Taking Band Photos

Professional photography can make the difference between your band looking smooth and polished and looking like total amateurs. First impressions do matter in this business, and a pro can help make you look your best but you must balance that against the cost. Nowadays most of us have access to some decent photography equipment, so here are a few top tips

• If using a professional ensure you ask them for samples and see if their style is a match with yours. Basically, it comes down to -- do you like their stuff? Their "eye" will be reflected in the photos you see, so look closely. Give them a band bio and any information on you that they might find helpful as to staging the shoot.
  
  
• Overdo hair/makeup and costuming for the shoot.

• Choose cliché backgrounds or poses. If I see another band against a wall or propping up a bar I will go mad! Be original!
  
  
• Don’t wait until the day of the shoot to talk about what everyone thinks the photo should be like. Discussing this ahead of time can save time/money and make things less stressful.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid to voice your thoughts to the photographer -- sometimes it can help to have one person as the "spokesperson" for the group to avoid things getting too chaotic.
  
  
• Don’t hesitate to ask for a break if things are feeling stiff or if you want to talk to band members to see how they feel it is going.

• If you have problems keeping everyone's eyes open at the same time, have everyone close their eyes, count to 2 and open on 3. It helps.
  
  
• Try to make sure everyone gets a good night's rest so you can look your best.

• If the photographer doesn't object, music in the background can help relax you and make the shoot feel more natural. Especially if it's your music!

Hiring a professional photographer can be a great way to make sure your band looks their best but not always necessary when you are first starting out.

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Tips for Keeping Your Band Together

Your band has lost it's focus. Members are late for rehearsals; or they don't show up at all. When everyone does show up, the sessions deteriorate into a lot of bitching, leaving everyone angry and resentful.

If your band is no longer the well-oiled machine it once was, perhaps these tips will help restore everything to its former order and glory.

1. Have a band meeting once every six months. Ideally a band meeting is held at a neutral location, such as a bar or restaurant. This helps everyone feel at ease. Try not to hold them at your rehearsal location and whatever you do, don't allow anyone to bring instruments or significant others. You don't need noodling guitars or whispered conversations between lovers to detract from the meeting.

   Use this time to air suggestions for new songs, critiquing past performances (not just went wrong, but also highlighting what went right), promotion ideas, performance and rehearsal schedules, new venues to consider, and brainstorming ways to improve the group.

   If you can find something to do after the meeting to build camaraderie and blow off steam, so much the better. How about having the band meeting in a bowling alley snack bar, then bowling a game or two after the meeting? Never bowled before? It'll be a new experience for you, and lots of fun for your bandmates!

2. Revisit your band's common goals. Are you a cover band, or do you play originals? Does everyone want to play six-nights-a-week, weekends only, or casuals? How often should you rehearse? How many members does it take to remove a song from your set list? Is there a certain style or genre of music that you are aiming for? Are things getting stale the way they are? Are there adequate performing opportunities in your area, or do you need to branch out to surrounding communities? Revisiting your band's goals -- and reaching agreement on them -- is a great salve to put on a sore situation.

3. Voice your opinion. Silence is tacit acceptance that you agree. Try not to remain silent when you should be voicing your disagreement. A healthy band is one that promotes discussion and communication. An unhealthy band has festering problems that will eventually lead to the band's demise.

4. Encourage discussion. While it's not always possible to reach a consensus agreement on every issue, it helps to allow each member the opportunity to discuss their opinion. Especially encourage the shyest member to contribute. He/she may have an insight that the rest of you will find helpful.

5. Identify the main problem. It helps if you can break down the symptoms into manageable chunks. From there you can point to the main, overriding problem -- and correct it. Is there a bandmate with a drug or alcohol problem? A girlfriend or spouse that attends practices and insists on giving her/his opinion (the Yoko Syndrome)? One or more band members that have come to hate the style of music the band is playing? Or perhaps the band leader is treating the other players like inferiors, and a mutiny is ready to occur?

