Article written by Lauren Johnston.
It takes a lot to make a band and/or song, you need many, many things to succeed and that’s not a promise either, no one band or artist has ever been promised success, they have worked for it through blood, sweat, tears and research. Some many think that it’s not a big thing, like write a catchy chorus and verse, then add some beats and play it with a few mates and there you have it. I actually thought of this topic while my partner and I were driving home one day having a discussion about what it takes to make it in the music industry, which got me thinking…So what does it actually take to make a band in general?
Well over the past week I have been doing some research about it and have found a whole lot of information. There was too much to condense into this week’s article, but I have narrowed it down to the top 6 things I have found most commonly talked about over many websites.
Six things a band needs:
1. Every band needs to be dedicated; dedicated to the band, to making it somewhere and having a goal, be dedicated to rehearsal sessions, and dedicated to supporting the band including financially when needed.
2. Passion, for everything good and evil do not think about starting a band or writing a song if you have no god damn passion! It really grinds my gears when a band performs and you can tell that there is something going on that’s affecting the band as a whole or when you can see a band member is just not into it. You also need passion for what you believe in and stand up for it and you just need to be passionate about the band as a whole and everything related in growing the band.
3. Insensitiveness, this means you have to not take criticism from within the band to the heart, it’s inevitable that the band is going to have disputes about what they don’t like and do like. As for the rest of it, you don’t really need to have a thick skin for what everyone else says as its mainly coming from critics and other bands. Basically, you just need to be able to handle the criticism from within in an appropriate way and take on board some things but not everything. In saying that though you also need to give criticism in a polite respectful manner, such as creative criticism, at the end of the day it’s your fans that are going to watch your videos and listen to your songs and pay to come see you live.
4. An income, yes that’s right you need money to make money. Tours aren’t all free, you will need to pay for food, accommodation, flights, venues, fuel, equipment and those dammed bills back home, yes when you make it big most to all of these things will become free or very hella cheap. I have also found over a few websites have suggested that bands make an account for the band and each week put $10 away and only use that money for the purpose of the band.
5. Making sacrifices is also something you will need to do, and you will need to prioritize your life. Putting your job, budget and income aside there is a crap ton of sacrifices you need to make, you will need to cut down on your social life and the parties, you will need to work as much as you can where you can but managing to keep time for band practice. Relationships if you have one is going to become quite hard until you find a good balance and routine, many couples have split because band members haven’t been able to find the right balance due to their dedication and work ethic. They basically go hand in hand, as well as relationships your friendships will also be affected because of rehearsal and touring.
6. Last but not least is will power, as great as it is being in a band, tough times are inevitable, you can lose hope and forget what you believe in. Fights between band members because of disagreements with the band as a whole or particular parts in a song, you can also go long periods of time without any wins at all and it’s the little wins that you do achieve that help keep you reminded that you are on the right track.
Stages of Music/Song Production, this is where you take a song you have wrote and turn it into something else.
First things first you can’t have a song if you haven’t written one. Song writing is a big part as if you can’t or don’t have this then you have nothing. The idea of song writing is smashing lyric Ideas together to form a structure of coherent melody, harmony and rhythm and in saying that to write a song you need a begging, middle and end, just like a good novel.
Stage 2, Arranging. Once you have your lyric ideas written down you enter probably the least understood and most neglected stage. When you have a good beat and melody and you repeat it waaaaay to much, it creates this problem where it becomes hella boring and irritating to listen to, it’s this arranging stage that can make or break a song. www.waves.com explains arrangement as “the arrangement of a song refers to the selection of instruments playing in each section – how they are ‘arranged’ and how the sections themselves are arranged within the larger timeline of the song.”
Once that is over you move onto mixing, a banger verse and chorus, its lazy and simple but simply not good enough to repeat them over and over again. Yes, you made it half way with a banger chorus and verse but you don’t want to sound like a broken record. A good song needs a buildup, you also don’t need to have every instrument playing all at once, it is more than okay to only have the guitar on a pre chorus or something. There’s no limitations, you can mess with the song being played only on the left and mix it up and around like that.
Now you become the master. Mastering is the process of making all those crazy songs, sound coherent and the tricky part is you have to somehow make the songs sound like they are all from the same album. To be a mastering engineer you have to have immaculate hearing and the top of the line equipment if you want to be in the top with the best. You also have to notice and correct any minor errors in the mix that were missed.
Last but not least music production, it is simply what the name explains, making music. The more comfortable you are with it the more easier it will be. Practice multiple different instruments and learn them, practice and learn new things so the next time you hit the studio to record you are only going to get better and better. Mess with vocals, push yourself, it’s the only way you are going to get better at something. All this hard work is going to pay off
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