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"Band Director"


KeysB

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I play in a classic rock cover band and have over 45 yrs. of performing in all types of situations. I can also produce. My question is what exactly is the position of "band director"? I've been given the title but it seems that no respect is given to the responsibility. I do all the work on the demos (no one else is capable)and I am told that I do nothing to help book the band. HELP ME!
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Your main job is to have affairs with the underage students. Oh wait, that's Marching Band Director. My mistake. :laugh:

 

ain't that the truth!

 

As far as the title goes- I'd say that as BD you call the shots with what songs are going to be played/learned, arrangements, set list for gigs. It doesn't have to be band manager/ booking agent.

 

I'd rather not have more than 1 person handling bookings, it'd get too confusing. Maybe you send others out to do legwork for the bookings but there should be a single POC for the band who manages the schedule.

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I'd rather not have more than 1 person handling bookings, it'd get too confusing. Maybe you send others out to do legwork for the bookings but there should be a single POC for the band who manages the schedule.

 

The bands I'm working with have a pretty well defined "process" for booking gigs and encourage everybody to book them using that process. The process isn't all the complex - basically, we've got centralized calendar that everybody can access and a process that we use for getting everybody's commitment to a proposed date. We also have a standard performance agreement that everybody is expected to use.

 

The way we operate - any bandmate can book us - and serve as the client's point of contact for a given gig. Over the years, all of us have booked gigs - many of which we never would have gotten if we were relying on a single "business rep" to handle.

 

The guy who "owns" the gig handles ALL the customer contact - and brings the gig "requirements" to the band (i.e., location, start time, dress code, "special songs", event format, etc.).

 

Personally, I like the "everybody sells" approach since it spreads the load and gives everybody an incentive to help with marketing. We ALL know that if WE don't sell ... WE don't play. It discourages what I call the "sideman mentality" - which dumps the responsibility for marketing onto a single band member.

The SpaceNorman :freak:
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I like the idea that everyone in the band gets one main "extracurricular" duty, with help from everyone else.

 

With my band, I'm in charge of internet stuff and graphics (flyers, etc.), my guitarist is musical director, the drummer is our logistics guy, etc.

 

To me, "band director" sounds like you're in charge of everything the band does -- song selection, set lists, booking, promotion, logistics, treasurer, etc. Even if others contribute, the responsibility to see something done falls on your shoulders eventually, which means you're the guy negotiating with a venue that double-booked a night, or frantically calling around at the last minute for a trailer to borrow, etc.

 

If there's any "director" in the band, be the "musical director" -- make sure the songs are under everyone's fingers, and appropriate substitutions or re-arrangements are solid -- and leave the other stuff to the other guys in the band.

 

A band is a family, and everyone should pull their share of the weight according to their strengths.

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I'm sorry, the term I should have used is MUSIC DIRECTOR. It's a true pain in the butt just having people LISTEN to the material we are to put together at rehearsal They seem to want to come to rehearsal to learn the song, which, actually, turns out to be a waste of time. We do the arrangements as they were recorded. If we make any changes, you still have to KNOW the original so that you know what you're changing!
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Yeah, that position needs some teeth - i.e. authority to hire and fire. Then you can tell them they are expected to show up prepared, and if they are not, you'll let them go.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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I'm sorry, the term I should have used is MUSIC DIRECTOR. It's a true pain in the butt just having people LISTEN to the material we are to put together at rehearsal They seem to want to come to rehearsal to learn the song, which, actually, turns out to be a waste of time. We do the arrangements as they were recorded. If we make any changes, you still have to KNOW the original so that you know what you're changing!

 

Not coming to rehearsal prepared to play is simply unprofessional.

 

Learning material is "homework" and band rehearsal is to solidify everyones home efforts into one cohesive result. If your bandmate's insist on wasting everyones group rehearsal time, your job as musical director is to manage a solution to this.

 

The offending party (or parties) need to be spoken with and made to understand that coming to rehearsal unprepared is simply not acceptable.

 

If after some reasonable time, this situation doesn't improve, then it sounds like a personnel change may be necessary.

 

On the other hand, if there is NO expectation that this group will be run professionally, or it is a hobby band that guys want to get together once a week to drink beer and get away from their wives for a while, then that may be a different story.