6. Elect a leader. It can be the best musician, the player with the most performing experience, the lead singer, the person who put the band together, or simply the person who has been in the band the longest. Agree on this person, and their duties. Does the leader have an equal voice in band politics, or the deciding vote? Does the leader contact the members to remind everyone of practice and upcoming gigs? Is the leader the main point of contact between the manager, booking agent, and gig contacts? Is there a term for the leader, or is it for the life of the group? Don't assume anything. Discuss it and get band acceptance.

7. We already have a leader, but it's not working. Then perhaps it's time for a manager. This person, surprisingly enough, manages the day-to-day activities of the group. The manager works with the band, booking agents, venue owners, members of the press, web sites, recording label A&R staff, and other interested parties to free up time that would otherwise be spent by the band leader. The manager will also visit with the band to help it agree on an image, and will work with the members to help them reach their goal.

   Some managers may demand as much as 35% of the gross in exchange for their services. This might be fine for a band just starting out, but the term (length) of the contract should not be for the life of the band, so that the members can renegotiate the contract at a later date, once the band begins commanding higher performance fees. (You've heard it before, always seek legal help before signing a contract.)

Tuning your Drums

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of playing drums for many people, whether they are beginners or established players with years of experience, is the realization that for some reason their drum set just doesn't sound right, that when they play their drums they hear dissonant sounds unlike the sounds they hear on their favourite recorded music or when they see other drummers playing live.

This often leads to the mistaken notion that their drum set is somehow inferior, and then the person embarks on a never ending quest for "a better drum set". This often results in the purchase of various brands and models of drums for the sole reason that they think it is merely a matter of a drums "brand name" or design that makes it sound good or bad and that eventually they will stumble across that "good set" that is going to have the sound they desire.

The truth of the matter is, even though high quality drums will always sound "better", and to the discriminating professional there are subtle yet noticeable differences in sound between drum brands and models and also that fine quality drums do offer advantages in features and beauty, there is no reason that even the cheapest, most basic budget drumset can't be made to sound "OK" through proper choice of quality drumheads, and most importantly, proper TUNING of those heads.

Often a customer will come into our drum shop and state that his drums just don't sound right and he's reached the point of frustration because he/she feels they have tried everything and that it must be the fault of the drums. Usually though, it is the case that we find at least one of these tell-tale symptoms when we look at the their drums:

1. The original heads that were on the set when it was purchased are still on it, often just thin economy heads which simply can't be tuned to sound like a good quality drumhead by a name brand manufacturer.

2. The heads on the drums have been played abusively and are full of dents and "baggy spots" which make the drums sound bad and do not allow them to be tuned well.

3. The heads on the drums are of the wrong variety for the kind of music the drummer plays or the sound he/she wishes to emulate, or a misguided choice in drumhead selection has caused him/her to use the wrong type of head for a purpose which is contrary to normal usage, and is making the drum sound bad.

4. The heads are either too loose, over-tightened or simply not "cleared" (the same note produced all the way around the perimeter of the drum at each tension rod).

5. The heads have been "doctored up" with adhesive foam, duct tape, paper napkins taped to the heads, felt strips or pieces of cloth stretched across the drum underneath the heads, or various other "last resort" methods in an attempt to control unattractive, dissonant drumhead overtones.

Get Your Band Reviewed

How to Get your Band Reviewed

Getting reviews for your band can be one of the toughest things for any new band. It's not just trying to figure out who the best people to send your cd to, it's making sure they listen to your band and actually write the review. Music writers get an avalanche of band's cds each week, I have learnt that through Band Assist. Some really good bands get overlooked when it comes to getting reviews because they don't follow a few simple but golden review rules. If you don't follow these rules you might as well make that stack of CDs then chuck them in the bin;
The Golden Rules of Getting your band reviews

Be INTERESTING, sounds obvious, but if you can't be arsed with your output then why should anyone else care about you?

Make sure your contact details are on EVERYTHING, several times I've been sent a totally blank cd by a band. Even if it's an amazing band the chances are I'll never know who they are as the CD pretty much always gets separated from the covering letter (if there is one).

Make sure you know who you're sending your band's stuff to, there's no point in sending your death thrash black metal to a rumba magazine is there?

