Difficulties in finding people to make music with.

soma1975

I'm an immature 41. Been playing 20-odd years. Just moved to SE London/Kent way.

Finding it very difficult to find likeminded people to make music with. 

Don't want to do it for a career. I love my career. Just want to jam/rehearse and play some live music. Maybe even record for the love of it. 

Love blues and blues/rock but also don't want to play polite gentle 12-bar shuffles and 'belt up to the armpit' polite music. 

I want to play Bluesbreakers tunes with wigged out fuzz solos, or Mac tunes with all the nice raw edges intact, or play  a Beatles song like a Smashing Pumpkins song. Or a Smashing Pumpkins song like a Cream song. 

To say I'm finding it hard to put the wheels in motions for this is a bit of an understatement. 

Everything either seems to be people who want to play Wonderful Tonight or people who want to play Slipknot. Not knocking either but it's not really what I want to play. 

I guess there isn't really the venue for this sort of thing these days unless you're established. And subsequently not the desire to play it. 

How would you go about trying to get people interested it something like this? 

Any advice gratefully received. 

TTony

@MikeDearing could probably introduce you into a "jam" meet (but - I believe - better organised than many), that happens not to far away from you.  Not as an end in itself, but maybe to introduce you to some other musicians in the area?

soma1975

Cheers Tony that might be a good start to be honest. 

EricTheWeary

I think there probably are venues but I'm guessing they're going to be Tuesday nights for beer money. My general feeling is that if you want to set the agenda musically then you have to do the leg work that goes with it - organising rehearsals, booking gigs,etc,etc. Mostly people want to turn up and play and to avoid the other stuff so if you take all that on other folk are more likely to slot in ( lots of guitarists on here who take on band leader roles). If you don't want to do that then having a more flexible approach to what you will play ( whatever belt up to the armpit music is!).

soma1975

Yep that's a very valid point about being proactive in making it happen. I've just been out of that world for a long time and so don't really know how/where to start. 

I'm absolutely flexible about the type of stuff I am happy to play - I just don't want it to be - for want of a better word - wet.  I could happily play early 90s US alt rock or fuzzy mid 60s blues/rock and a lot of things in between. When I think 'belts up to the armpit' I think of people playing 'Road to Hell' or 'Walk of Life' or 80s Quo. and the sort of music people would eat their Sunday carveries around. 

I'm not really fussed re beer money. If it paid for itself that would be cool but it' not a motivating force for me. Appreciate it almost certainly would be for other people that might be considering being involved. 

Thanks for your reply. 

EricTheWeary

I suspect the jam meet might be your best bet but there's JoinMy Band ( just expect a lot of crap to filter out) and farting around on Facebook long enough should eventually bring up a local musicians group. Basschat for, err, bassists. Have yet to find an active UK drummer's forum.

soma1975

Cool thanks. Will look into the jam. 

JoinMyBand and FindingBands etc have so far yielded no fruit. 

Not sure many drummers know about the internet yet so that might take a while. 

bobblehat

Just found a bass player on Join my band. The trick is to make your ad very clear about what your after and your expectations. If your just looking to Jam once a week and do the odd gig then say so. There will be alot of people that wont respond to ads if they think they have to commit to regular gigs and also worth putting your age in the ad. 

nick79

JoinMyBand worked for me, but it took a while. Lots of msgs to and fro with lots of people but eventually someone contacted me asking me to try out with their band. Ok, it's not the kind of music i set out to play but it's close enough for now. It's got me out there playing gigs and i guess in time will open other doors. 

I can see your point though, it is difficult to get a foot in the door. 

soma1975

I guess it's odd to be wanting to go through the faff of jamming/learning tunes/playing live while at the same time not being bothered about it going anywhere in particular and or turning a profit. Music-wise I am possibly better off recording some bits and pieces to give people a clue what I am talking about. 

Thanks for advice everyone. Now to find some likeminded weirdos

bobblehat

soma1975 said:

I guess it's odd to be wanting to go through the faff of jamming/learning tunes/playing live while at the same time not being bothered about it going anywhere in particular and or turning a profit. 

