I was briefly in a cover band and we only performed a few times…then covid happened 🙄…but, the few times I did, they were really short gigs. We were looking into doing gigs that would be a 4 hour set. I was definitely willing to try (never got the chance, but I would’ve tried lol)…but, I was really worried about being able to remember 4 hours worth of songs without blanking or tripping up.

At our first gig, I had my iPad set up with lyrics in case I forgot anything and after the show, a guy came up to me and said, “You have a great voice, but you should work on learning the lyrics”, referring to my iPad. Like, thanks, but no shit. 😓 As if I just wasn’t trying… 🙄

So, for singers who do this regularly, how does this work for you? I sure if you perform enough, it’ll all eventually stick, but in the meantime, do you keep lyrics with you, especially for longer sets?

I know there’s no substitution for the regular practices/gigs that come with being in a traditional band. But I’ve lived in a remote area for 5 years now and a few times a year I’ll travel for shows/recording and need to put a band together knowing we won’t get more than one rehearsal, if that.

I make charts and record little voice memos… occasionally I’ll make a playlist with a general direction of what we should strive for tonally. These things work ok but I’m wondering if anyone has had success doing anything else as far as prep for working with a pickup band or some friends who live far away.

I know what my opinions on coverbands are, but I'm curious if the musicians of redit also think I've officially sold out, or if I'm making a smart move for my own sanity and need to get off my high horse. (Seriously tell me straight up if I'm being stupid).

I've been making music for about 10+ years. I played with a band that made original music for about 4 years. The only "real band" I've been able to play with that actually wrote music and practiced often with permanent members that weren't wishy washy about showing up. Problem is that this band booked maybe like 3 shows a year and at the weirdest places. We never advertised ourselves or built a following. Just wrote music and practiced once a week.

I quit about 2 years ago and went my own way after becoming sick of playing bass, and sick of not playing shows or doing anything serious with the music we played. I wrote, recorded, and mixed several full songs on my own (bass guitar keys and drums no vocals) after over two years of trying to build this project, find people who want to practice, write, and play out often, or even join another band, I've officially given up. I got tired of the headache of trying to start/ join a band in this hardcore metal fest circle jerk city.

Sorry if I sound bitter lol, I'm just so exhausted and so sick of the amount of people in this town that just want to play hardcore metal. To the point where someone asked me to join their cover band and I said yes just because it wasn't freaking metal. It goes against everything that I've always thought about cover bands, and I told myself no matter how desperate I got, that I would never do it because it's lame.

Well, here I am. Doing it. Am I lame? Or is it a good idea to just take a step back and maybe start to enjoy just playing music again.

Hi, I'm in a 5 piece rock band. All 5 of us are pretty integral to the songwriting process. The bassist is going to leave for 4 months and then come back. We initially thought of putting shows on hold, write some new stuff, send it to him when he's away so he can write his parts and resume shows.

Here's the thing, things are going really well and we have some real good inertia going, lots of opportunities in the local scene. We realized we can't afford to take a break, so we thought of getting a temporary bassist, who would only learn the set, and come play shows.

I wanted to know if that's something that happens ? And how to go about it ? We're broke as shit, but it would only be fair to pay them ( especially as they wouldn't be a "real" member and wouldn't be a part of the songwriting ) What kind of cost should we prepare to spend ? How to find / approach someone to ask them this ?

Thanks <3

We keep song submission posts to a minimum to keep this place spam free, but we are all musicians and most of us have songs to share. Let's connect with and support each other musically in a weekly thread. This is a safe space to post what your band is up to musically. Feel free to share your music, or ask for feedback.

In the spirit of community and cooperation that we have here in /r/bandmembers, Please give more feedback than you ask for. Use the 1 in 10 rule as a guideline. Comment on 10 other people's songs for every one of your own that you post. This might mean you have to comment on some weeks when you don't submit your song. If everyone follows that rule, we'll all have more feedback when we post our own songs.

My band is in need of photos for the next thing, and I’d love to see some shots you feel good about and know a little bit about why and even how it happened! Thanks!

We're a small unprofessional band playing in NYC for fun. Our instagram handle is something that you won't know how to spell if I tell you what it is verbally. Is it lame or otherwise distasteful to just put up a sign?

Just wanna take time to publish this appreciation post for my band members. I've read tons of stories of terrible band members and echo chambers which had me just appreciate my bros more than ever. We're far from perfect and we have our days but we all understand that we're here for the music. No matter what we're missing or the lack of gear we have, all that matters is if we love the music we make and if we love each other. We may be a thrash metal three-piece but goddamn we worked hard to get where we are right now in terms of skill and just plain learning. It definitely wasn't easy and we may wanna rip each others throats out sometimes but we would rather throw rocks at pedestrians than just plain quit what we've spent so much blood n sweat on. Just wanna spread the message to everyone. Show your brothers some love next rehearsal or jam sesh!

I love it, always have. Knew I loved it when I was 7 years old and started lessons. My favorite of all being songwriting/producing these days. To be honest though, when I play shows sometimes I feel like I’m “that old guy.” 35 (M) I always said I would do this until I die, which is probably true, but bands have become the bane of my existence and music career.

Gotta give credit to all those bands that are still doing it today, it’s hard enough to get 2 people in a relationship to work, let alone 4-5. 10 or so projects later, I’m so burnt out. It’s exhausting spending all that time and energy, pouring your soul into every song just to have some disagreement in direction and burn it all to the ground. I’ve had terrible luck with bands.

Anyone feel the same? What fulfills your modest but driven musical endeavors?

What kinda music are y’all making?

We keep song submission posts to a minimum to keep this place spam free, but we are all musicians and most of us have songs to share. Let's connect with and support each other musically in a weekly thread. This is a safe space to post what your band is up to musically. Feel free to share your music, or ask for feedback.

In the spirit of community and cooperation that we have here in /r/bandmembers, Please give more feedback than you ask for. Use the 1 in 10 rule as a guideline. Comment on 10 other people's songs for every one of your own that you post. This might mean you have to comment on some weeks when you don't submit your song. If everyone follows that rule, we'll all have more feedback when we post our own songs.

I was classically trained for about 7 years and after that continued just covering songs solo (melody and harmony) on piano playing by ear and off chord charts for 4-5 years. I’m joining an indie rock band as a keyboard/synth. I have a nord and am still getting used to the synth stuff but what should I learn? I know a good amount of theory and my major/minor scales. I am really comfortable playing off most chord charts (unless it’s super odd or some crazy jazz stuff). Good with the basic major/minor chords with 7ths 9ths and getting more comfortable with diminished/augmented chords. However I play most chords in their root positions unless the chord voicings are a super important part of the song. I have very minimal jazz theory knowledge and know some blues scales but not how to use them right. With my 5 years of playing by ear and chord chart I have become ok at embellishing chords and can do some improv. My improv is not theory based though so I kind of just “feel it out” and have gotten better through trial and error. Most of the time I stay within the key and the notes in the chords but I have been trying to stray a bit more. Sometimes my improv sounds really good but a lot of the time there’s a lot of random “wrong” notes thrown in there since I’m not using theory. I tried getting into the whole jazz thing but it was super overwhelming and I’m not really pursuing jazz. Any tips/videos you guys have on keyboard voicings/improv in a band setting? What should I work on?

Me and my bandmate have been having an argument for the better part of a decade now how we should approach recording and releasing our material.

My bandmate says that we should wait until we have the best equipment available to get the most "professional" sound possible. I think this approach has some merits but is limiting our ability to actually put anything out and build a following online as we recorded our first EP over 5 years ago and it was only 3 songs so we literally have 0 monthly listeners as of 2024 as there has been no consistent output for anyone to really follow.

My belief is that we should accept our limitations and focus on self recording so we both improve our understanding of the process and have more material to share and hopefully build a small audience with. We could still strive for better quality recordings but at some point we need to say it's good enough and just get it out there. If anyone likes it enough we can always re record what we have down the road.

Any input on this? I don't expect any easy answers but this debate has been ongoing since day one and we have so much material written that just seems to exist in limbo and it's kind of driving me nuts.

Thank you.

So last night, I lost my shit in our group chat. One bandmember (we call him Joe ) has been ignoring us for two weeks. Didn't pick up his phone. Reads all messages but doesn't respond. Not just mine, but from the other guys as well.

The timing is horrible. Our first album is like 95% done and only needs some stuff from him to finish it. He's been delaying this for weeks now and I think he shouldn't. He basically lives next door to our studio and has all the equipment he needs to do it. Yes, he might have a lot of things on his mind, which is okay. But just dissapearing out of the blue like that just isn't acceptable I think. It takes like 20 seconds to write: "Guys, I'm so sorry, I'm going through a lot now. I'll get back to it when I'm ready." Yet he choose to do nothing.