Don't bother sending your cd to millions of record labels, they will just go in the bin.

Review contactsThe biggest challenge when planning a PR campaign for you band is getting contacts. You can spend months looking up publication/ zine contacts on the web only to have your press packs returned undeliverable. This is especially true with webzines, they are often started with fantastic enthusiasm by the people behind them, then left to rot after a few weeks.

Reading your band's reviewsThe next part of your 'get heard' challenge is reading your band's reviews. Sound daft doesn't it! But think about it for a moment, you've spent months finding contacts, stuffing envelopes with your world changing cds, but how are you going to get copies of the reviews if they are published? 99.99% of zines/ magazines will not send you a free copy of their publication. Most zines (especially the big ones that you really want reviews published in) get sent anything up to 100 cds a week, if they sent out a free copy to each of those 100 bands then they wouldn't have any copies left to actually sell! So what do you do? You subscribe to every single one of these publications, in fact you'd probably have to as the chances of your release / demo getting reviewed when you think it will be are pretty damn rare. So you'd have to buy every copy of the magazine (or whatever) until you happen across your own review.

So is this all worth it?Of course it is silly!

Getting reviews brings exposure, interviews and about a thousand other positive outcomes! Don’t forget Band Assist love to hear your stuff and our site is viewed by up to 150 people a day

– great exposure plus unlike some sites we don’t charge for a thing

The flying death circus that navigated the land of eon with the bejewelled sword of neon and the band of pre-dawn space avenging monkey dancers

Long Band Names

I don’t recommend giving your band an excessively long name. I’m not referring to names with two parts like "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" or "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" that flow — but rather the flat-out, unnecessarily long band names.
Here are some examples:

· When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water (9 words, 49 characters)

· The Presidents of the United States of America (8 words, 46 characters)

· …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (10 words, 44 characters including ellipsis)

· I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (7 words, 35 characters)

· I Can Lick Any SOB In The House (8 words, 31 characters)

While "The Presidents of the United States of America" can be nicknamed and referenced as "The Presidents,"the rest of the names don’t have a lot of options unless you want to go the Excessively Long Acronym route. Here are some reasons to avoid a long name for your band:

· Does not flow in conversation

· Can be difficult to remember

· Often does not sound like a band name

· Website domain name will need to be different than your name (unless you want to make the mistake of using the actual long version) Note: There is a 67-character limit on domain names

I’d like to add that the occasional song or album with a long name is okay, but Fiona Apple went too far with her "When the Pawn" album title that is 450+ characters in length!

What do you guys think? Do they work?

Any other long band names that are worth noting?

Do you have a long-winded band name?

Playing Bass Live

Playing Bass Live Advice

Live bass sound can be the most difficult to mix and the hardest to make a sound technician care about. When done properly, a bass guitar blends right in with the rest of the band, truly layering music in a complementary fashion, allowing each player to voice his instrument with skill. Done improperly, bass guitar volume can cause drums to rattle out of control, create uncontrollable feedback and create a rattling, swelling sound that drowns out the rest of band.

Proper Choice of Bass
An instrument with active pickups, multiple effects pedals and MIDI technology may sound like a choir when playing alone in a practice room, but it generally falls flat when it comes to blending with a band. Selecting the proper quality bass is a critical element to achieving the best possible live bass sound. According to David King in Global Bass Magazine, the bass should have a clear, flat tone with few enhancements.

Make Friends With the Sound Guy
Each venue will more than likely have one employee (or volunteer) working the sound board. Ask him about the acoustics of the venue, how instruments respond and whether it's better to plug the bass into the venue's PA or to go straight from the amplifier. The sound technician may just respond to the musician's interest and friendly demeanor by taking extra care in mixing the sound of his instrument.

Volume Levels
Maintain a low volume when piped through the house's main speakers. This will allow the intonation of the bass to ring properly while reducing the fuzz and rattle that sometimes occur when the instrument's volume is set too high. Again, this strategy is geared toward blending into the sound of a full band so that guitars are able to shine through with treble and middle tones and the bass is able to thicken the whole notes of a given tune without rattling the hinges off of the venue.