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time wasters on join my band ( website)


synthaside
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A couple of observations from me:

1) You're better off uploading sound clips to soundcloud and including a link - that allows them instant access to see what you're about and make a decision about whether to respond to you.

2) Weekly rehearsals would be a turn off to many particularly if you're paying for a studio (would they be expected to chip in?)

3) "Zany singing drummer" brings up images of The Animal from the muppets, if I was a female lead singer I'd be rather afraid of that.

4) I'd take out the back story of your previous singer. It's enough to say that you're looking for a permanent lead singer.

5) I think you need to have some kind of unique selling point for why someone would want to be in your band and make sure its in your email pretty high up - Do you look like models? Include a photo or link to the website with photos. Are you great musicians? Include a soundcloud link. Do you have a brilliantly well thought out set list? Give them a taste. Have you got a couple of interesting gigs lined up?....etc

I think your email is good in that it gives lots of comprehensive info about your band, who you are and what you're looking to do. The downside is that it also comes across quite strongly in the email that you're hobbyists (nothing wrong with that, so am I!) and that you don't necessarily have a lot of gigs booked at the moment.

If you're looking for an experienced singer, you're going to need to sell yourselves a bit more and swing the reward vs effort more in favour of the reward! Most gigging musicians will want to be with a band who have a clear game plan for getting well paid gigs and where the members are experienced/tight enough that weekly rehearsals aren't necessary, particularly if its going to cost money to rehearse.

Good luck! Its frustrating finding band mates, particular at the "competent weekend warrior" level as you're caught between the stool of wanting someone pretty decent but without necessarily being able to offer lots of well paid gigs.

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The reference to weekly rehearsals in Ashford makes me think of Ashford in Kent, if I didn't know there was also an Ashford in Essex (and until 5 minutes ago, I didn't) then I would think that was an awful long way to go for a rehearsal each week.

Edited by darkandrew
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The reference to sloppy spelling, grammar, etc. intrigues me. As a gut reaction, I completely agree however on Basschat I have noticed that a disproportionate number of members commit grievous crime against English remarkably often (including those who have, in the past, railed against linguistic standards), even when they are in other regards reasonably eloquent. I wonder to what extent it is still true that musicians have a disproportionate number of semi-literate and/or dyslexic people in their numbers.

This certainly used to be true in the 70s and 80s but I haven't seen any more recent studies on the distribution of literacy skills.

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I happen to disagree with most who tell you not to mention zany etc. If thats what he is then there's no surprises for auditionees. Best to be totally upfront or you will be auditioning and people will see a zany guy and think wtf and be off.
To be honest JMB is renowned for being full of wannabes and wasters because its free.
My advice is to pay for a featured advert and ask those interested to provide a tel number.

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[quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1456514743' post='2989967']
The reference to weekly rehearsals in Ashford makes me think of Ashford in Kent, if I didn't know there was also an Ashford in Essex (and until 5 minutes ago, I didn't) then I would think that was an awful long way to go for a rehearsal each week.
[/quote]

Ashford Middlesex. Supposedly Surrey now, but it will always be Middlesex to me. I went to school there.

:-)

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[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1456607695' post='2990791']


Ashford Middlesex. Supposedly Surrey now, but it will always be Middlesex to me. I went to school there.

:-)
[/quote]

Well I'm certainly not going there every week for a rehearsal - even if I could sing. Edited by darkandrew
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[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1456654383' post='2990998']
I saw an advert on gumtree last week for a bass player and the ad said that you'd didn't have to be any good or own a bass, the most important thing was that you could bring people to gigs...
[/quote]

I saw that advert as well Rob. I'm not sure if I was crying with laughter at it or just at my seemingly wasted life. There was me under the misguided apprehension that you should practice and progress as a musician. If only I'd known that all it took to succeed in the music business was to be popular with my high school year and have lots of likes on "the book of faces."

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1456492488' post='2989579']
'Actor' = unemployed.
[/quote]

This is exactly the kind of rubbish that's ruining BC these last few decades.
Everybody knows that demimondaine street courtesans of the night are not unemployed!
:D

Edited by BassTractor
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[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1456662126' post='2991110']
There is of course a considerable pedigree in not needing to play your instrument in order to succeed; just as being able to play your instrument is no guarantee of success.
[/quote]

Very true, I know a few outstanding rock guitarist that don't have what it takes to work with others or be in a band.So their talent unfortunately never leaves the bedroom.