A little backstory. We once had a bandmember who acted to same way. Ignored messages. Didn't coöperate. And kept us waiting to finish stuff. Joe wanted to get rid of him the most and got really angry when he didn't reply to his messages. Now he's basically doing to same thing and I'm just so done with bandmembers like that.

So last week I texted him 3 times. Very calm and polite to give us an update of what's going on. No need to share the details, but just letting us know he is still on board and when he thinks he is available again. I got nothing. I even offered to help him, but I got nothing. He reads everything and didn't reply. My other bandmembers tried to text as well but got nothing.

I had a conversation with a potential booker yesterday and I really needed to know if he was still on board. Joe didn't reply. So after my conversation with the booker I send a voicememo in our groupchat to update everyone and halfway through I just lost my shit. I called Joe out to either respond within a week or I'm leaving. I'm done with bandmembers keeping me hanging for nothing. Just respond within 24 hours, how hard is that? During practice he is always on his phone. Don't bullshit me.

My other bandmates agreed with me.

He finally responded. Called me disrespectful for talking to him like that. So I called him disrespectful for ignoring us for days. Our producer expected our first song in early october. We're in a delay thanks to Joe. Then he just ghosts us?

Anyway, he thinks I'm the asshole for speaking my mind. What do you guys think?

UPDATE:
Thanks for all the reply's! And for making it clear I am NTA.

Our singer / guitarplayer and I went over to our rehearsalroom to basically pick up our shit and leave. Even making plans with eachother to collab on a future project maybe.

Then Joe came in as well (as he lives around the block), he was obviously in regret about his behavior. We talked for a few minutes and decided to give it one more go. Next rehearsal is next thursday and then we'll see if the fire is still there. If not, we decide to call it quits.

Hey guys, so I play guitar in a band and we have 4 members, all younger early twenties guys. I absolutely love the style of music we play, our chemistry, and the guys in general. We're all pretty good friends and we have a lot of fun at practice which is twice a week. I honestly believe we have a LOT of potential and I really see things going really good for us once we get more music out. We have one song on Spotify and we're "working" on a 5 song EP right now. This is where the problem comes in. I've been talking about this EP for months and months now. First the guys kinda brushed It off cuz we were in the process of recording our first single which was a way too long process in general. We had a good amount of songs done that we could've put on the EP, so I suggested that we should start looking at studios and contacting them so we can start the EP process without it being held up. We sat down and I expressed that I would be pretty upset if we didn't get the EP done by the end of the summer (this was in March or so). I thought this was extremely realistic considering we already had most of the songs done and it was still 4 or so months in advance.

Flashforward, I emailed the studio got some dates they said we could record around August, then presented this to the guys, and nothing happened with it. Kinda got brushed under the rug but I didn't press it too much since we were practicing for some live gigs at the time. Then, after the live gig, the other guys wanted to change basically all the songs on the EP, which at first I didn't like, but came around to it because I do really like the new songs too (we keep writing better songs). Then after the show I REALLY started bringing up the EP and that we have work to do on it, and I had to send out a group text to the band saying we shouldn't be spending like 80% of practice just chilling/jamming then only working on the songs for like 30 minutes, and that we should be in grind mode to get this EP done. They guys agreed and things were going alright with the EP process we were starting to make some progress, but then all of sudden we got a gig offer for next month and the guys IMMEDIATELY jumped on it without even pausing to consider that it would push our EP off a month or more again.

Im ranting but its just really annoying at this point, the guys NEVER talk about the EP unless I bring it up, and when I do its kinda just brushed off again. Some guys in the band don't even know which songs are supposed to go on the EP. No one comes to practice with ideas or lyrics they wrote or any pieces of the music. I am always the one at practice that has to say alright lets start writing. The guys take smoke breaks that take up like 30 minutes of valuable time. We've had the instrumentals completely done for a sickkk track on the EP for like 8 months with our singer not writing a single lyric on, even though he writes for his other band. Just really frustrating, considering the potential we all agree we have, and the fact that the best time to blow up is when you're young, I feel like were wasting time that we're never gonna get back. I am literally at a loss as to why the guys are so laxidaisical about getting this done.

Tired of having to wear a nice suit but dry clean it often due to sweating a lot on stage, and dealing with slightly less mobility common with more structured formal suiting.

Any thoughts or recommendations for how to combat either of this? I'd love a jacket that either keeps me cooler, may not need to be dry cleaned as much or at a minimum is very comfortable and flexible for when I'm really active and moving a lot on stage.

