Members diggthis23 Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 There's alot of talk about "a) make a band ... b) play shows ... c) win your grammy" and whatnot. Where do we even begin when it comes to forming a band? What if I know 0 musicians in my area? Any thoughts are welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 14, 2012 Moderators Share Posted May 14, 2012 music stores attract musicians...open mic/open jams attract musicians...craig's list... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 And music forums attract sig link bait. But most of the good musicians that I have found have come from other musicians. IMO, it takes a while to meet folks and you have to do a lot of going out and seeing other musicians play, play a lot of iffy, crappy gigs, and generally hanging out with folks before you can effectively find the good folks who you'd like to work with... unless you're a good enough musician in your own right that people want to hire you even if they don't know you personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members YeahDoIt Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 What if I know 0 musicians in my area? Are there any open mic events near you? You might meet musicians there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 usually in a pub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lemuria Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 we currently also experience lack of singers in our city, and our former lead singer moved to another city, we don't even know what to do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 we currently also experience lack of singers in our city, and our former lead singer moved to another city, we don't even know what to do... Hard to belief that there is a lack of female singers in Kazakhstan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members frankthomson Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 Hard to belief that there is a lack of female singers in Kazakhstan. :poke:........ OP where u from? if YOU have a computer, maybe others do too? do u have a local community bulletin board? but ya kno, location is everything. ..u may have to move to where people actually live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beatpoet Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 Are there rehearsal spaces in your area? They're guaranteed to attract bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members frankthomson Posted May 15, 2012 Members Share Posted May 15, 2012 There's alot of talk about "a) make a band ... b) play shows ... c) win your grammy" and whatnot.Where do we even begin when it comes to forming a band?What if I know 0 musicians in my area?Any thoughts are welcome u the same guy who wrote that book in ur link??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 15, 2012 Moderators Share Posted May 15, 2012 we currently also experience lack of singers in our city, and our former lead singer moved to another city, we don't even know what to do... take singing lessons or become an instrumental only band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 Play lottery, then buy a symphony orchestra, or a soccer club in England !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 All good advice in this thread...but honestly, if you are serious about music and it is really important to you or you want to take a shot at a career or some real success...move. That's right. Move to a better market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 I also recommend an apprenticeship at a bank getting a salary regularly and making music in your leisure time, at least as long we don't know how good you are also read the Jango thread and learn how tributaries pay the employer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted June 9, 2012 All good advice in this thread...but honestly, if you are serious about music and it is really important to you or you want to take a shot at a career or some real success...move. That's right. Move to a better market.Sorry, I absolutely disagree. All moving does it put him at zero level with no connections in a strange place with no friends. If he has failed to find musicians where he is now, he will fail elsewhere. This is not about location, it is about effort. Musicians are all over, fairly evenly distributed among the general population Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 Musicians are all over I am often in the Sahara desert, haven't found musician yet, but also never went to an oasis so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jasco Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 Go to open jams/open mic nights. Go see other bands. Remember bands break up and many musicians play in multiple bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted June 10, 2012 Members Share Posted June 10, 2012 Sorry, I absolutely disagree. All moving does it put him at zero level with no connections in a strange place with no friends. If he has failed to find musicians where he is now, he will fail elsewhere. This is not about location, it is about effort. Musicians are all over, fairly evenly distributed among the general population And I disagree by a long shot. I live in Columbus, Ohio - the 15th largest city in the country. We have a thriving local music scene that extends regionally and we have a long history of being a music town. But we aren't Nashville, New York, or L.A. But we are also surrounded by small country towns where there might not be a lot going on, and a move to Columbus puts people in the middle of where things are happening. I just talked to a bass player a few weeks ago that moved to Columbus from Mansfield and is digging the fact that there is so much going on and how easy it has been to find people to play with. That pretty much sums up the experience I am talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 10, 2012 Moderators Share Posted June 10, 2012 Great...but by the same token, I live in LA (and before that NYC)...and the litany of sad stories of bands and musicians coming here and failing kind of outweighs your one bassist, so that is my experience...I still stand by my original premise that there are musicians all over and you need to invest time into finding them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted June 10, 2012 Moderators Share Posted June 10, 2012 Great...but by the same token, I live in LA (and before that NYC)...and the litany of sad stories of bands and musicians coming here and failing kind of outweighs your one bassist, so that is my experience...I still stand by my original premise that