So what’s it like playing in a band?
It’s all about working together to provide the best performance possible for the audience. Here are some personal observations.
The first question to ask yourself is what type of band do you want to be? Are you a tribute band, where the songs need to closely model the original artist or do you want to make each song your own? In either case, choosing what songs to do and making adjustments to each song to accommodate vocal range and instrumentation is super important to provide a great performance.
As you start to put songs together, each musician and vocalist needs to understand what part they play and how it fits into everyone else’s part. One consideration is how different voices blend together. Who sings the lead and who sings harmony, needs to be determined.
After song choices are made and how each member will contribute to each song, working out the setlist (the performance order of the songs) is next. It takes a lot of thought to make one song flow to the next. Think about intermingling slow and fast songs to provide variety to the audience. A great setlist moves the audience through a journey.
The big day is here and it’s time to set up for a performance, which means deciding how to best divide up the space on the stage and specifically, the location each musician will perform from. Sometimes it’s all about the physical attributes of the instrument. For instance, a guitar player always has to worry about where the neck of the guitar is pointing, making sure not to interfere with another musician’s performance. Another consideration is proximity, so that each musician can hear the other. Drummers and bass players are often next to each other, so they can lock in the groove together.
Sound check time. It’s all about the sound. If you don’t have a sound man, it requires working together with the other musicians to make sure no instrument overpowers the other and that the sound heard by the audience is well balanced and at an appropriate volume level. You don’t want everyone leaving because it’s painfully loud (fun for you, not so much for them).
Time to play. Smile, have fun and show the audience what you’ve got. Be humble, it will take you far. Have an awesome day. Cheers!