1. Two singers

So me and some people are playing in a band and I’m probably gonna sing and my one friend but I don’t play an instrument and my friend does so how would that work

2. Other issue

So this band I was the original bassist and the drummer (I’ll call him G) well played drums, so basically G buys a bass and then is now the bass player cause he’s better apparently and he just bought it out of nowhere and now he’s the bass player and it’s fucking annoying. So I left the band for two weeks and then I joined back but G wasn’t at the practice one Friday and I played bass but then I bought a mic n other stuff but then I wanted to play drums and then now I want to sing but also they play a bunch of songs that I don’t really like and I don’t wanna be in the band a whole lot, BUT it makes me happy to have people to hang out with more and double but there’s a part of me that doesn’t wanna show up this up coming Friday cause something about seeing G play bass I feel is gonna make me mad so idk what to do :/

<3

We are working on our first single. Everyone has sent in their recordings (I'm the guitarist and will be mixing the song) and the bass is unfortunately by far the weakest part and ruins the entire song.

The performance is what's worst, he's got his DI track, so the tone is flexible even though the DI track doesn't sound right either, but the performance is what's bothering me the most. I thought it he sounded ok during band practices but now I realise he kind of sucks at bass. He doesn't pause when he should, his picking is extremely inconsistent and the choice of notes and rhythm is just off.

I have 3 options: 1. Make the best out of what we've got 2. record bass on my own (I'm not a bassist but I am better at bass) and have better equipment, or 3. if my track sucks too (which could very well be the case) get one of those virtual bass VST's and program everything.

Then there is the question of telling him or not telling him and how?

Before anyone says we should just "fire" him, that's unfortunately not possible because we can't find anyone else right now and throwing him out would likely lead to other band members leaving as well, since he's a friend and kind of the link that keeps us together.

I’m in a female-fronted indie pop/rock band and our rhythm guitarist acts like he’s in an emo band on stage. Basically every show he swings in circles, jumps around, jumps off stage, tries to start a mosh pit, puts his guitar on his head, lays on the ground while playing, etc. He takes up almost half the stage and he still doesn’t stay on his side half the time. This also results in him missing chords and he tries a little too hard to get people to clap or wave their arms at moments when it seems forced. On top of this, he’s 6’5 so very difficult to miss.

Friends of the band have mentioned how embarrassing it is to watch him and asked why we haven’t kicked him out yet. Every show, I see people in the crowd cringing/rolling their eyes. However, he does get a couple positive comments every now and then from audience members which just reinforces in his head that he’s putting on a good performance.

As a band, we’ve brought this up twice and he claims he’s trying to tone it down but never actually does. For example, we asked him to stop jumping off stage and then he did anyway at the next show. We brought it up again at practice and his response was ‘I didn’t jump off the stage, I used the stairs.’ We aren’t sure if he’s deliberately being obtuse or is actually a little bit stupid.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I’d love some guidance on what we should do moving forward. Technically we can get by without him (lead singer plays rhythm too) but it would be a bit of getting used to. Also this is mostly for fun and it seems harsh to kick him out altogether. But ideally we would like to make it big one day, and it’s tough leaving the stage each show with this sense of embarrassment.

I feel like the title is explanatory but to break it down. Let’s say a label signs me for 1 million dollars right? The 1 mill isn’t really an advance it’s a loan. What if I just hold that million for a few months and give it right back? Would they allow that? Or is there some loophole that says I have to spend that money?

So me and two other friends started our band about a year ago, with us mainly focusing on writing originals. For a long time it was going really well, we were vibing and everyone was contributing equally and were receptive to other's ideas. We released a few songs and just finished recording about 10 more that are ready to release.

Recently though, I've been feeling shoved aside by the other two bandmates. It's stuff I've brought up before, and it got better, but it always goes back to a me vs. them thing when it comes to writing, decisions, etc. Even though I've been the one running the socials, booking shows, it seems when we get together to write and record and mix, it's really about what they want, and any idea I have gets poo-pooed (for lack of a better term) away. Most recently, one of the members said "we were talking and we decided to release this EP, with these certain songs on it, with this art". It kind of chapped my ass because it wasn't a discussion, wasn't a question, it was just a statement of 'hey this is what we decided'. I didn't have the energy to bring it up or argue, so i just said whatever, then got made fun of for not arguing with them, with them asking what's wrong with me and saying they guess I just don't care.

