http://web.mac.com/jerrywatson/Black_Out/Band_Blog/Band_Blog.html You don't have to study music for years to start a rockin' band, and you don't have to spend a fortune on gear. We started when we were 10 and we're now 12 so this is for kids our age. But first, consider these suggestions.<br/>1. Getting members - This is an important step. You are going to spend a lot of time together. Don't just let every friend be a member or it will turn into just another play date<br/><br/>Start off with a minimum of a drummer, bass player and guitarist. The guitarist can double as the vocalist<br/>Ask new members to audition before letting them join. It is easier to add a new member than ask one to leave. There are tons of players out there wanting to be in a band so pick the ones who fit best.<br/>Members should generally play well and at about the same level. <br/>Each member must be committed to improving his or her skills and love music<br/>They should live close enough to attend regular practices<br/><br/>Consider Craigslist or BandFIND when looking for potential band members <br/><br/>After you are working as a team, consider adding a piano or keyboard player and a second guitarists. But remember, ask them to audition and give yourself time to get to know the person. Give them the names of some of your regular songs and  ask them to come to practice and play with you to see if there is a fit. <br/><br/>Make sure everyone agrees that they will attend every practice unless it is impossible because of school or sporting events and that they will practice on their own. Even consider drawing up a contract for everyone to sign.<br/><br/>2. Rehearsal space - you need to find a place to practice that will not bother neighbors. Practices can get pretty loud so you need to have a house, not a town house or apartment. Best place is a basement or garage. We've heard you can sometimes find places that rent rehearsal space time to a number of bands in an area that does not bother people. Another idea, would be to rent a storage shed for your band to play, and store your gear. Talk to your school music department about using their practice rooms. Often these will be free and have a PA and drum kit. Put soundproofing on the windows. You can get this at a music store. The soundproofing will keep music from traveling outside and will reduce the bouncing of the sound around the room. Carpeted floors are a plus. Raising your amps off the floor onto a chair or small table will keep the sound from traveling through the flooring. Get some room fans to circulate the air if you live in a hot area. <br/><br/>3. Manager - If you are serious about jump starting your band you'll need to get an older person to be the manager. Give them this title and they'll work harder. They will help schedule the practices with your parents. Help you move your equipment around, pick up members who can't get transportation to practice,  help you start getting gigs and order pizza when you get hungry.<br/><br/>4. Practice sessions - You need to practice at least weekly and twice a week if possible. Practice at least two hours taking a break after the first 45 minutes for about 20 minutes. But total practice time should be at least one hour and forty minutes. Learn how to tune your own instruments and replace broken strings. Have your instruments and drums tuned BEFORE the clock starts ticking on your practice time. The drummer should have an extra set of sticks and a skid proof rug under his bass drum. Guitar and bass players should have extra pics in their pockets. Get a foot tuner if you can afford but have some type of tuner available during the practice. Look at each other while you play to develop a tightness to the songs especially at the ending. It's a good idea to use musician's earplugs (not regular earplugs) . These balance sound equally at all frequencies, thus preserving the clarity of the sound. Any of the major musician's supply stores should carry them.<br/><br/>5. Song List - Start with 5 songs you and your band members like and want to play. Pick ones with simple chords first and move to complex ones after you gain confidence. I had a friend who spent 6 months learning to play Stairway To Heaven while our band mastered 15 songs. Learn the chords and words that go with your favorite songs. You can find a list of these on the internet. We keep an old computer in our rehearsal area in case we want to download a song from iTunes or print out a set of lyrics or chords.<br/><br/>Lyrics http://www.lyricsfreak.com<br/>Chords http://www.chordie.com<br/>Music http://www.apple.com<br/><br/>It is important to play these songs over and over again until you can play them perfectly. Real rock bands play a song at least a 100 times before they perform it live.<br/><br/>6. Coaching - If you want to really get good you'll need to talk your parents into hiring a music coach. The coach will need to know drums and guitars and music. Best ones are age 21 to 28 cause they are easier to get along with. The coach can really keep you on track and can fill in when one of the band members can not make a practice. They can help the members individually as as well as the band a a unit. Everybody that gets to the top has a coach whether it is sports, acting, music or school.<br/><br/> Video - Get somebody to occasionally videotape your practices so you can see what you will look like when you actually get invited to perform. And with some extra editing in a program like Apples iMovie you can create a live promo piece for introducing yourself to potential gigs and posting on YouTube.
<br/> Equipment - You will need<br/><br/>Amps - the guitar and bass player will need amps that support their equipment
Mics - The singer will need a mic and stand to start but consider a mic for each player as you progress.
