Musician’s Notebook

You’re finally up to the step you thought came first: getting out of the armchair and finding, and recruiting, a bunch of band members.

There are two major categories of recruitment methods: fast-paced recruitment and slow-paced relationship building.

Fast-paced recruitment involves putting up ads in music stores and local street press, and using the audition process to filter and select your band members. This can take as little as one or two weeks.

Slow-paced relationship building involves meeting musicians through natural means (it helps to frequent some kind of establishment or event filled with local musicians), forging friendships first and looking for the right person. Instead of auditioning them, you invite them over for a jam a couple of weeks after you meet and make the decision as to whether you invite them to join the band or not. This can take weeks too, but it’s more likely to take months. It can even take more than a year.

Personally, I favor slow-paced relationship building. Both methods work, but I find that recruiting the slow way means you weed out the flakes, and forge strong songwriting partnerships from the start, instead of hitting and missing for months or years as you constantly fire and audition members. Auditioning does not weed out the flakes very reliably, it just weeds out those who can’t play their instruments.

In Part Three we looked at member selection strategies and developed a group of SWOT charts to help you analyze potential new members. You’ll need to keep that stuff handy throughout this process, keeping notes the whole time. Be honest, and don’t let desperation to complete your band cause you to shake off bad feelings or signs. You’ll actually cause your band to destruct, as much as you don’t want to see that in your excitement.

So get out the SWOT charts, place some ads, or go hang out a musician’s workshop or university studio for a while.

songwriting, music, musicians, bands, recruitment, band

The Establishing Your Band Series
Part One: What Direction Are You Going In?
Part Two: What’s This Band About?
Part Three: What You Need in Band Members
Part Four: Governing Models
Part Five: The Band Agreement
Part Six: Building Repertoire
Part Seven: Recruiting New Members
Part Eight: Learning & Arranging Repertoire

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