What does it take to keep a band together?

Leadership. Goals. Effort. Tolerance and patience.

How hard could it be? :shock:

success or friendship are about it.

Tough question.

There are people I'll play with just for the love of the music we can make. Unfortunately, that music doesn't pay that well, and I have to make a living (I have no income other than music, so I have to be practical about things like my mortgage payments)

There are people I'll work with just for the money. I don't particularly like some of them, and sometimes I don't like the music either - but again, there's that mortgage thing. I do my best to not let them know I don't like them though - you never know what will come from an association with somebody.

But if one of those groups that I don't like to work with brought me into a project that made us all wealthy, I'd drop them once I was secure, and spend my time making the music I like to make.

So I guess it comes down to having just enough success together to meet your basic needs, but too much success can be counterproductive for keeping a band together. You really never know what motivates the others until you get there.

What does it take to keep a band together?

&"$#&@^$=&^" hard work, and that's the starting point.

Its like a marriage. Almost as much effort it takes to keep it together. Slightly less perhaps.

Luck and karma...Ha

Well I don't know since if been dealing with this over the past couple years. We had a band going pretty good for about 6 months until the drummer changed jobs and is on the road to much. Sounds like it would be easy just to find another drummer but it wasn't. When that happened the other guitar player said he wanted to do different material (different than what the singer could handle).

So now I am in two bands basically one without the original singer and one with out the original drummer and I don't hink either are going anywhere.

I give up :x

Write good interesting music, find good people, keep commitments and most importantly, pay them on time.

I wrote about this on my website. But in my 40 years of playing in bands (over 15) I've come to some conclusions.

1. Everyone has to be at the same musical level. If some one is clearly less skilled, the better members will get frustrated.

2. Everyone has to like the same kind of music. This can be difficult because tastes change over the years. But there MUST be some agreement on musical direction.

3. Everyone must be cool. If one person is a jerk, or total ego case, then they will ruin it for everyone.

4. There must be agreement on how much they can/want to work and how much money they will need to make to continue doing it. The money part can be less important if the music is satisfying. But if some members really need to make money and others don't, that will cause friction sooner or later.

I think there is one type of band organization type that is better than others and I talk about that on my website.

What does it take to keep a band together?

One word answer:

Gigs

I've been in a lot of bands since I started playing in the 1960s. If you've gotten past the start up, you enjoy playing together, you get along together, and there are no ego clashes, the most important thing is work. After all, when you have gigs, you have an audience and the music isn't complete until it falls on appreciative ears. When you have gigs you also have money for strings, picks, and other less essential things like food and fuel.

Notes

Patience, desire, ability, ears, heart, soul, willingness to listen, empathy, compromise, backbone, stubbornness, decent gear, extra cables, a good practice space, someone with a vehicle that can haul gear, understanding spouses/significant others, and money.

I'll echo Notes: It may not be about the money, but playing in front of an audience is often an important goal. Practice is the work, and gigs are the reward.

It is partially about the money if you do this for a living like I do. I can't pay the mortgage without it.

But the music isn't complete without an audience. It's a lot of fun to play music with your friends, but the goal is to take it to the public, and when the audience is there, it goes to another dimension of pleasure.

The members of one of the greatest soul duos of the 20th century were put together by management. Personally, they intensely disliked each other, and only associated with each other for practice, recording, and performance. Reportedly didn't talk to each other unless working for 13 years. But being professionals, they put on great shows, worked together well, had hit records, and kept the act going for 20 years. They also made it into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

Thrilling the audience and gigging were all that was required to keep Sam & Dave together.

Notes

honeyboy got it right! :idea: :!:

honeyboy got it right! :idea: :!:

In a perfect world...