Band meetings

Andy

Honorary Member
Just for general curiosity / interest / S&G, I'm wondering how most band meetings are constructed, & typical issues discussed?

Here's a copy of basic minutes taken from our meeting yesterday. We usually have a curry night circa once a year, & this year, it fell 3 gigs in with our new bassist (for minutes reference, that's Rick).

1/ Marketing: Discussed general subject of split act marketing to achieve event focussed presentation, plus current efforts to reach out to event organisers / feedback, etc. Work will continue on the website rework & production of a live draft for all to review as soon as possible.

2/ Need for new band photo’s: Rick suggested shots to green screen so we can add any background / context we want - great idea. I use small scale green screen regularly for all kinds of stuff, but Rick has a large full width / depth setup, so offered to do the shoot at his location. I’m looking into the viability of one or two really good photographers I know for optimum results. It’s a worthwhile investment, as green screen means we can use the same selection of shots in multiple contexts for years to come. Will report back.

3/ IEMs: Agreed need to nail down IEM use policy. Essentially, it’s easy enough when we’re running our own gig (increasingly less frequently), but we’ve never spent time to fully optimise setup to everyone’s satisfaction. At event gigs where we have no control of available gear, it’s not so straight forward without advance notice of Aviom A-net16 via CAT5, as systems vary wildly. IEM also adds time to rapid changeovers in some environments. IEM at events needs a gig by gig approach that we agree / arrange ahead of each event. We plan to have an IEM rehearsal to run through both our in house system, plus imitate a typical event system to test for resilience.

4/ Songs: We had a general discussion around what boxes a new song needs to tick for consideration - both "pop to rock" & rock songs. We agreed its what we can do with the songs to Fired Upize them, rather than how they’re currently positioned. We agreed to continue with Journey Separate ways. Rick produced a list of circa 20 songs he’s researched in terms of popularity / potential, & will circulate that list later.

5/ Tempo: Both starting tempos & maintaining tempo through certain pinch point songs. We talked about how to integrate click support on drums to assist with both of these challenges without impacting the natural energy / freedom of a performance. Tech discussion on intermittent IEM & click assistance integration. I have a Boss DB90 that I’ll selectively test out in upcoming rehearsals. This also rolled into a chat on show organisation to ensure maximum impact / slick song transition. Agreement to rehearse full show / show variants once new song groundwork is done.

6/ Stage dress: Rick asked if we had a policy on stage dress. We discussed that we want to avoid anything with a sniff of cabaret. We agreed a more conscious effort should be made re: uniformity, but that drummers are universally less aesthetically important (JK)

Later,
 
We discuss a lot of similar things at rehearsal like new songs, arrangements, clothing choices for certain upcoming gigs ( no jeans for some).
I like the idea of eating!!!! I could use a good curry right now myself. You have band meetings outside of rehearsal? We just discuss on the phone or text a lot of info back and forth. Are you serious that you take minutes though?
 
Re: Website. I know a guy. In Germany. The northern-ish part.

Re: IEM & click. Only you and Rick get a click. Let the others ride bareback.

Re: Clothing. Function over form is all I got on that.
 
Well?...we HAVE had band meetings. Very few. Being in a corporate 8 piece horn band when a meeting is called it generally has to do with are we willing to travel 100 or more miles..would we accept an outdoor wedding gig...always paying good it's more of an accept or reject. If we are super busy sometimes members want a break. We were so busy years ago I didn't have a free weekend with my fiance to just go out..grab a bite and just chill. It became a job after so long. When a band MEETING was called it could sometimes end up with flared tempers. It was like uh oh...shit...whats going on now.
 
They tend to be very few and far between. We're good mates off stage so business and pleasure don't mix.

Bad experiences of them in the past. They usually involve some tosspot with a borderline messianic complex venting at everyone else for their own shortcomings.
 
I think this is great! These topics exist and so they might as well be formally discussed and actually progress toward resolution rather than casually mentioned and stagnate. And minutes stored in a shared drive lets everyone refer back to them. It's awesome. Thanks for sharing!
 
ours happen after practice, usually over homemade guac and other snacks. They are just summary meetings, and babble about life. We also have a group text to cover spur of the moment things...

when we get gigs, the first practice after accepting the gig is when we make the plans for that gig. We discuss, come up with, and then run through the set list; we arrange logistics for the day...the next gigs are spent running the set list, and/or planning for other gigs when they come up.

I guess you could say our meetings are running all the time
 
We usually discuss that kind of stuff before or after rehearsal or by group text. The only time we felt the need to have a sit down meeting was as a kind of intervention to discuss the singers drinking at gigs. That happened twice.
 
I do practice report to write down what went well and what we have to improve. I did several band meeting but may times, people are just in to play and didn't want to be involved in anything more than just playing...and usually they don't last long because being successfully in a band (even if the band is not very sucessful) is way more than just playing!!!
 
Ours are very similar but on our skills/budget level. One thing- live bpm is so much more flexible than a click, maybe on a tablet that all can see?
 
I like the idea of eating!!!! I could use a good curry right now myself. You have band meetings outside of rehearsal? Are you serious that you take minutes though?
Like all bands, we discuss at rehearsals & by email frequently, but we also see value in a dedicated meeting, & chatting over a curry & beers is most conducive to positive outcomes. Minutes produced are just bullet / action points that everyone can refer back to. We typically assign tasks too so that workload is shared as much as is practical.
Re: IEM & click. Only you and Rick get a click. Let the others ride bareback.
We're going for just drums to metronome for now, & everyone can hang off me. Even then, the plan is only for certain songs & some especially sensitive starting tempos.
Wow, an impressive and organized meeting, with 'minutes taken'. Clearly an organized group. But every image or vid I've seen of FU shows such great organization.
Thanks, but don't be fooled by what appears on the surface - there's a ton of dysfunction in the background that's filtered out ;)
 
We have lots of meetings, at least one a week. We discuss upcoming gigs, marketing, promotional tools, clothes, what new songs to learn, what equipment to buy, and anything else that we want to talk about. The manager and her friends cook dinner for us.
 
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Heheh. In all seriousness, I don’t ever recall having an official band meeting to discuss that stuff. Usually stuff like : tempos ,etc is usually discussed during rehearsals.
Now , I haven’t been an “official” band member since the mid nineties so ....all of what I do is hired guy stuff with singer/ songwriters (and some bands )and all of that stuff is pretty much decided for me.
 
We usually discuss that kind of stuff before or after rehearsal or by group text. The only time we felt the need to have a sit down meeting was as a kind of intervention to discuss the singers drinking at gigs. That happened twice.
This.
Once attitudes, girlfriends or alcohol affect the music, it's time for a Sopranos style sit down.
Other than that, text & email is key.
 
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