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Blues band tips

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:54 pm
by Ulysses
Recently I managed to get a little band together. It's me on guitar, a bass player/singer and a drummer. It's going great so far and I think we sound pretty decent, considering this is my first band ever and I seem to be in charge of everything. We're even writing and coming up with some exciting ideas, and I'm sure we're gonna get really tight before our first gig. Anyway, I know that most people on this forum are more experienced people who had their fair share of bands, good and bad, and I was wondering if you all have any useful tips for a young band starting out? Just like shortcuts that you wish you knew beforehand? We're struggling right now with ways to end a song after an improvisation. I have a hard time getting their attention to signal when's the time to end. I'm guessing this is because everyone is trying to focus on their instrument and that it'll come naturaly, when we start to listen to the overall sound etc.

Re: Blues band tips

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:04 pm
by 12bar
With only one gig recently with my "family band" I'm no big help here, :lol: but you should keep an eye on your band members during playing. I think the more you play the less you need it, but whenever there's an all-star jam with several solo parts they look at each other to know who's next.

Congrats to your band! :chicken:

Re: Blues band tips

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:12 pm
by Ulysses
Thanks admin :D

We figured out it was the drummer screwing up after his solos, for some reason it's difficult to get back into a shuffle after improvising for several minutes because we get into it and usually the bpms jump up quite a lot. He's gonna work on it and I hope we can sort it out because I really enjoy these improvs and a nice way to round em up would be to get back to the original feel.

Re: Blues band tips

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:04 pm
by 12bar
Good luck and have fun! :dance:

Re: Blues band tips

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:09 am
by doctorunderhill
Ulysses wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:12 pm Thanks admin :D

We figured out it was the drummer screwing up after his solos, for some reason it's difficult to get back into a shuffle after improvising for several minutes because we get into it and usually the bpms jump up quite a lot. He's gonna work on it and I hope we can sort it out because I really enjoy these improvs and a nice way to round em up would be to get back to the original feel.
if you've never listened to USA Union John Mayall you're missing a treat. no drummer at all. the beat was set by the great Larry Taylor from Canned Heat- just a great bassline anchoring the beat.

Re: Blues band tips

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 5:04 am
by Ulysses
doctorunderhill wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:09 am
Ulysses wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:12 pm Thanks admin :D

We figured out it was the drummer screwing up after his solos, for some reason it's difficult to get back into a shuffle after improvising for several minutes because we get into it and usually the bpms jump up quite a lot. He's gonna work on it and I hope we can sort it out because I really enjoy these improvs and a nice way to round em up would be to get back to the original feel.
if you've never listened to USA Union John Mayall you're missing a treat. no drummer at all. the beat was set by the great Larry Taylor from Canned Heat- just a great bassline anchoring the beat.
Well we'd need a bit more mileage before we can pull that one off :away: