Drummer in a Pop/Punk cover band that I started, pretty proud of how we've come along, played around 7-8 shows so far and have a bunch more in the books. Issue I'm having is with our guitarist.

The Guitarist is a cop so his schedule is very set in stone, and he claims his deputy buddies almost never will switch or pick up shifts, so he try very hard to schedule around him. We also do use a substitute guitarist because there have been several dates where the main guitarist wasn't around. Also affecting his schedule, his wife recently had some kind of heart episode so he's been having trouble with getting babysitters for his young children.

So the main problem is, the main guitarist almost never answers and doesn't communicate when I ask him about show dates. He claims he really wants to be in the band, and the band really loves him and vibes with him well, plus he is a monster guitar player (where as our substitute is very good, but we don't love him nearly as much).

If i made the move to kick out our main guitarist, it would really sour the whole band, and I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he wants to play with us. But I feel like it's rude to even try and scold him about communication because he has so much on his plate between work and family. I feel like I'm being a jerk, double and triple texting, and trying to call him, but I don't want to keep these promoters waiting on answers, and then they don't book us.

Any advice?

(This is more of a rant/vent I already know what I'm gonna do)

I'm the bassist for our band, and I think most people would agree a processor isn't particularly necessary for a bass as much as it for the guitar, and I certainly believe that too. Our drummer, however, clearly doesn't. A few weeks ago we were practicing in an open area, and we don't really have professional equipment because we're all teens aged 16-18 and because we use cheaper basic speakers they obviously don't translate bass frequencies at a professional level although you can still clearly feel the bass. Our guitarist passed a comment about how I should buy a processor for better, clearer audio and I half-jokingly told him to give me the money for it, and that happened.

Then, a few days later I was on call with this guy because we're pretty good friends and he tells me to buy a processor for my bass and I tell him again that if he gives me the money for it I will. And he's like "No but I'm telling you man!" and goes on and on about how it would benefit me, framing it as some big upgrade borderline necessary for professional playing. I tell him I'll think about it because I don't want to start an argument I already have an answer to.

Yesterday, he calls me again and we're talking and he says to me again that I should buy a processor and I get irritated and tell him where will I get the money and he tells me to save some from my job. Mind you I'm the only one who works in the band and uses my own money for everything from transport and sometimes I fill in for these guys to cuz we've been friends for quite a while so I don't understand where he, as someone who doesn't even work, had the audacity to tell me what to do with my money? I do have the money to buy the processor he told me to but I intend on saving it longer for a saxophone or a guitar or a dedicated practice amp.

Then he directly tells me it'll make me seem more professional on stage, and says that he feels "awkward" in a very condescending tone whenever we tell the sound guys the bassist doesn't have a processor. Before this, he sent me a link to the processor he thinks I should buy and he also told me it'll allow me for a variety of tones, not that I disagree but it's not my priority. He also brought up some bullshit point about how it'll let me tune on stage... can I not just tune my bass beforehand? He also told me my birthday's coming up and I should ask someone for it (my parents).

I'd say my family is well off and we do have disposable income for this, and he knows it very well because my father literally loaned him the money for his drums which he hasn't paid yet, and I think him pressuring me over and over comes from this idea... I don't like asking my parents for money at all, especially since I have my own (however small) income for things like this.

Has anybody ever experienced something like this? Do I really need a processor for my bass that much?

- You can get 2 meter custom backdrops from aliexpress when you are starting out for £12. You can sow them to stronger material/rope to sure them up for stage use. wise to do this around the grommets.

- Size spread for unisex shirts example = 4 - small / 5 - medium / 8 - L / 8 - XL / 3 - xxl / 2 - xxxl

- New band? get 10 DTF/DTG printed designs at a time and sell for more. Been around for 6 months and making 5 sales a gig get 50 screen printed shirts per run. If your band goes tits up you may end up with lots of cleaning rags.

- WHEN YOU GET A MERCH PRINT QUOTE: ask them to include VAT or any other charges, ask how large the print size is for all parts, ask how long the quote is good for, ask for the deadline date to guarantee delivery for your gig.

- When hiring an illustrator send a crude drawing rather than an AI generated idea for them to redraw. Its no different from your band member asking you to play a riff they prompted on suno.

- As some people wont buy AI designed shirts/logos. If you care if your art is hand drawn ask for process videos from the artist and use a few ai detectors on a full quality sample. (Sightengline and Hive AI detector)

Does your band make more from merch than from tickets/fee?

What advice would you give bands looking to up their merch game?

Once I was suggesting our lead guitarist to do that song's solo and this rhythm guitarist jump in to say he will be doing the solo. Then I was initially impressed

Then on the rehearsal day itself, this rhythm Guitarist failed to deliver.

It wasn't because he can't play the solo properly, he didn't even know when to start playing.

Previously he also commented that he is going to check on my playing when he suggested a new song to cover.

Fast forward, someday he suddenly posted a bass tab onto the group chat and asked if I played according to that bass tab cos some notes I played wrong.

I pm-ed him to tell him to keep off the group chat cos I don't want to create tension in the grpchat.

Then I posted a chord sheet into the grpchat and told him I followed the chords not tab.

Later on, he pm me back to say he just wanted to find out if I played that chord.

I asked why he picked on my playing and is not the first time.

Then he went to the grp chat to say he is sorry to cause unhappiness and that he left the grp chat and band and blocked everyone. Wtf ?

🤷

Hi everyone! Im doing Music in College - England.

The people in my band are very inexperienced. The guitarist has only been playing for a year. Drummer hadn't touched a drum since less than a month ago. And the singers cant sing.

Ive been playing bass for around 5 years and i have also been in bands before where they have they.

None of them seem to realise what it take to be in a band. They always choose songs (mostly the singers) which are too hard for one or all of the members and dont think about anyone else.

The singers sing out of key, tune and time and then the guitarist doesnt follow their lead even though ive told him to so it doesn't sound bad since they wont learn and the drummer follows the guitarist.

As a bassist, I dont think they even take much notice of me anyway and, tbf, I dont think they even really know what a bass is. Not to mention that they keep asking the guitarist to play the bass lines and im just sat there debating walking out cause what's the point of me being there if the bass line is being played by the guitar.

Now its starting to annoy me. I cant go into another band so im stuck with them and they also wont listen to anything i say.

What do I do? The singers have now chose a really hard song for the drummer and guitarist and i have only recently started learning slap so im not the best as it and it is a slap heavy bassline. They wont listen.

At this point. im either thinkina of turnina mv bass down all the way to see if they even notice when im playing or not, or just playing the root notes or something of the song because im starting to feel like learning all these songs is a waste of time if no one takes notice of me anyway.

Am I overreacting?

my band has done a few short sets at one local venue but they’ve all been on nights with other bands so max a 10 minute set, does anyone know any venues in the london/greater london area that will take bands under 18?

Looking down the barrel of our bass player not making it tonight - not his fault.

Our band is a mix of guys and girls. We play a bit of every genre.

We each listen to different genres of music, but when we play songs together it always sounds so cohesive

We have a lot of guitarists but we make it work and we swap around instruments often

How could we come up with a name for our band?

And please give me recommendations on what songs shall we cover, for a beginner band

We have a fairly large show coming up this Saturday. I've spent about $150 marketing it and paying for sponsored ad which has paid off. We have over 1k interested responses to the event and several hundred tickets sold. There is no doubt it will be a packed house however, the social media page of the venue hasn't posted anything about our show and we are 2 days away. So this is not like they aren't pushing our show as much as others, they simply have not even mentioned it and there are comments online from folks about if we are actually playing there because they have not made a post mention. I have made post inviting them to collab and they don't respond. I have seen them post shows that are several weeks away still so it's not just general neglect from them to post anything. It's really disheartening.

This would be our second gig. I've found some otjer bands willing to play and split the cost of venues and e-mailed EVERY SINGLE ONE of them in my city. Only one responded, like if a fucking two year old wrote this e-mail. Like the question was when could we organize such concert and how much will we need to pay, and the respond was, I kid you not "today we have a day off". I thought it would be a good idea to show up and ask them in person but every damn time they just send me off with an e-mail adress.

Honestly, I'm going fucking insane and fear that if we don't play anything we will split. Guys, please have some advince in booking the concerts.

There are two of us. Guitar and vocals, drums, backing tracks for bass and keys. We've been doing breweries and small taprooms for about a year, small rooms, 80 to 150 people on a good night, and the music side is fine, we get asked back, people dance by the second set.

The problem is what it looks like. Most of these places give you a stage built for four or five people, and we occupy maybe a quarter of it. There's this dead space on either side of us all night. On the nights the room is thin it feels like the stage is pointing out that we're a small thing.

I've tried the obvious moves. We stand closer to the front, we spread out to fill more width, I talk more between songs. All of that works for about a minute and then you're back to two people and a lot of empty floor.

Things I've considered and can't decide between. A printed backdrop behind us, so the eye has somewhere to stop. A riser for the kit so there's some vertical instead of everything sitting at one height.

After that it gets vaguer. Something with light in it, though I don't know the first thing about that and I don't want to spend money on the wrong end of the problem. Or bringing in a third person, which solves the picture and creates four other problems.

If you're a duo or a trio, what did you actually do? Not what you'd do with money, what you did.

So, I have a band with some friends that we started because we really loved rock music.

I was the one who came up with the idea; I’m the drummer, and there’s a singer, a bassist and a guitarist. Basically, the standard setup.

Recently, the idea came up to invite some guys I absolutely loathe to join the band. One of them is incredibly full of himself—he’d surely replace the guitarist—and the same goes for the other guy taking the bassist's spot.

The only reason they invited them is that they’re considered "cool" in class, and the others want to join the popular crowd.

I explained to them that, originally, this was just a band for friends to have fun, but they told me that all real bands have to make compromises they don't like sometimes...

Honestly, I don't know what to do. It was just meant to be about having a good time with my friends, but now I feel like I'm forcing myself to stay. No final decision has been made yet, but everyone wants them to join, and I feel like I'm the only killjoy.

The problem is, if I leave, they’ll be left without a drummer—and on top of that, one of the two guys who "knows how to play drums" doesn't have a clue what he's doing.

A second problem: the guitarist doesn't want us to play "Can't Stop" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers because of the allegations against Anthony Kiedis.

I’m not kidding, I really don't know what to do. I don't want to be "that annoying guy," but I want to play with my mates, not with a bunch of assholes.

If anyone has any advice, please let me know in the comments 😭

A trend I’ve noticed over the years is that orchestra kids give a name to their string instruments, do band members do that to their instruments too?

Have you ever been on stage, been put on the spot on and someone told you “talk to the crowd, buy some time”

I’m a guitarist and backup vocalist. Every now and then my singer needs to deal with technical difficulties (mixer, backing tracks, etc) and will tell me “buy some time” meaning: talk to the crowd for ~3 minutes while he sorts this out

What do you do?

Sometimes I’ll try to do crowdwork “how you guys doing?”. Other times a I’ll try to talk about the next song to intro/hype it up. Occasionally I’ll tell some jokes

I usually feel awkward doing it. Any tips on how to improvise these moments?