Members sweatpat Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 Sorry if this topic had been done to death but what's up with musicians who dont return calls/emails/texts/Facebook messages in a timely fashion, ESPECIALLY when they have to do with bookings? Fb is the worst because it actually tells me "Seen by Joe, 1:04p.m." and here I am at 10:30 wondering if I have a drummer for Saturday. I get tha sometimes you cant answer right away but is it so tough to shoot a quick text saying "let me check with the wife and get back to you"? How quick is it reasonable for me to expect a reply? Seems like no one actually talks on the phone anymore but I know goddam well they look at their phones at least once an hour and can see they have a text, missed call, email! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 Musicians are flakes by nature. Good luck with that. I sometimes have that problem with regular band mates---I can only imagine dealing with subs and the like. I recently had to tell the young girl that just joined our band that she HAS to reply to me in a timely manner. Even if its just a "yep" to let me know she got the message. Like 21 year old girls aren't melded to their phones 24hrs a day anyway??? Is that really too much to ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sweatpat Posted May 8, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 Thts just it, you know she saw it! To me it starts to go beyond flaky and into disrespect territory, but maybe Im being to sensitive. For sure it affects my relationship with bookers though. Nothing like telling a guy you'll get right back to him then taking 3 days because someone wont return a text... After my last band split up I decided to go the route of basically being a solo act that hires pro musicians to fill out whatever size band is needed for the gig. In general these guys are professionals and call back quick but the problem is that when the tier 1 guys are busy the tier 2 guys are horrible about response time.just a thought, maybe that's a big part of why you are in tier 2! I would love to just not use them anymore but sometimes I just NEED a bass player or the gig can't go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 Yep. That's part of why they are 2nd tier, IMO. But I'd just let them know the situation as well. As silly as it sounds, sometimes they might just not understand that a quick reply is essential. With the girl, I told her I needed to know she got the message. She told me she thought that no reply meant acknowledgement. In her world (I guess) if I send a message saying "rehearsal is at noon" and she doesn't reply with "I can't be there until 1" that means she'll be there at 12. We've cleared that up and I get quick replies now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2013 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2013 Social media vs. Professional email usage. You know? Anyone here who works a day job and has to communicate to very intelligent people with tight schedules, you quickly get up to speed. They need acknowledgement on messages sent, for the most part. And then there's that line of too much or the unwelcome Reply To All. But by and large, the issue with the uninitiated is that they look at any message that isn't from a "friend" as a responsibility. And responsibility is just so responsible. No FUN! I've found just a quick little lesson on what is needed (a la Guido's example) is plenty to get people on board. Or... just add a tag line: Please respond briefly to let me know you've received this. Boom, get them comfortable with the type of exchange required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 sweatpat wrote: For sure it affects my relationship with bookers though. Nothing like telling a guy you'll get right back to him then taking 3 days because someone wont return a text... This happened all the time with my last band and I do believe it hurt us booking shows because of the laborious process that we would have to go through to make sure the other 5 were on board...Yeah google calendar was a HUGE flop with those guys so most of the time I didn't know who was and who wasn't available... I'd book the gig and then the next day had to cancel. The worst thing is calling back a club after you say you can do the gig and say you can't. uggh... I know it happens but it still sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 guido61 wrote: With the girl, I told her I needed to know she got the message. She told me she thought that no reply meant acknowledgement. In her world (I guess) if I send a message saying "rehearsal is at noon" and she doesn't reply with "I can't be there until 1" that means she'll be there at 12. We've cleared that up and I get quick replies now. I have a feeling you guys are going to enjoy finding out the differences between her world and yours. LOL much like in my last band our keyboard player was 60 and our soundman was 23. Sometimes when they talked it was like culture shock/ worlds colliding...LOL not in a bad way but more in a humorous generational gap one. Used to happen between me and him too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sweatpat Posted May 8, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 That's pretty much what I do jimiv, except in my situation everyone besides me (and to an extent my lead player) is a sub. Lately I just take a leap of faith and book the gig and hope I can put a full band to gether. So far so good but it does create a certain level of anxiety! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toober Posted May 8, 2013 Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 When you make a call out to a sub, start with "To all subs: first person to call me back gets the gig". (whether you have multiple subs lined up or not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sweatpat Posted May 8, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 8, 2013 Ooooh I like that strategy toober! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted May 9, 2013 Members Share Posted May 9, 2013 We use email and text messages for the most part ... and have discussed what our collective expectations are. In our case - everybody has a smart phone with access to their email in addition to whatever normal computer access they have.The band standard is that you're expected to respond as soon as possible after receiving the email or text - even if the response is "got the message - gotta check my availability - will get back with a definite by xx:xx o'clock". For the most part - everybody is good about responding in a reasonable time. Anybody who's a persistent "non-responder / delinquent responder" hears about it from the rest of the band. As far as dealing with clients go - our policy is that NO gigs are 100% booked until everybody responds with a commitment. As one of the guys who books - I position it with bar owners like this: "It looks like we're all available for the ##th - however I haven't gotten definite answer from our _____ player. Let's consider this date tentatively booked at this point - and I'll give you a call by ## o'clock tomorrow with a "final" confirmation. I have yet to have a prospective client balk at a job when I've taken this approach - and have had only one instance in which I couldn't confirm the date because the bandmate I was waiting for a response from was not available. In the past - when I've felt that a bandmate was "gaming" us by not responding in a timely manner - we've simply had the "come to Jesus" discussion ... and in one instance ended up parting ways over the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blackbird 13 Posted May 9, 2013 Members Share Posted May 9, 2013 Could you imagine calling a plumber... an IT guy.. a mechanic, and being told that they would "get back to after they called their staff"? Pfft, come on now. You would IMMEDIATELY likely stop taking that person seriously. The gig gets booked. If anyone can't make that date, I'll go through the list of subs. If someone wants a date )(or dates) off, then they need to let me know as soon as possible. I currently have stuff booked through 2014, and have 15-20 dates this month. No WAY would I call musicians and ask for availabilty on each date, that would add way too much wasted time to my band booking work week. Anyone who we work with knows what they're getting into, and that they'll be playing 2-4 nights a week ahead of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Yer Blues Posted May 9, 2013 Members Share Posted May 9, 2013 Where do you guys find subs? Reason I am asking is because I'd like to become one if someone needs a guy to fill in. I guess I just need to work on expanding the circle of musicians I know. Personally, I prefer texts. Last band leader would send a text to two guys in the band and then get sub drummers. I'd either respond something like "sounds good" or "I'll let you know by xpm tonight, so it should work". That worked best for me because, as others have said, no matter how busy I was I could always find a minute every hour to respond to a text. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sweatpat Posted May 9, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2013 Yer Blues wrote: Where do you guys find subs? Reason I am asking is because I'd like to become one if someone needs a guy to fill in. I guess I just need to work on expanding the circle of musicians I know. In my area there are alot of players at the pro/semipro level (I'm only a few miles from a College with a great music program) but not a ton of venues to play. Even the most successful bands have a tough time playing more than 3-4 gigs a month without traveling so usually the good players are down to sub anytime they don't have another gig booked. It seems like rhythm sections are more "mercenary" than lead players, and keyboard guys are few and far between. There are a couple good sax players as well... Usually I contact people through FB, I am "friends" with most of the musician's in town even if we have little interaction in real life. Open Jams have also been a great way to meet players and also to "introduce" myself musically. In my experience, hired guns don't usually want to rehearse so an open jam is a good place to introduce tunes and sneak some practice in before a real gig... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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