Speakers - you will need two speakers for the vocal sounds<br/>Mixer - You will need a mixer to take in the vocals from the mics and feed the sound to the speakers.<br/>Stage Monitor - When you perform, the speakers will be pointed toward the audience and it will be difficult to hear what is being sung. To overcome this, you will need one or two smaller speakers sitting on the floor or stage in front and directed toward you. Otherwise you may find it difficult to keep everyone in sync.<br/><br/>9. Getting Gigs - When you feel you are good enough to perform, look at these possibilities. Your ideal audience will be playing to kids your own age. Take every performance you can get because this is the way to gain experience you need when you are ready to hit it big.<br/><br/>Parent parties - ask your parents to let you perform at one of their parties. Parents are happy to show off their kids but limit your performance to 30 or 40 minutes cause grown ups are not use to kid bands.<br/>Birthday parties - These are usually easy to get, especially if they are your own.<br/>School events - Go to your Principal or school activities director and ask to perform at one of the after school events. This is where we got our best experience because the audiences were all our age and had a great time. We had a problem because we all went to different schools but it also gave us a bigger audience. We just had to work harder getting the gigs because the first reaction is that they prefer all students to be from the same school.<br/>Local festivals - these events are always looking for local talent to promote. Most are in the Fall so contact them when they are doing their planning in the Spring or summer months. A high school talent show is a great way to get people to see your band.<br/><br/>When you get a gig, practice as much as possible during the two weeks before the gig. Get your set list down so that your band can play it non stop beginning to end. Memorize the lyrics. Before the day of the event, make a list of everything you will need to take with you. You don't want a parent driving back to the house to get a mic cable minutes before the performance begins. Tape a list of the songs onto the stage floor in front of each band member. Be able to play your set list non stop from beginning to end.<br/><br/>10. Promotional Material - Come up with a cool or catchy name. Visit http://www.bandnamemaker.com/ for ideas. Pint the name on your own T-shirts at http://www.cafepress.com. Until you have a following it will be important that everybody who hears you remembers your band name. In the beginning, we didn't have anything with our name and people in the audience were saying" who are those guys". Put up a simple web site (Apple’s iWeb program is a breeze to use and we made this page with it). If you are not quite tech savvy, MySpace offers a free hosting service for bands. Invite all of your friends to join the friends list and post songs on there when you record something. Add the names and photos of your band members, the music each likes, sports they play and hobbies. But don't list addressees and phone numbers unless you don't mind getting crank calls. An email address is OK.<br/><br/>When you get a a gig, print up some posters using a template provided by your word processing program and post them around town in ice cream shops, grocery stores and anywhere they will let you put them up. If it is an event at your school you may not get any outside attendees but a lot of people who see your poster will be getting to know about you and will pay attention when they hear you are playing somewhere they might be.<br/><br/>At gigs, take a clip board and ask people in the audience to join your fan club by putting down their name and email address. You'll be amazed at how fast it will grow and these fans will want to get an email from you announcing your next gig or record offer.<br/><br/>Get a band photo. If you can't afford a professional, get a parent of friend to take a 100 or so with a digital camera and pick out the best and get it printed as a black and white photo. We printed 500 of these for about $75 and sold them at our gigs for a buck a piece. Get a few marker pens for autographing. But it's not about the money it is about having your bands photo in a lot of kids homes.<br/><br/>Recap of How To Have a Great Band<br/><br/> Start with a bass player, drummer and guitar player<br/> Make new members audition for you before letting them in<br/> Schedule Band Practice at least once a week and twice if possible<br/> To keep your parents happy, schedule practices after homework and sports<br/> Practice individually at least 30 minutes a day<br/> Practice where you will not disturb neighbors<br/> Singer should sing every day. That's what the rock stars do.<br/> Harmonize - Until your voice changes, harmonize with your other band members. You'll be surprised how good it sounds.<br/> Make a parent the Band Manager<br/> Get a Music Coach<br/> Buy good basic equipment<br/> Have everything working properly when practice begin<br/> Take every Gig you can get. It is valuable experience<br/><br/><br/>Links To What We Use: <br/><br/> Mics Shure SM58<br/> Mic Cables Monster Cable S-100 XLR Microphone Cable<br/> Speakers and Stage Monitors JBL Eon 1500 Passive Speaker  <br/> Speaker Stands ProLine Tripod Speaker Stand  <br/> Tuners Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner or Boss TU-2 Chromatic Stompbox Tuner<br/> Mixer Mackie Onyx 1220 12-Channel Mixer   <br/> Lyrics Lyrics Freak<br/> Chords Chordie<br/> Music iTunes<br/><br/><br/><br/>Please add your Comments and Suggestions below<br/><br/><br/><br/>Black Out Band http://www.blackoutband.com band@blackoutband.com<br/> iWeb 2.0.3 http://web.mac.com/jerrywatson/Black_Out/Band_Blog/Band_Blog_files/8x10_6320-filtered.jpg http://web.mac.com/jerrywatson/Black_Out/Band_Blog/Band_Blog.html http://web.mac.com/jerrywatson/Black_Out/Band_Blog/Entries/2008/4/28_From_The_UK.html f073de8a-3b43-4a45-8124-f619d15683f0 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:20:04 -0400 I think the most important thing to learn, that no one does when your starting, is to listen to each other when your playing. Everyone is so busy trying to hear to the noise they're making (and turning their amp up!) they ignore the sound as a whole.<br/><br/>- Also listening to each other in between songs. As soon as the tune stops everyone starts playing the latest Metallica solo they've learnt and no progress is made at all. - Good idea to select a band leader (normally happens naturally) who runs practices etc. but keep it democratic! - Everyone must learn songs BEFORE coming to practice - both how they go and how to play them. Hours of valuable practice time spent looking up/printing tabs is very frustrating! - If you are doing covers (which you definitely should when starting out), choose simple songs that you can get to the end of, and try to make them your own. Even if you can play the outro to Hotel California (guitarist..) or intro to Rock and Roll (drummer..), attempting to recreate them as a band (unless your Led Zeppelin) is going to be difficult. - On 'The guitarist can double as the vocalist' - some bass players and drummers can sing too! - Is a 'music coach' that must know 'drums guitar and music' the same as a music teacher? If so i agree all players should get lessons (though why they should be between 21 - 28 i don't know, older = more experienced??). - Good idea to assign one member to be a manager or a mate who likes the band. Wouldn't bother with finding some random 'professional', certainly not when starting out. Most important thing is that they're good at networking, social and love your band. And don't pay them until your rich and famous. - Only other things i can think of are, - always try to play with players you think are better than you and try to get playing live as soon as possible, don't worry if you not incredible yet. Best ways to improve. Hope this helps, Duncan