Great! You’ve decided you want to form a band, in no time you will be gigging around the country and the masses will be adoring your music! You know where you are, and you know where youre going to be… but how do you actually get there?

Focus on the right things

The biggest mistake many people make in the beginning is to focus on the wrong things. Forget about what your band’s name and image is going to be, its not that important yet. Dont concern yourself with where you are going to gig or where youre going to record. None of these things are relevent yet… not until you have music to play and a band to play it with.

Band Members

So your first step is to find band memebers. You may already have some people lined up, but chances are you are probably sitting around thinking “where can i find a…”.

The easiest palce to find new band members is within your own circle of friends. Lots of people generally want to be in a band so you wont really have trouble finding enthusiastic candidates.

The downside to this recruitment strategy is that most of these people probably arent that good. I once gathered some people to form a band and at the first rehearsal the bassist said something along the lines of “I havent actually played a bass before… i dont even have one”. Needless to say that band didnt last too long.

Alternatively you can always advertise for band members. Keep it local, you dont want to get stuck travelling for hours to band practice in a far off place every week. Are there any local forums or band websites or community websites you can try? Google your local area for bands and see what comes up.

Whoever you recruit, you need to make sure that they have two key qualities… enthusiasm and commitment. And by that, I mean they are willing to practice their instruments for hours, always turn up to band practice, and chip in their fair share of costs and time.

Practice space

Once you have a full lineup you need somewhere to practice because with no practice you will never be gig ready.

Traditionaly most bands practice at commercial practice studios. The quality of these can very wildly from run down industrial units to quite fancy and well furnished rooms. And equally the cost can vary from cheap to astronomically wallet-emptying.

Try asking around people you know to ask if they can reccomend anywhere. Try those local websites you found when you were searching for band members!

Wherever you end up practicing, the most important thing you need is time! It takes time to write and practice music, and though an expensive practice studio might sound like a nice option, if you can only afford an hour a week there then there is really no point. Really you should try to spend at least 3 hours a week practicing.

So remember

Write the music first! That is the whole point of being in a band…surely? Focus on getting a real band together with dedicated members, then get yourself into a band practice and get some music written!

It sounds simple and it is. Get going.


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