 

Either way, your job as Musical Director is to see a way through this problem to some satisfactory result.

 

YMMV

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If people don't want to practice for a good musical result except at rehearsal, they'd better be good enough to afford that attitude, somehow, isn't it? Sounds like absorbing someone else's musical efforts otherwise, and a big mouth reversal attitude. Or a schoo lband for study points with bigger egos than musical abilities (as yet). At least not being able to play a song part by practicing oneself sounds not even right for a jam-band, so why bother with them, unless they're related or "condemned" to the same community?
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+1 to everything Meisenhower said. If you have a title that says "director" in it, I hope you also have the authority to go with it. Otherwise, what is your recourse? Out of curiosity, who gave you the title? Is this a new title/way of running things in an existing band, or a band you recently joined?

Original Latin Jazz

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"I am not certain how original my contribution to music is as I am obviously an amateur." Patti Smith

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Sounds to me like when the pigeon in "Catch the Pigeon" is almost put in a cage or supposed to put on a white collar, it's time to ascend to 10,000 feet or put on his afterburner, or for more down to earth comparisons when the band has such bad attitude it could be both a rock or a jazz leader should probably draw his/her conclusion and simply "move on".

 

I mean who would in the end want a bitter entertainer ? "Director" to me doesn't spell "leader" enough, necessarily. ANd the director of a fabric factory when WOII (III ?) breaks out isn't the same as the director CIA.

 

Theo.

 

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Sounds to me like when the pigeon in "Catch the Pigeon" is almost put in a cage or supposed to put on a white collar, it's time to ascend to 10,000 feet or put on his afterburner, or for more down to earth comparisons when the band has such bad attitude it could be both a rock or a jazz leader should probably draw his/her conclusion and simply "move on".

 

I mean who would in the end want a bitter entertainer ? "Director" to me doesn't spell "leader" enough, necessarily. ANd the director of a fabric factory when WOII (III ?) breaks out isn't the same as the director CIA.

 

Now WHO can argue with that ?

 

Wise words, clearly stated..... although not necessarily in the right order :facepalm:.

John.

 

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Sounds to me like when the pigeon in "Catch the Pigeon" is almost put in a cage or supposed to put on a white collar, it's time to ascend to 10,000 feet or put on his afterburner

 

:thu:

"The purple piper plays his tune, The choir softly sing; Three lullabies in an ancient tongue, For the court of the crimson king"
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MD is responsible for arrangements, organizing practice, and getting the musicians to perform to par, and possibly making the set lists. In some cases they might also be responsible for song selection; if not their input would be important.

 

However, in any small business, there's often a lot of flexibility in roles so that the job gets done. Make sure your responsibilities and authority are clearly spelled out. If you have no authority it would be hard to be a good MD.

 

Authority can be hiring and firing, or docking someone's pay for missing practice or being late or unprepared. Other than that, you're pretty much toothless. Of course, a good leader uses inspiration more than threats.

 

One thing that contributes to lack of home study is lack of planning and focus for rehearsal. If you pass out a list of 50 songs you can't expect everyone to be ready to play them all a day or two later. If you say exactly which songs will be practiced, they can focus their attention. Do everything you can to make it easy for them to be prepared.

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I agree 100% on everything that all of you have said. I make CD's. pass them out, arrange rehearsals to fit everyone's schedules, try not to learn more songs than everyone is cappable of learning and all that. Still stupid mistakes are stiil made. What is is? Lack of concentration, or do they just don't care? I've been a musician for 54 years and never seen anything like it!
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One thing that contributes to lack of home study is lack of planning and focus for rehearsal. If you pass out a list of 50 songs you can't expect everyone to be ready to play them all a day or two later.....

 

One of my projects has a tendency to struggle with this every now and then. To a large degree, I think that we all tend to assume that everybody is well versed about how to effectively communicate in writing. It's certainly a skill that needs to be developed. Some of my bandmates live in email as a facet of their jobs. Others use email almost exclusively as a social tool. Invariably it's our members who are on the "social use only" end of the continuem that seem to become a little "disconnected". Little things - like failing to explicitly acknowledge receiving a note asking everybody to confirm they're "IN" for a rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow night - can really be an obstacle to effective written communications.

The SpaceNorman :freak:
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