Not at all , I do just that and you'd be surprised just how many musicians want to be able to play in a band without the hassle and pressure of being in a regular gigging pub band. It gives you the freedom to play what you want and not have to play Sex on Fire or "rocked up" Katy Perry numbers to keep half a dozen piss heads happy. 

soma1975

Hmmm.. Didn't think of it like that.

tabbycat

you're at that awkward age/stage. don't want to be the hot new thing and don't want to be an old hack either. so clearly that rules out a lot of people. bear that in mind.

also (as mentioned above) a lot of people think they want to be in a band until they are. family and other commitments have to come first when you have them. some people are 'people pleasers' or over-optimistic about the time they can realistically commit. when they say 'i want to be in your band' they mean 'i'd like to have the time to be in your band'.

some people use fantasies about performing as a rationale to justify spending so much money on gear, to themselves or partner. 'i can't possibly go on stage with a behringer, etc' and buying strymon. always one piece of expensive kit away from ever being ready. the joy of shopping and owning replaces the joy of creating and playing.

as you are new to your area, if you haven't done it already, work out where the musical hubs are. music shop staff and noticeboards still a great way to hook up. often it won't be the big music shops but the little ones doing interesting cheap second hand stuff that are the heart and soul. we've got a great little one in my home town. the guy who runs it has been in the scene all his life, knows absolutely everyone. every time i go in there is something being fixed up, thing breaking up and coming together. local musicians really get behind his little shop and try to buy stuff there, rather than at big places or online, because he gives the local scene an essential focus.

go to venues, network and head-hunt, to get your face and your agenda out there. find musicians you like in various bands and keep an eye on them, keep a mental list, or dream team. things breaking up after a handful of gigs is not unusual, a lot of musical chairs going on.
then you make your offer. ethically speaking, i think it's better to wait for things to break and move in, rather than steam into perfectly functioning set ups and start making offers that lead to break ups. that's a good way to get ostracised. like relationships. obviously if you are at a gig talking to the drummer and they say i hate my band, then you can engineer something, but keep it clean.

worth watching the facebook pages of bands with members you like (if you don't like the band enough to follow their page anyway). line up changes appear there.

happy hunting.

soma1975

Thanks for taking the time to post and absolutely yes this is the annoying age/stage. Still wanna use fuzz pedals and make a racket but like pubs where I can hear myself think and have a chat

To be completely honest I've not even found anywhere local playing proper live music yet outside a local folk/blues get-together let alone found a 'scene'. That should be first on the agenda.

Also, I'm realistic that nobody knows me and the only thing I have to offer is that it might be fun and we might make some cool music. So you're absolutely right to say I should introduce myself and at least get the first bit out of the way so it doesn;t seem like such  a gamble for a bunch to meet up at some point. 

Thanks again though. 

 

NPP

I've been thinking about ways back into playing with a band a lot and come to the conclusion that I don't want to gig at all - if I could just find people to learn and enjoy songs with that would be sufficient for me. The concept of a non-gigging band doesn't really seem to exist though - and it's easy to see why people wouldn't want to commit the time and money to it. 

soma1975

haha we should start a band noticeboard for people who have varying levels of not wanting to achieve anything except play with other people 

TTony

NPP said:

I've been thinking about ways back into playing with a band a lot and come to the conclusion that I don't want to gig at all - if I could just find people to learn and enjoy songs with that would be sufficient for me. The concept of a non-gigging band doesn't really seem to exist though - and it's easy to see why people wouldn't want to commit the time and money to it. 

That pretty much ticks my boxes.

Maybe a very occasional friends & family fun type show, but not an every Friday night in a pub nowhere-near-home schedule.  Mainly just for the self-satisfaction of setting out to learn something, learning it, practising it as a band, and sounding half decent.

I did have something like that going (drummer, nextdoor but one), but said drummer threw a strop, and his sticks away.

soma1975 said:

haha we should start a band noticeboard for people who have varying levels of not wanting to achieve anything except play with other people 

There are far dafter threads on here ...

Plectrum

This need for commitment, which I don't have, is why I do open mikes. It is solo performing though and I know that not everyone is comfortable doing that.

Roland

It's been said before: Being in a band is simple, you just have to turn up and play. Step one is very difficult, and most people can't manage it alongside all their other work and family commitments. 

There's a definite demand for people who just want to play, or to learn songs together. It does take a while to find them. Over the years I've used Joinmyband, Gumtree, advertisements in music shops, meeting people at jam sessions, and word of mouth. Patience, hard work, and luck are the usual requirements