How I Got Into a Band

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Greetings Bass Buzzers! Some time ago there was a fantastic post on this forum by someone who’d gotten into a band as a beginnerish-level bass player. I think they’d finished the BtB course, but I’m not sure. This person shared the post they made on CraigsList and gave some great advice. I’ve looked high and low, but I can’t find the thread. If anyone has a link to it, or knows who made the original post, please let us know, so they can get credit, and people can check out the original thread, which had a lot of great information in it.

So I took the post this person had made and edited it for myself. I started getting responses within 24 hours. This is really interesting, because I’d been watching CraigsList for months, and never saw a post by someone looking for a bass player that I fit. So I thought maybe they weren’t out there, but when I made my post, I got multiple responses very quickly. Now I’m an intermediate player, but the original poster had a similar experience as a beginner.

I’ve since joined a band which I love and is a perfect fit for me. I thought I’d pay it forward to this community who’s been a lot of help to me. So here’s what I learned and why I think I was successful (I’ll also share the post I made on CraigsList).

  1. I was very honest and clear about both my ability level, and what I was (and wasn’t) looking for. E.g. I talked about my level of commitment to practicing, and listed genres of music I was/wasn’t willing to play.

  2. I made the post light-hearted in tone to (hopefully) convey that I’m a laid-back, easy-to-work-with bass player (both are true, and by the responses I got, this worked).

  3. I said I was willing to just get together and jam. I think this was key. I ended up jamming with a few people before I found the band I joined. I wouldn’t’ve gotten to jam with those guys if I’d said I was only interested in joining a band. I got to meet some musicians in the area. Who knows when I might need a guitar player?

  4. I posted a list of songs I know, and songs I’m working on. I think this was pretty key too, because it both shows my ability level and also a taste of the types of music I like. In my case, it also showed my eclectic taste in music.

  5. I mentioned I was looking for any skill level. This helped as some of the guys who got ahold of me and I jammed with were fairly green as well. They woudn’t’ve contacted me if I hadn’t mentioned that.

So here’s the post I made. Again, I copied this from another person on this forum and edited it to suit me. So hopefully that person or someone else will see this and let us know who made the original post and can hopefully link to it. I wish I remembered or could find the post so I could give credit.

Intermediate Bass Player Looking for Drummer/Guitarist/Vocals for Jams, Band

Hi All!

I’ve been into music my whole life. I played trumpet through grade school, high school, and college. I took up playing bass a few years ago. I’m pretty dedicated, and have the time, so I’ve been taking lessons and practicing a lot.

Looking for drummers, guitarists, and/or vocalists at ANY level to hang with. Let’s get better together! I am fine with jam sessions, collaborating, learning songs, playing covers, creating music, whatever the vibe.

I’m 48, but tend to get along well with anyone from their 20s to their 70s. I’m into music of many different genres, and I’m pretty open-minded and willing to try new things. Some of my favorite types of music include rock, blues, R&B, funk, EDM, and pop. About the only types of music I don’t want to play are metal (I don’t have the chops), country, or Christian music.

So hit me up, and let’s see if this can work. I have the gear I need, but unfortunately I don’t have access to a good practice space.

Someone told me this is like dating—you just have to see who’s out there and try! I’m willing to invest real time into this if I can find a band to be a part of and we’ve got chemistry. I’m also willing to play gigs if that’s what people want to work toward. But it’s cool to just play for fun and for knowledge and practice as well.

Tell me about you! What are you into? What do you want to do with music? What types of musicians are you looking for?

Thanks for reading, and best wishes to you.

Songs Known
1.	Another Brick in the Wall part 2 – Pink Floyd (drop D)
2.	Bad Moon Rising – CCR
3.	Blue Dream – Jhené Aiko
4.	California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
5.	Chameleon – Herbie Hancock 
6.	Crazy – Gnarls Barley
7.	Dangerous – Big Data, Joywave
8.	Demons – Imagine Dragons
9.	Don’t Know Why – Norah Jones
10.	Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
11.	Every Breath You Take – The Police
12.	Eyes Without a Face – Billy Idol
13.	Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
14.	Haunt/A Light – Seoul 
15.	Have You Ever Seen the Rain – CCR 
16.	Hound Dog – Elvis Presley 
17.	House of the Rising Sun – The Animals
18.	I Love Rock ‘N Roll – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
19.	Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World – Neil Young
20.	Maneater – Hall & Oates
21.	Marshmallow Man – The Polyrhythmics
22.	No Roots – Alice Merton
23.	Not Sorry – The Cranberries
24.	Roadhouse Blues – The Doors
25.	Rock’n’ Me – Steve Miller Band
26.	Rosanna – Toto 
27.	Roxanne – The Police
28.	Say It Ain’t So – Weezer (Eb)
29.	Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
30.	Something About Us – Daft Punk
31.	Stay With Us – Seoul
32.	Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
33.	Where is My Mind? – The Pixies
34.	Wicked Game – Chris Isaak
35.	Yellow – Coldplay
36.	Zombie – The Cranberries
 