All of this just has my feelings hurt, and I don't really know what to do. There can be times it's fun to play with them and there's some magical moments of writing, but those moments are becoming fewer and further between, and I'm also just tired of bringing the same of points up to them. I'm feeling disrespected and just thinking about leaving the project. I'm also friends with these guys outside of the band so I feel like I need to leave to save any kind of friendship that is left.

Hello, our bassist recently moved to a different state. We were an instrumental trio mostly playing progressive metal/rock and now have a show coming up.

We are going to be a 2 man band (guitar + drum) and Im a bit nervous of sounding empty on stage. We don’t have a backing track setup either and won’t have time to setup and practice over it.

I was thinking of canceling it but my guitarist wants to play the show.

Need advice or if anyone was in a similar situation. Also, do I disclose this to the audience that we are missing a bassist or just not even bother?

P.S - We are layering the guitar tracks so each channel gets a separate output and tone to make it sound fuller.

Our band is a quasi-passion project band for our lead singer who is over 15 years older than us and writes most of the songs. We all have original pieces so we all have been working hard on getting more songs in the setlist.

There was a lot of talk about recording, getting an album out, practicing weekly, but after a year all of it seems more talk than anything. We are all adults so I understand scheduling can be tricky but we went from weekly practices, to maybe 1 practice before a show or a practice every 3 weeks. I am the only one now that will text the group chat and insist we practice. At one point we went a solid month and a half without getting together. We have a show once or every other month typically.

The lead singers buddy he included in the group hasn’t shown his face at practice for 3 months and was extremely lost at our last show. Lead singer will occasionally show up to practice hammered and it feels like we make little improvements. Tried doing group songwriting but you can see their interest fade from their face when I mention it.

I’m sure this is normal to get “lazy” but does anyone have any advice to light a fire underneath them to get them excited to practice/record/perform? I would take the reigns as far as recording but I have little to no experience with it compared to our lead singer. It’s the only local band in the area that plays original music so I couldn’t leave to join a more motivated group.

We keep song submission posts to a minimum to keep this place spam free, but we are all musicians and most of us have songs to share. Let's connect with and support each other musically in a weekly thread. This is a safe space to post what your band is up to musically. Feel free to share your music, or ask for feedback.

In the spirit of community and cooperation that we have here in /r/bandmembers, Please give more feedback than you ask for. Use the 1 in 10 rule as a guideline. Comment on 10 other people's songs for every one of your own that you post. This might mean you have to comment on some weeks when you don't submit your song. If everyone follows that rule, we'll all have more feedback when we post our own songs.

So, I’ve been in an original music band for about 7 years (since I was a teenager). My whole life has revolved around it, we’ve gotten a great local following, play out of state often, and have a decent online presence.

By no means is it a career, but there’s enough things that “almost” happen to keep me eager and working on it.

However, it’s stressful, and I primarily do the booking, audio, merchandise, while assisting my bandmates with finances, social media, design, etc. It takes up multiple hours daily on top of my job.

The fun is largely gone, aside from writing and playing shows. I wake up in the middle of the night stressing about booking and finances (I am overly anxious). The times I have the most fun is when we’re all hanging out just as friends and not discussing the band.

I think about throwing in the towel and leaving it behind, but I have no idea what I would do with my time or life. This has been my hobby/core identity thing since I was a teen.

What the hell do people do aside from work? I can’t imagine just working, watching TV, going to bed, and repeating until I’m on my death bed…

TL;DR: Being in a band is too stressful, but I don’t know what I would with my time if I wasn’t in a band.

and like 20 second snippets of music and lyrics but we don't know how to make an entire song out of these parts ? Any advice on this?

I’ve been trying playing drums in my band for 2 years now and we’ve played a decent amount of shows in our area and have gained a small local following. When we first started playing shows I’d always feel nervous (obviously) but also excited, but as of late I’ve been struggling to feel any excitement and anxiety has been taking over. in the beginning I thought playing shows would get easier with time, but it seems like it’s just getting harder for me.

For some context, I have really bad social anxiety and the hardest aspect of playing shows for me is just communicating with everyone there. It’s so bad that I obsess about all the awkward social interactions at the shows for weeks afterwards. When we have upcoming shows, I feel constantly stressed and uneasy for several weeks before hand. All this stress completely ruins the experience for me and honestly makes me want to quit the band sometimes.

Does anyone else feel like this and/or have any advice?