Blue

Edited by blue
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[quote name='synthaside' timestamp='1456486729' post='2989480']
Hey folks , My Ashford (middlesex) based covers band are looking for a new female vocalist due to our current one suffering from a very welcome but rapidly debilitating case of pregnancy .

Cue lots of grief with me messaging people on various services like join my band , gum-tree etc.
So many people just don't respond ... they read the message responding to their advert. In my opinion pretty much bang on for what they are asking for and just ignore it , Join my band has a nice (this user has read your message feature ) so you know they are actively choosing not to not respond ... I'm starting to think its Me , scaring people off.

Generalised response to hide details of the users I've messaged .

[size=1]Hi, We’re Vinyl Frontier a covers band who are losing our female vocalist to her upcoming pregnancy. While we're all very supportive of her and don't want to replace her we understand that she’s looking to step back, and as she should with a little one on the way.

This means we are looking to find someone to front the band and sing twin vocals with our rather zany singing drummer, we’ve recorded a demo / sampler which is currently being mastered and if you’re interested it I can send it over to you when the mastering is finished.

We're all working professionals aged from 30 to one very childish 40 year old. 3 of us are from Chertsey and the other 2 from the Kingston area. We practice once a week on a Thursday evening at a studios in Ashford. Ultimately were looking to enjoy ourselves doing this , It’s not going to be a major source of income or career for any of us we all work full time soy the aim is to gig around at least once a month on average.

Music/ song wise, we will try to tackle anything people suggest usually by group consensus . Three of us have also been in originals bands and are quite capable writers So would not be against doing originals. At the moment we were focusing on floor-fillers for a few weddings, things like uptown funk, Love shack, a bit of Blondie, foo fighters, Bryan Adams /Mel C and the killers, but we've previously done a bit of everything from RATM through to punked up Jungle book tracks for a Disney themed Christmas party.

If your interested in sending over your gig recordings as mentioned , either email me at * email removed * or drop me a message on here for a chat.[/size]
[/quote]
One thing about join my band - the message storage is apalling - you fill your inbox up with sent messages and only get about 20 - so check your inbox usage.

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[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1456760883' post='2991963']
'musician' is a much abused term ....I stopped trying to tell peeps that I was a DJ ages back, these days, if pushed, I might admit to running a Sound System - that's usually obscure enough.

:yarr:
[/quote]Probably best if you were a radio DJ in the 70`s

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To be honest I'm not overly bothered about which road it is... any road would do so long as there is a decent hedge to dump me in... doesn't even have to be a motorway, any old nondescript B road would do. :mellow:

I've also decided that before I am fly tipped in a hedge I'd like a brief funeral with a series of short eulogies read by people I'd only briefly had contact with...

"Rob seemed alright... I once stood behind him in the queue in Greggs"
"I once sat next to Rob on the 6.47 to London Marlyebone... he's quite fat and took up half my seat"
"Rob was trying a P bass in Wunjos when I popped in to buy some strings one time... he was s**t"

that sort of thing... :mellow:

Edited by CamdenRob
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Been casually nosing round for a new project since mid January. One bunch of guys posted an ad on JMB and gave example songs which looked Ok, stuff I could cope with. Eventually got a phone number and spoke to a band member. The idea was they would start off with mostly covers, bring in original material with a long term aim of doing all own material eventually. These weren't kids either, but here's where it all started to sound a bit bizarre. They had been together about 9 months and had so far worked out about 6 covers to do, he reckoned they were nowhere near gig ready and that would be another '12-18 months' (!!). Then invited me to a jam the following day but said it would cost me £6 for my share of rehearsal room. Then later told me they actually wanted to work on original material without me first so I needn't bother turning up until 4:30pm. Then later told me one of them had to go at 5pm but i could still turn up for half an hour and they would waive the £6 which I though twas really big of them (I'm not making this up, honest). He finally told me they were not bothered about doing paid gigs so if I was looking to earn anything it probably wasn't for me. Needless to say I'm still looking.

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Hi. We're a covers band based in Kingston playing Blondie, Foo Fighters (rest of list).... Rehearsing once a week and looking to do wedding/function/party gigs once a month on average.

.

Edited by TimR
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