Would there be any interest in a band leader forum?

[cphollis]

I can pretty much vouch that no such animal exists that I've found in my searches.  Unless you're leading a marching band, and then there's tons of great resources!

 

Two years ago I decided to start my own band, and learned while attending the school of hard knocks that you had to know a little about a whole lot of things, any one of which could trip you up.  Not only that, I thought there was some pretty bad advice out there as well.  I wouldn't want to be in a band where someone was following their advice, for example.

 

I decided to write up everything I had learned as a guide, and then posted it on KC here as well as the Nord user forum  More downloads than I expected, and a bit more positive engagement than I expected.  That suggests to me that there might an interest in such a forum.

 

While there are plenty of great places to hang out for musicians etc. -- where do band leaders go?  Every successful act has one.

 

Not sure what best practices exist here -- would it be a sub-forum somewhere, etc -- don't know.  But there's a gap out there -- I can vouch for that.

 

Thanks!

 

-- Chuck

 

 

[MAJUSCULE]

Not a bad idea, Chuck. No common denominator in instrument played, but so many common issues and obstacles faced regardless of level and region. I'd imagine there would be some interest, and perhaps a wider pull over time since, as you mentioned, it seems to be an unfilled niche.

[Notes_Norton]

I've been in a lot of bands over the decades. Usually the duties are spread out among the members, each one doing what they do best.

 

The person most capable of bargaining, wheeling and dealing typically acts as the band leader to the client, while others take care of the rest of the tasks that make a band work.

 

In a successful band I was in long ago, two of the guys acted as leader to the agents and club owners. Neither one was the "front man" and primary singer. We all collaborated on the music part, each giving what he could give best. We had our share of disagreements, but without hostilities.

 

There are exceptions. Sometimes a person who is a singer/front-person/business-person puts a band together, with him/her as the leader and the rest as side-musicians. That works if the leader is strong enough to do it all and keep the band working.

 

There is no 'one size fits all'.

 

If the forum was created, I'd probably visit it, and depending on content, I might add my own opinions.

 

Notes ♫

[cphollis]

Just as an example of *some* of the topics I encountered along the way, you might want to download this 1-page PDF that links to all the Google Docs where the content lives.  As far as forum topics, you could endlessly debate just about anything I wrote. 

 

It ended up being a lot more than I thought at the outset!!!

 

 

A_Guide_To_Starting_Your_Own_Local_Band_v1.1.pdf

[NewImprov]

A dedicated Band Business forum would be something I'd definitely read. I don't consider myself a leader in any of my bands, several of them are co-operatives, and there's lots of stuff related to booking, taxes, contracts, etc., that would be great to discuss.

[Notes_Norton]

Fortunately, both my sisters are CPAs. They tell me what I can deduct, and what I cannot. Their advice has been sound, we've been through 3 audits and came out all 3 with no problem.

 

It's best to play in the rules. There are enough deductions to lower your tax burden, but exaggerating to make it even lower isn't worth it.

 

Notes ♫

[timwat]

20 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

It's best to play in the rules. There are enough deductions to lower your tax burden, but exaggerating to make it even lower isn't worth it.

 

Notes ♫

As Jimmy Webb once wrote, "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress" (although he appropriated the title from Robert Heinlein).

 

And the IRS is a harsher one.

[timwat]

I think a band leader's sub forum could be interesting - although folks with actual working experience leading a band probably represents a small subset of the overall forum population.

[Nathanael_I]

I will follow it. It’s on the list for later this year or next for sure.

[cphollis]

Due to my personal situation, I would like to avoid an audit at all costs, so we deduct very conservatively when we do.  I learned this when deducting home office space.

[RABid]

Didn't we have a general band forum at one time? I seem to remember that it did not get as much use as I thought it would.

[Notes_Norton]

A general band forum might have more action than a band leader forum.

 

But it depends on how many members here are in bands.

 

I've been in bands since I was in Junior High School and have no intention of retiring.

 

Notes ♫

[Dave Bryce]

It’s not a problem to create a band leader forum. All we’d need is for one or more members of the community to volunteer to moderate it, and ideally to have some kind of plan to drive traffic to it.

 

dB

[cphollis]

10 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

It’s not a problem to create a band leader forum. All we’d need is for one or more members of the community to volunteer to moderate it, and ideally to have some kind of plan to drive traffic to it.

 

dB

I, for one, would be happy to moderate alone or with others.  Driving traffic is a bit more challenging, and would probably take a collaborative effort.  For example, I can think of a few relevant places where there would be some interest, but it would not be enough.  Others might know of other relevant places, perhaps adding more.

 

Not an easy answer to the second part!  Any best practices to crib from?

[Dave Bryce]

1 hour ago, cphollis said:

Not an easy answer to the second part!  Any best practices to crib from?

  
This may help

 

dB

[Anderton]

I'd vote for making it more general - about running a band, making it work, and of course, band leader-related issues.

 

Harmony Central had a band-oriented forum. During the site's heyday, it got a lot of traction but like everything else HC-related, it cratered after GC took over the site, and HC never really recovered. You might want to check out the link to see the kind of topics that were discussed. Would those kinds of topics be relevant to what's being batted around here?

 

Another consideration is that there are frequent band-related discussions going on in the Keyboard Corner, but I'm not sure the forumites there would click over to a different forum. Part of the reason for SSS is to provide a place for more OT-type threads so they won't dilute the focus of specific forums, but OT topics still tend to stick within specific forums. Band-related posts might also tend to stay within specific forums.

