on Nov 15th, 2007Music Band - Getting Band Members
(For the purpose of this article I am 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 also have a fledgling network of friends and contacts)
Starting up a band is a very exciting time in a musicians life. There is 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 people involved, other personalities, other strengths and weaknesses in character and abilities and because of this it is really important that you have a few things worked out before you start looking for band members.
1. Have a good idea of your own strengths and weaknesses
The band members that you want to get will need to be around the same level of competence as you are. The main reason for this is that you can all grow together rather than have one or two musicians carrying everyone 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 band is going to be run
Is the band going to be run by you or the whole group? The personality types of the musicians that you choose will need to be agreeable to the way the band 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 musicians you are looking for will be of great help.
It is now time to hunt down some band members 
4. Ask your network of friends and/or contacts
This is always a good place to start. Ask everyone that you know or come into contact with. If you don’t have much of a circle of friends and/or contacts this will be a great chance to widen it. This is one of the reasons why networking in the industry is so important, for occasions such as this.
Having a musician referred to you has a much better chance 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 great contacts from musicians 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 musicians are very likely to see it and read it like in a music shop, a local music magazine or a music classifieds website.
A sample ‘musician wanted’ advertisement could read something like this:
BASS PLAYER WANTED
To join folk/rock band
Influences include
Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows
Some experience preferred
Own gear and transport essential
Interested?? Give me a call
Corey - (put home and/or mobile phone number here)
As you can see, the ad is clear in its intention.
It clearly states the musician wanted, the type of music the band is playing, what the music may sound like and that the band has some experience behind it. Make sure you have a clear contact name and phone numbers (if you want to include an email address as well that’s cool).
Don’t put in stuff like ‘work waiting’ or ‘no time wasters please’. You can judge those sort of things yourself when an interested musician contacts you.
Once you’ve done that the waiting game begins.
Corey Stewart is a published Singer/Songwriter from Australia who has his own online music marketing business Orangutang Music