there are musicians all over and you need to invest time into finding them. I agree, with a reservation. In Austin, great musicians are everywhere. Excellent guitarists are literally living under bridges, lying in ditches, etc. It's very nearly impossible for musicians to make any sort of decent living in Austin. A few give up on any sort of creativity and manage to get in what I call corporate bands, which are well dressed cover bands that play at weddings, conferences, etc. The rest either give up or barely get by as mercenaries who juggle 5 or 6 bands choosing the highest paying offer each night. You can have them for $25 on a weeknight but might have to pay $100 on a weekend. And these are excellent players. My point is, Austin is an excellent place to find musicians for your project if you don't mind playing with different guys every night. But Austin isn't a good place for making money playing music. There are "revered" bands here that are featured in the papers all the time, have been together (in some sense) for 20 years, but are in fact always on the edge of starving. They're revered not because they're particularly good or successful, but because somehow they managed to stay together for all that time and not give up. That's not success in my book. Austin is fantastic for recording projects simply because you can get the highest caliber of musicians of ANY sort on your project for beer money. But if you want to succeed, you have to go elsewhere to manage that. And that adds a whole new level of expense if you take guys from here. Having lived and played several places, I'd say a large college town is the ideal place to relocate to. Best to do that ASAP because it will take you time to network. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members caeman Posted June 10, 2012 Members Share Posted June 10, 2012 Church. Many churches have musicians. They often may have members that aren't part of that music team. Those musicians often play outside of a church setting and know other musicians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Great...but by the same token, I live in LA (and before that NYC)...and the litany of sad stories of bands and musicians coming here and failing kind of outweighs your one bassist, so that is my experience...I still stand by my original premise that there are musicians all over and you need to invest time into finding them. Hmm...I thought the OP wanted to know where to start, not how to make an entire career out of being a musician. ANd my expeience goes beyond just "one bassist" - he was just embelmatic of what I'm talking about. If you think you can find a pool big enough in your own backyard, then by all means - stay where you are. Don't move. Don't change. Just stick with whoever shows up. My point is that you outgrow certain places. When my friends outgrew the scene here, they moved on to Nashville and New York. When my acting friends outgrew the scene here, they moved to L.A. To me, it is a logical progression. If you are living in some po'dunk town and cannot consistently find three or four people "at your level" or interested in what you want to do - then my advice is to move to a more robust scene. In fact, I've never known anyone to tell someone NOT to relocate to a better market if they wanted to succeed. But then again, I'm from Columbus - not L.A. or New York - so what do I know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davebols Posted June 13, 2012 Members Share Posted June 13, 2012 I live in a small town north of Chicago and find that the local newspaper is an easy way to find music players of all styles. I'm about 80 miles from the big city in a mostly farming town, but there are a lot of bars, clubs, and hole in the wall beer joints that have live music most nights. On the outher hand I don't think a lot of folks around here have computers. (haha) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted June 13, 2012 Members Share Posted June 13, 2012 I live in Nashville. I've lived in LA, the NY Market, N. Cal, S. FL and toured every state, other places in the world etc....My take: If you want to make a living in the short term then DO NOT go to a "music town" because you will lose money for all the reasons Terry D. Said. All my friends who are doing great financially are in small makets gigging away just like I did for over 20 years. However with this model you get to make cash but there's ZERO chance of ever having a bigger career..any REAL songwriting, producing, artist success etc..For most this is cool and would be the best route to take. Very respectable making a living from music in any resepct. However if you want a larger career scope that goes beyond local, at some point if and when you have what it takes, you'll have to go to an industry town or go on tour. The Zach Brown Model of touring and building a following is still the ticket if you want an artist career. If you wanna be a songwriter it's really LA, Nashville or NYC depending on your musical style and that goes for production work as well. For studio work it's all About Nashville these days.... So it really depends on the kind of career you want as to whether you need to leave your local small town or not. I will say that I get a bit jealous of my friends who are making the kind of cash I used to make not living in music city. I'm the poorest I have ever been while I put in my time and pay my dues here and I miss and could really use the $$. That said, I did that for a long time and made good money so coming here and giving this a shot is fine for now because you don't want to look back on life with regret:) Anyway, go forth and make music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NeverTheMachine Posted June 14, 2012 Members Share Posted June 14, 2012 It's easy to find musicians. It's extremely tough to find musicians who you'd be able to be musically compatible with, and cordial with as well. The best thing you can do is an all of the above approach; just get out there and meet people, jam, talk, play and see what happens. I am of the opinion that music relationships are one of those things that you have to leave to fate. Try everything, except craigslist. Or maybe that's because I live in New York? Don't know if this was mentioned, but you can check out the recording studios in your area. Hang out there ... Can you mix pro tools? THat's a good way to meet musicians. Odds are you'd find a lone musician there who's pissed off at his band and wants to do something new ..... I've been that guy for a while now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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