r/band

I’ve been working around live music for a while, and one thing I’ve noticed is every musician has that show — the one that went wrong, got weird, or forced you to figure something out on the fly. As a booker fairly new to the scene I want to learn all that could go wrong.

What happened, and what did you learn from it?

I feel like newer artists could learn a lot from real experiences instead of just advice posts. Sometimes the best lessons come from chaos 😅

Would love to hear your stories — good, bad, or straight-up unbelievable. I will be posting these stories to help others in the scene.

Hi! I'm a female vocalist of a newly formed band (full of young people). Growing up, I only focused on singing (diff genres, acapella, choir) but I never learned any instrument. Now that I became a part of a growing band, I would like to ask my fellow musically-inclined people some tips and advices for our practice sessions. Tips on how to not be awkward given that I won't play any instrument while singing, tips on singing itself, tips on just performing, tips on how to get along well with the bandmates, what to do and what not to do, what to do on stage or when I'm in front, etc. You guys can just spit random tips, I'm not really picky :))

This is my first time in a while, hope you guys can be kind. Thank you so much!

I recently received a Bb Clarinet from my grandma. She bought it for me for Christmas, but I didn’t get it until now, and it’s my first time playing (the instrument itself. I know how to play clarinet). Is the squeaking something that’ll go away over time??? I’ve tried changing my embouchure several times, but it never seems to really work.

Hey everyone. I am a percussionist and educator who works with adult musicians, ranging from community concert band members to local gigging drummers.

A huge frustration I see across all types of bands is the practice room versus stage inconsistency. You can spend an hour nailing a drum fill or a tricky mallet run at home. But the second you sit down to play with the full band, the pressure hits, your hands freeze, and your playing feels completely random.

When this happens, it is easy to blame yourself. You start worrying about being the weak link holding the group back. Many of us try to fix this by grinding through mindless repetitions for hours, or we rely on vague advice to just listen and feel the groove.

The real issue is not your talent or your age. It is that we practice based on how things feel in a quiet room rather than relying on objective mechanics.

When you rely on feeling the music, your nerves will always hijack your performance under pressure. But physics like gravity, rebound, and stick height functions the exact same way on a loud stage as it does in your basement. When you learn to run a quick mental diagnostic on your physical mechanics instead of just hoping for a lucky rep, you can quickly course correct and eliminate that performance anxiety.

I love helping players figure this stuff out. What is the one specific groove, fill, or passage that always makes you second guess yourself when playing with your band right now?

Drop it in the comments and I will give you a diagnostic fix to try at your next practice session.

To go a bit more into detail than what I did in the description of this form, I want to create a band with digital representations of the band members similarly to how Gorillaz was made (except it was only one person). I want to be able to create original music and possibly do covers depending on certain aspects.

I don’t really care what genre we end up doing as long as it has a touch of rock within it. I do not have a band name yet that will be up to me as well as whoever else gets in. It’s just me on this project right now. I don’t really have much for it other than the concept of it, but if you are interested in this possibly becoming a thing, don’t be afraid to answer a couple questions so that I can determine whether you’re a good fit to what I’m thinking about for this project.