Independent Music Performer – Getting Performer Members
Posted by Music Concerts | Posted in Music Concerts | Posted on 29-07-2009
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(For the purpose of this article I’m going to make a couple of assumptions before I go any further. They are that you have a little bit of vocal or musical instrument knowledge and that you additionally have a fledgling network of friends and contacts)
Starting up a band is a incredibly rousing time in a performers life. There’s a fine balance of nervous anticipation and the fear of the unknown that follows the whole process.
A band has a different dynamic than working as a solo artist. There are other individuals involved, other personal ities, other strengths and weaknesses in character and abilities and because of this it’s really important that you’ve a few things worked out before you start looking for band members.
1. Have a good idea of your own strengths and weaknesses
The performer members that you want to get will need to be around the same level of competence as you are. The primary reason for this is that you may all grow together rather than have one or two performers carrying anybody at all else. This type of player imbalance causes doubt in the group and doubt is one of the major killers of bands.
2. Know beforehand how the performer is going to be run
Is the performer going to be run by you or the whole group? The personal ity types of the performers that you pick will need to be agreeable to the way the performer is going to be run.
3. What instrumentation is the band having in its lineup?
This is mainly determined by the type(s) of music that you want to play but having an idea of what artists you are looking for will be of wonderful endorse.
It is now time to hunt down some band members
4. Ask your network of companions and/or contacts
This is always a nice place to start. Ask everybody that you know or come into contact with. If you do not have much of a circle of friends and/or contacts this will be a great opportunity to broad n it. This is one of the reasons why networking in the industry is so important, for opportunitys such as this.
Having a musician referred to you has a much better opportunity of working than one that comes from an advertisement. This leads me onto my next point.
5. Post an advertisement
Having said that I have had made some amazing contacts from artists enquiring from a ‘muso wanted’ ad. The key to effective ads is that they need to be concise, to the point, not too lengthy and put in places where artists are particularly like ly to see it and read it like in a music shop, a Local/Regional music magazine or a music classifieds web site.
A sample ‘ artist wanted’ advertisement could read something prefer this:
BASS PLAYER WANTED
To join folk/rock band
Influences include
Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows
Some experience prefer red
Own gear and transport essential
Interested?? Give me a call
Corey – (put home and/or cell phone number here)
As you can see, the ad is evident in its intention.
It obvious ly states the musician wanted, the type of music the performer is playing, what the music might sound like and that the performer has some experience behind it. Make sure you’ve a obvious contact name and phone numbers (if you want to include an email address as well that’s cool).
Don’t put in stuff prefer ‘work waiting’ or ‘no time was ters please’. You might judge those sort of things yourself when an interested musician contacts you.
Once you have done that the waiting game begins.

