Joining a band

Good luck with your show tonight, Rich. You deserve it (but hopefully, you won't be needing luck) :)

I agree with Steve. It's a shame to see this adventure end. It's been too much fun to read about it for the last 8 weeks. And please try and get some video footage, so we can enjoy the show as well :) You might as well try to please those of your fans that can't make it (sadly, travelling halfway across the world to see one guy play a few songs isn't a viable option...) :)

Thanks Kasperow!! I'm pretty certain there will be video, but it may be a few days or so before it's ready to be posted. I've been practicing enough that luck shouldn't be a factor :-).

As this adventure closes, a new one will be starting as we start putting together a "real" band. We may have a singer/keyboard player now :-).

Since there seems to be so much genuine interest in this, I'll create another thread to share my adventures in the new band once that gains some traction.

Thanks for the well wishes - I really appreciate it.

It's late, but I want to capture this while the feeling is still fresh with me.

First off, it didn't go perfectly. But you know what, we recovered well, kept it going, and listening to the recording, it was nowhere near the train wreck we thought it was originally. Our vocalist didn't join us until last night and got lost in the lyrics of "Hard to Handle". In the moment, I thought I may have missed my cue for the first solo. We faked our way through it, though I balled up the solo...though nowhere as bad as I thought. My other concern was how we would end "Long Train Running" since it required a signal from the singer to me, and then from me to the band. That didn't seem to bad in the moment, but sounded worse than the "Hard to Handle" mess up.

The important thing was we just moved on. The audience didn't care, and we still had fun! My improvised solos weren't as good as in practice, but again...the audience didn't care. I know I could do it - I did it the night before. A combination of lack of sleep from being hyped up the night before and adrenaline on stage prevented me from being totally on top of my game. The rhythm though was tight! And we had fun!

Video will come in the next few days...but I wanted to say it went well, even though it wasn't perfect.

As far as nerves go, I wasn't nervous at all surprisingly enough. I worked through all of that the last time. I had fun!!!

As soon as the video is ready, I'll post a link here.

And onto the next chapter...

Thats great! I look forward to the video.

Hi Rich, glad to hear you guys nailed the gig - and who wants perfect? What we want is live music played with feeling by dedicated musicians, flaws and all (even if we notice!). Looking forward to the film! Congratulations! Steve

Thanks Steve!! You know, I agree...who wants perfect. The flubs add a sort of charm to it - these are ones you'll notice :-). As Hard to Handle started falling apart, we start discussing what is going on. It's amazing we kept it together. Funny how a band becomes like an organic thing that kind of drives itself, especially in situations like that.

Still waiting on video. As soon as it is available, I'll post it :-). I'll have to tell our drummer, whose husband shot the video, that my international fan base is patiently waiting for video :-).

So, for those of you that are interested, here is the video of our final performance:
http://youtu.be/0mFsHAfLkp0

We went by "Designation: Unknown". The name seemed to go down well. Certainly more creative than "The Band With No Name". :-).

I'm the guy playing the strat with the Beatles shirt on. I found a way to incorporate The Beatles into our performance :-).

The setlist is:
- Wild Night (like before)
- Hard to Handle
- Long Train Running
- Heard it Through The Grapevine (Gladys Knight version)

It wasn't a perfect performance, but we handled it well. Honestly, that's the part I feel the best about. We played those songs soooo many times, we obviously knew the songs. But when one person lost their way a bit, the rest of the band kept things moving and we got back in sync.

I also have a new respect for live improvisation. No matter how much you prepare or work out a framework, things still happen. It's another way of breaking out of your patterns :-).

So, enjoy!!! Look for a new thread from me about a new band that the drummer and I are trying to put together. So far there seems to be a good amount of interest for people to join our merry little band :-).

Thanks again to all that have followed this and provided encouragement!! It's been a real adventure and I'm so glad I decided to get on for the ride.

Cheers!

That was great!! Good job!

That sounded very great. I honestly didn't notice any mistakes during the set, if anything, it sounded "Live". Then again, I don't really know any of the songs aside from "Long Train Running", and that's only because the radio loves to play it (I didn't know what song it was by the title, though...). Looks like you were all having fun, and that's what matters most :) I'll look forward to following "Chapter 2" of your great musical adventure from the sideline :)

Thanks you guys - I really appreciate the feedback!!! Glad to hear you couldn't hear the rough spots Kasperow. Just goes to show you that as a player, you notice mistakes WAY more than your audience does. I'm just happy that my fumbles remained in key! I think that's where practice comes in - your fingers just start to know where they need to go without thinking about it.

Thank you for posting your adventure and sharing the link to the video. I’ve enjoyed dropping in and reading along. There are little mistakes in all of the songs, but for only 8 weeks and all it takes, it is pretty good.

I see you’re the stage leader, you did a good job. Picking new band members is an art, some will say and act as they think they need to join for a few months and then just go. They got whatever they were after and move on.

Personalities have to match; it does not take long for people to start grading on each other.

Good luck on your next adventure!

Hey Haghj -

Thanks for watching and commenting! If you heard the rehearsal the night before, you'd be amazed we did as well as we did! :-). The end of Long Train Running I knew was going to be a mess because that was left fuzzy the night before...we ran out of time. In a way, I'm glad it happened so I got to experience it and know that I can work my way out of it without it being the end of the world. Hard to Handle is another example.

I see you picked up on my guiding the others. I'm glad you think I did a good job of it. I fell into that role...somebody has to do it and people seemed more than happy to let me do it.

We are just starting out picking out members. Next week we are trying out another guitar player with lots of band experience and the following week a bass player with similar experience. Yes, this is going to be fun :-). I agree personalitites have to match or complement eachother. We are focusing more on that than skill. If their skill level isn't quite up to what we are doing, I have no problem having them develop in the band as long as their personality meshes with ours and has a good attitude.

Congratulations Rich on the performance (and the appreciative audience response) - only just saw the video. Unlike some of the other guys, you seem incredibly relaxed, despite the underlying nerves. A very good sign for the next stage! Best of luck with the recruitment - you're a good guitarist, as well as an inspiring blogger. Yours, Steve

Thanks for checking out and commenting on the video Steve!! Believe it or not, I really wasn't nervous this time around. I was a bit anxious because I wanted it to go well, but I didn't experience that rising nervous feeling within like the last time. Even after things didn't quite go so well, my nerves didn't kick in. I thought I was relaxed the first time around, but not really when I go back and look at it compared to this.

Many people have told me the same thing - keep going...learn more songs and get out there and play. In the process I hope to continually improve my skill.

I look forward to playing in a situation where I can see the audience. The applause at the end is nice, but it would be good to see if people are moving
to the music - heads bobbing, air guitar, singing along, etc. The stage lights in this situation blind and cook you (it got HOT up there!).
I dawned on me that this thread has basically turned into a blog. It's fun...and I'm glad people enjoy reading.

Cheers!