[Bobadohshe]

I think many of us have to run different iterations of bands at times. You'd have to define what 'band leader' means. If I lead a band on a casual am I a band leader? If my very busy Top 40 band makes all decisions democratically, are we all band leaders?

 

I think it's an oddly specific thing to drill down on and it would be served just in the general threads in various parts of the forum.

 

Others may feel otherwise.

[cphollis]

All good suggestions, but .....

 

Like many of you, I have been a participant in many bands over many years. 

 

Despite that experience, I was unprepared for what was involved in creating a band from scratch and making it successful.  In doing so, I had to learn a lot about a lot of different things, some of which are covered elsewhere, and much was not.  If you do it right, there's a lot to learn.  And there are a number of very important decisions you'll have to make along the way.

 

Being responsible for the ultimate success of a band is very different than being a participant.   Much like opening a small business, someone's gotta be in charge.   Making decisions democratically does not eliminate the need for a band leader.

 

Has anyone here actually done this as I have?  If so I would love to chat with you!   I would not be interested in a general band forum, other as a fun bitch session to see what other people were complaining about.

 

If there is not enough interest in a band leader forum, that's fine, I'll go back to commenting on the subtleties of the keyboard actions between different Nord models  

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, cphollis said:

Has anyone here actually done this as I have?  If so I would love to chat with you!   I would not be interested in a general band forum, other as a fun bitch session to see what other people were complaining about.

 

I think that's the crux of the matter - how large is the universe of people doing what you describe?

[RABid]

I really wish the site had a "All forums" feed much like Electronauts default forum page. It is compact, and feels like any other sub forum, but it is all forums in one stream. I've been playing around with the "Activity" section but it is not the same. I don't want to see a printed line every time someone likes a post. Nor do I want a separated paragraph format for every post that gets a response. Just a normal forum view that shows post of all forums. That would really help when my interest are SSS and Keyboard Corner and Guitars and Bass and Drums...

 

https://www.elektronauts.com/latest

[TommyRude]

14 hours ago, Anderton said:

I'd vote for making it more general - about running a band, making it work, and of course, band leader-related issues.

That would probably draw more interest.  Zooming out a bit to include "being in a band", i.e. being a leader, being a member, being a keyboardist in a band, how does being in a band work, being in a local band, being in a cover band, being in an original band, being in a national act, being-in-a-band do's & don'ts, tips & tricks et al.

[cphollis]

10 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

I think that's the crux of the matter - how large is the universe of people doing what you describe?

I did try and give that some thought, in rough groups.  You can guess for yourself how many people might be in each group.

 

Group 1: Leaders of active local musical performance groups.  I am presuming that most active bands have one or more people that act in some sort of leadership capacity.  Locally, I could name maybe 7-8 band leaders that I know, plus probably an equal number that I don't know.  And it's not a big town.  There are maybe 4x as many band leaders as, say, reasonable keyboard players.  Only a few would be interested in a forum like this.  You do find them online when changing up their PA gear, for example, or considering a big lighting purchase.  Low hit rate.

 

Group 2: People who are considering starting their own band or are actively in the process of doing so.  These people are easy to find on different forums, as they always ask the same questions about PAs, lights, rehearsal spaces, promotion and so on.  When you are doing all of this, you do a lot of searching, so these people would likely find any relevant forum that covers the topic well.  I have no idea how many are out there, but I've found a few between KC and the Nord User Forum.  The Live Sound subforum on Gearspace is pretty active with band leaders who run PA, as well as places like the forums for key products like QSC TouchMix, XR-18 and similar.   While there may not be many at any one time, the arrival rate of newbies is pretty regular.

 

Group 3: People who are in a non-leadership role in a band, and wish to provide advice to others on how to improve the experience.  There are a lot of people who are frustrated by their band situation, but aren't sure about why there is a problem, or what might be done about it.  These people are easy to find on different musician forums: guitars, vocalists, drummers, etc.  Lots of potential targets, but a low hit rate.

 

How large is the universe on these forums?  I don't know, other than the interaction I got on the KC thread, which was pretty decent.  I'd expect a proportional response on other performer-oriented forums.

 

My two cents!

[Dave Bryce]

17 hours ago, RABid said:

I really wish the site had a "All forums" feed much like Electronauts default forum page. It is compact, and feels like any other sub forum, but it is all forums in one stream. I've been playing around with the "Activity" section but it is not the same. I don't want to see a printed line every time someone likes a post. Nor do I want a separated paragraph format for every post that gets a response. Just a normal forum view that shows post of all forums. That would really help when my interest are SSS and Keyboard Corner and Guitars and Bass and Drums...

 

I believe I have good news.

 

On the main menu page where all the forums are listed, directly to the left of the START NEW TOPIC button in the upper right hand part of the page under the leaderboard ad banner are two boxes.  One of them shows the forum in the view everyone has come to know, and the other one shows all forums in one stream.  😎

 

dB

 

[RABid]

15 minutes ago, Dave Bryce said:

On the main menu page where all the forums are listed, directly to the left of the START NEW TOPIC button in the upper right hand part of the page under the leaderboard ad banner are two boxes.  One of them shows the forum in the view everyone has come to know, and the other one shows all forums in one stream.  😎

 

DAVE!!! YOU DA MAN! This is now my main landing page.