How Do Bands Stay Together?

Today's entry is very short ... Check out this link for really good, sound advice from experience on why some bands are so good, and how they stay together at all!

Drummers are a pain!

So started a conversation with a musician friend of mine.

As I probed a little and asked what they might mean by such a comment, the answer was (in their eyes) simple ... 'Drummers spend too much time endlessly banging around the kit.'

When I asked what they meant, I received two answers:

a. 'Drummers set-up and then run through their latest round of 'new beats' or breaks when the rest of the band are talking.'

b. 'Drummers seem to endlessly tap all their drums making micro-adjustments here and there which 'make no difference to their sound'


I asked my friend a couple of simple questions:

i. 'As a guitarist don't you ever widdle around (warm-up) 'to make sure your gear is working'?

ii. 'More importantly, don't you ever tune your guitar?'


They were quiet for a moment ... you'd think I'd dropped a bomb!

'Oh! Is that what they're doing?'

'Yes' I said, 'Have you never asked?'

'He's never told me!'

And there we have the crux of the matter ... lack of communication.

Too often we rely on assumption, thinking that what we're doing or have said is as obvious to others as it is to ourselves. The result is often a complete lack of understanding or, worse still, wrong impressions/breakdown of respect.

I wonder how many bands would function better, and dare I say, stay together longer if the various members talked and listened to each other more. Just a thought ...

Education: Help or hinderence?

How many of us have been in situations where we just don't fit?

That's okay if it's a one-off, you know, party, event, visit to friends. But what if the time we don't fit in is in our education: at school, college, university or job? Then, it's no longer an inconvenience ... it's a life changing, life hindering, often traumatic, shattering experience. Perhaps maths seems alien and illogical. Perhaps we would understand our English or language lessons more if they were in Greek!

Sadly, this is the tail for too many people with artistic abilities in today's education system, a system which praises those who can do the logical, academic tasks and pass written exams (though we'll come back to this in a minute) and punishes, degrades or worse still, forgets those who struggle or simply can't relate.

We have confused intelligence (the ability to use our brains creatively) with academia (the ability to achieve high marks in tests and exams which are designed around logical or deductive processes). We are told that science, mathematics, languages are 'important' and that art, music, drama, dance are not.

So, what if you are naturally musical or artistic? You quickly pick up the message that you are either not intelligent or worse still, not important ... and these messages stick, and then stay with us through life: stunting our growth, shouting at us that our views don't count ... lying to us.

And the result? Loss of confidence, withdrawal from friends or society, loss of direction and motivation, rebellion against the life we should be enjoying, never reaching our true potential, always thinking others are better than ourselves. And this goes with us into our jobs, into our family life ... and screws it up!

Some of my best friends and most intelligent people I know never got a qualification at school, college or university ... but they did realise afterwards that they had so much more to give than they'd been led to believe.

What are your experiences of education? Good or bad? If you need to, get those frustrations and lies about yourself off your chest. Go for it!!