ll probably buy a second matching speaker later this summer.
Main priorities are:
vocal clarity

enough volume/headroom to hear vocals over drums/guitars

something that won’t immediately need replacing after a few gigs

decent upgrade path for future shows

Currently considering:
Alto TX410

Behringer B112D

Mackie Thump series

Would love advice from people who’ve actually used these in loud rehearsal/live situations.

So me and a few of my friends are gonna start an indie rock band and I figured Reddit would be the best place to go! Any and all advice appreciated

so, my lifelong dream is to start a band and make music. only problem is, idk what genre. I love so many genres and feel inspired by so many genres and musicians that I can’t decide. do I wanna make heavy metal/metalcore? weezer-inspired power pop? synthy alt rock? funk rock? Pop punk? Trip hop? Idk what to decide!

I have a name down, I have what instrument I’d wanna be on (guitar, once I get one), But it’s kinda hard to start writing music with no guitar, for one, and no genre idea in mind.

Im in an alt-metal band where we’re all in high school, and over the summer we wanna play as many shows as we can, but a lot of the venues in the area and in adjacent cities are 18+. Could we still play at any of these places as long as we don’t try to buy anything from the bar (we weren’t going to anyway)?

For real ?!?! I’ve posted in numerous classified, Bandmix, Craigslist, attend gigs, and crazy how drummers are so difficult to locate. Sadly in my area there’s not a lot of open mics to attend.

Suggestions ? We already play to drum tracks our other guitarist programs. And, while we could realistically play live with them to tide us over, I personally prefer the swing and flow of a human drummer. 🤷‍♀️

im in the early stages of starting a band and im having alot of trouble with singing infront of others, i feel like this is a problem that happens with alot of vocalists so i would like some advice, this is something ive always wanted to do but never really tried to achieve it until now

Currently having any issue in my band about my bassist not being a part of our songwriting process

I'm in a punk/hardcore band that's existed for almost a year now with a demo and an EP out. Well, I (drums) want our band to be punk, but my bandmates (guitarist, bassist, vocalist) are hardcore kids. But that's besides the point.

Usually at practice our bassist will just drop out when the guitarist and I sync up. The guitarist and I have good synergy together and can "just play," but this is something our bassist seems to not have.

I am also concerned that she never brings riffs to the band, and individually practices somewhat rarely. They get upset when our guitarist writes the basslines for them, but doesn't take an active role in trying to make them on their own to avoid this. I also don't think that the two of us have gone to the practice space together and jammed just bass and drums. I am not sure if they even could.

What are some ways I can approach this conversation with them/the band?