How many pieces?

Simple four piece.

Drum
Lead guitar
Rhythm guitar
Bass <- most likely the vocalist
 
id love to be a solo artist with robots to play along with me. that way, all the proceeds go to me.

but in the real world, id like a number that is a denominator of 100, since that's as much any starting band ever gets paid.

so 2, 4, or 5.
 
5pc is pretty standard across soooo many genres. However, my ideal band that would play only music i had in my head would be:

3 guitars, dual lead and a rhythm guy
Bass
Drums, aux percussion, marimba
keys
1 clean male vocals
1 clean female vocals
1 black metal raspy growler
1 alto sax
1 tenor sax
1 trumpet
1 hip hop beat producer

Prolly could double up some of those voices into one person.
Purely for the studio... screw trying to get a gig with all those schedules.
 
OK. We talk a lot about how many drums and cymbals is enough. How about the size of the band? if you could put together the "YOUR NAME HEAR" BAND, what would it be?

Mine would be...

I would love to put together a four piece band with, (1) Drums, (2) Bass, (3) Guitar, and (4) Violin.

The type of music we would play would be a varied cross from many genre.. All of us Monster cats able to tear it up. I love things simple but full and the violin is such an awesome voice to add to an ensemble...

I don't sing so hopefully at least 2 of the other 3 will. But, we would still do a fair share of instrumental stuff.

I've actually played in an ensemble with that instrumentation! It was more or less rockabilly music.

The last group I played in had the same violinist, but was much bigger -- bass, guitar, keyboard, sax, violin, and drums.

For me, the ideal instrumentation really depends on what type of music you're playing.
 
In a perfect world, I'd do a three piece:

Lead guitarist
Drummer (Me)
Keyboard

Somewhere in there, I'd like a female vocalist and a male vocalist that are about equally strong. It'd make for interesting possibilities for duets, counter-singing, doing songs for a specific gender voice, etc. Plus vocalists tend to write lyrics, which would make having both perspectives great. If I had to choose, I'd go with female vocalist, though.

Having a keyboard serves two purposes: 1) They can pump out a constant bass line, thus eliminating a bassist (who usually gets mixed down to oblivion in recordings) and 2) Open up a whole spectrum of music that deviates from the standard rock formula. I don't know if a keyboard could cover the jobs of both the bassist and the rhythm guitarist, though.

I dunno, in my head this seems like a good idea. One guitar so not everything is drowned out in volume, and each instrument has it's own voice that can be heard but also blends together well. As for the musicians... three seems like it'd be easier to get along, easier to get to know each other and share times and thoughts, better for writing and performing...

In the end, it really is more about the personalities and skills than the number of pieces. I'll take a six piece group with a mix of egos if they can play, are friendly and the vocalist doesn't sound like a pre-teen screaming.
 
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