Working On
1.	Bigger Than My Body – John Mayer
2.	Black Velvet – Allanah Myles (Eb) 
3.	Breakdown – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
4.	China Grove – The Doobie Brothers
5.	Everlong – Foo Fighters
6.	Fall Behind Me – The Donnas
7.	Good Times – Chic
8.	Hold Me Like a Grudge – Fall Out Boy
9.	If There’s a Rocket Tie Me To It – Snow Patrol
10.	I Keep Forgetting – Michael McDonald
11.	I Saw the Light – Todd Rundgren
12.	Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters
13.	Low Rider – War 
14.	Money – Pink Floyd
15.	My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) – Neil Young
16.	Rikki Don’t Lose That Number – Steely Dan
17.	Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) – Journey
18.	Sister Golden Hair - America
19.	Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
20.	Take It Easy – The Eagles
21.	The Chain – Fleetwood Mac
22.	Who’s Crying Now? - Journey
23.	Your Love is King – Sade
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Might have been me? I made a post similar to that. I joined/formed a band before even finishing B2B.
Might have been someone else. I’m sure multiple here in that situation.

I don’t remember which thread I posted my original in.

But my post was very clear about wanting to play in a casual hobby band, not trying to gig as a second job or anything like that.

Glad you’ve got a band!

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Yeah, it was probably you. A lot of my post is word-for-word from yours, since yours was so well written. Thanks for the help!

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I’m so happy for you man, @GingerBug Rock on!

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Maybe this thread? Though I think there is another too

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This is the other thread I immediately thought of, but it is a little different.

Either way, multiple threads of people joining bands recently is cool. Especially with the video Josh dropped on YouTube yesterday.

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Yeah it wasn’t either of those. Probably was the @BeerBaron thread.

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There is an endless number of novice musicians out there. They’re all looking for (roughly) the same thing. They are ALL afraid that they are not “good enough” to start a band and are ALL waiting for someone just like you to post that ad and start something up.

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Yeah, I think that’s totally true. The band I was able to join aren’t even novices. I’m by far the least experienced on my instrument.

Musical ability isn’t even the most important thing in a bass player. The most important things are your attitude–being positive, easy-going, easy to get along with. Being dependable, showing up on time, helping set up and tear down, etc. Many musicians are flaky and unreliable. My experience is when a band is looking for someone, their personality gelling with the others and their dependability are more important than how skilled they are. If you have a good attitude, more often than not a band will be willing to work with you until you get the skill where it needs to be. Much better than an awesome bass player who’s a total prima donna asshole who’s impossible to work with, or who is constantly late to practices and gigs, doesn’t practice, etc.

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^^^^
This!

Plus learning the songs before getting into the rehearsal studio / garage / wherever you are playing. Too many don’t seem to understand the difference between individual practice (ie learning the structure of the song, learning your part(s), undertaking your cues etc.) and band rehearsal (butting it all together, tweaking the song to fit the band, the tightening up the collective playing, nailing the song and having fun) , IMHO.

BTW, I started the band I’m now in :wink:

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Holy crap is it easy to find a guitarist…

Put out an ad looking for a singer. Within the first 48 hours get a half dozen responses of, “I can’t sing, but I play guitar.”

And there is always That Guy, on the FB page. I posted up this document of what we’re looking for, and he was like, “That seems like a lot of rules and requirements for a ‘casual band’.”

Edit: Also we’ve gotten a bunch of people who share like… Spotify links of the albums that their previous band put out. And it’s quality, polished stuff. And the other guys in the band are like, “And you want to play with US?!?” And pretty much every time the answer is, “Yeah… that was cool for a while. But then it became a second job and stopped being fun. I just want to have fun and make music.”

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Shows up on time
Enjoyable to be around

I’m sorry, i can either be on time or I can be enjoyable to be around. You don’t get both. :rofl:

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Yeah they’re a dime a dozen! :joy:

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Unfortunately, too true.