Importance?

[Doddy]

A good band is all a sum of it's parts,but the 'importance' of particular instruments depends on the band.
A singer is only important in vocal orientated music,otherwise they are irrelevant. There are great organ trios without bass players,great bluegrass bands without drums,great rock bands without keys,and so on.

Just as aside,depending on the music, a good percussionist can add so much to the music with a rhythmic triangle pattern.

[Conan]

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='1115886' date='Feb 4 2011, 08:58 PM']If the singer can't sing - and let's face it,[b] most[/b] of them can't - then you can forget it.[/quote]

Better?

Depends on the audience. Most of us on here are probably biased, but for most punters it's the primadonna, pouting, flouncing, huffy, lazy, egotistical bastard that most of us like to call the 'singer' that makes or breaks a band.

Obviously, instrumental music doesn't count.

[ZMech]

it depends what you mean by pivotal. If you mean is essential for a band to generally function, i'd say drummer, if you say most replaceable in terms of the public not minding, it would be the drummer. Whilst i'd agree most people would notice a bad singer more, they'd also feel something generally isn't right if it's a shoddy drummer.

[TheGreek]

Have a quick look at the stats above and think what the results might have been if this was on a guitarist's website!!

[Skol303]

This question depends HUGELY on the genre of music in question...

But in most cases I'd argue it's the vocalist who is the lynchpin of most bands - and this is certainly the case in terms of mainstream, popular music.

Teenagers rarely buy posters of their favourite bassists... or drummers! ;-)

[tauzero]

Two of my bands rely on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. If we had either a bad vocalist or a bad drummer, that would be the most noticable.

The third consists of melodeon, appalachian dulcimers, guitar. and bass. Generally speaking, the melodeon is the most important. We can make do with any two of the other three. However, melodeon isn't on the list of choices, which is a serious oversight. I imagine there's bassists for Peruvian nose flute bands looking in vain for "Peruvian nose flute" too, and "pan pipes" is mysteriously absent.

As for the duo of myself and Mrs Zero, that's hard - I've done an instrumental bit and she's done an acapella bit.

[Paul S]

Depends entirely on the type of music you play. Singer/frontman got my vote but I'd say that specifically for a good old fashioned heavy rock band a guitarist that can cut the mustard is probably more important.