I'm starting my band, and its been hard trying to find a place to prat. and our bass player quit. We have lots of songs written and we just need some help with ideas and stuff so if any of you have started bands before please give me some info!!!

I was in one a few months ago, but felt like God was calling me to do my own thing. All the advice I can really give is practice a lot. In my last band we practiced 3 and sometimes 4 times a week depending on whether we had a show or not in the week. It really helps when everyone is on the same tempo and no one is speeding up or not.

As for finding a place to practice, it was pretty easy for me. I have a practice room in the basement. See if anyone in the band has a spot to practice. (ex. garage, basement, attic, local church, etc.)

There's really not much advice I can give you. :-\

-J

The most common place for practice for most bands is in an empty garage (Hence, the term "garage band"). Expecially in the summer once people start parking their cars outdoors, it opens up space for people to bring in drums, amps, ect. Also places, like Skillet_Head said, like basements make good rooms to play in so long as it's not disturbing to people above. I'm not sure where you live at, but around here, we live far enough away from everyone else that we can rock out and not be disturbed by some angry neighbor. Once you find a place, then practice your head off with the group and by yourself and whenever you can.

Money is also a big factor for any band because equipment doesn't come cheap. See about getting a summer job come June or whenever you get out of school. It will give you some decent money to buy some new gear and really prop your band up.

CJ

i noticed you said you have a lot of songs...

starting out, we do too. as lead singer / songwriter, i typed up a whole bunch of songs that i had written for us to do. in one practice, we would learn one, and then we'd learn another one, and then learn another one. it seemed that it needed a little more though...
because you really shouldn't have just one idea for the song and then tell the band, this is what it's going to sound like no matter what. on the other hand, you can't go in with no idea of what it should sound like, and have everybody just do what they want and go with it. you should go into practice and sit down with one song, and have a vision for that song. what it will sound like, and what the message is all about too. play it for the other band members, and show them just what you though everyone would do in it. play it through, and take suggestions. this is their band too. find out what they can vision in the song (any kind of break in the music, solos, whatever).

i noticed you said you have a lot of songs...

starting out, we do too. as lead singer / songwriter, i typed up a whole bunch of songs that i had written for us to do. in one practice, we would learn one, and then we'd learn another one, and then learn another one. it seemed that it needed a little more though...
because you really shouldn't have just one idea for the song and then tell the band, this is what it's going to sound like no matter what. on the other hand, you can't go in with no idea of what it should sound like, and have everybody just do what they want and go with it. you should go into practice and sit down with one song, and have a vision for that song. what it will sound like, and what the message is all about too. play it for the other band members, and show them just what you though everyone would do in it. play it through, and take suggestions. this is their band too. find out what they can vision in the song (any kind of break in the music, solos, whatever).



Hey my cousin has a band, go check out the website and see how a band works! www.unsungzeros.com (http://www.unsungzeros.com)

pray. get God in the center of it. that's crucial.