To successfully start a band, you have to be well aware of the detailed steps to take. Through your journey, carefully follow these five steps with your band members.
1. Choose people you know you can work with.
The single most important thing about a band is teamwork. Everyone has to be willing to do his or her part as a member, and everyone has to put in the effort to be patient with each other.
When starting a band, you have to choose people you know you can work with. You have to choose people you’re confident in who will listen to everyone’s input and put in one hundred percent effort. Skill can be honed with practice; character cannot.
2. Determine everyone’s positions.
After you’ve settled on all the members of your band, it’s time to determine positions or instruments for everyone. If your band members all play an instrument, then this step is taken care of, although you might have to make a few adjustments if they several members play the same instruments.
If a few members have little to no experience with playing instruments, assign them each one with their agreement. It’s best to have a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboard player, and a lead vocalist.
Popular band 5 Seconds of Summer started as four teens who just wanted to cover songs on YouTube. They determined their roles perfectly – one lead vocalist, one drummer, one guitarist, and one bassist.
3. Find a practice space.
For every musician, practice is key. Especially for a band, the only way to put the pieces of every member’s music together to form a band is to practice. By practicing, you can find faults and tackle them. You can also learn the patience so valued in teamwork.
To practice, though, you will need a big enough space that you can use whenever you need to. Most budding bands practice in their homes. If your home isn’t available, or that space isn’t big enough, you can rehearse in your school’s band room, or you can all pitch in money to rent a space in a music shop.
PAINT’s Jon Cozart does all of the practicing and filming in his apartment.
4. Get sheet music.
You need to get a hold of sheet music to really cover songs flawlessly; you can’t simply rely on your ears. Also remember to get sheet music for every instrument in your band. Good sheet music usually costs money, so make sure everyone is willing to chip in. You can also ask family and friends to help out, if necessary. Just remind yourself and your band members that a good result comes with a good base. Practicing with good sheet music will ensure that the final cover will sound as good as you hope.
Usually, when you Google sheet music, you will find a bunch of links with different versions. The most accurate ones are the ones on MusicNotes, which also have the notes for other instruments as well, but this site costs money.
When you search sheet music up on YouTube, you’re usually lucky enough to find free versions in the description boxes of tutorial videos. However, the most reliable ones are found on MusicNotes or Scribd.
5. Upload your covers.
Whether it’s on YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp, upload your covers! This is the first step to publicizing your group. Particularly for YouTube and SoundCloud, you’re likely to attract many curious listeners, who will then follow your social media and spread word of your music.
YouTube band Boyce Avenue uploads their covers as well as publishing them on Spotify and iTunes.
As long as you have considered the above five in starting your band, then you are on your way to paving your music career together.
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Angelina Hue enjoys listening to a wide variety of music, from instrumental movie scores to alternative indie to Korean pop music. She also likes to make short films and write fiction.
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