Democracy

[acidbass]

I'm in a couple of bands, both of which I have a different role in the decision-making process. In one of them, we leave all the decisions about song-choices to the front man, as he knows best which songs he's capable of doing and more importantly, confident with. In another band, the decisions about songs and gigs and all promotion work are handled by myself and the other co-founder, who plays keys.

I very much enjoy being a part of both, and I certainly have learned lessons from both roles which have been useful in the other band.

[Low End Bee]

I thought I'd resurrect this one seeing as we've been a trio for just over a year.

I find band dynamics very interesting. I know realise that although we have no band leader we do have our seperate responsibilities that we are in charge of. Like cabinet posts I suppose. Flyers, getting gigs, writing lyrics, keeping the diary, negotiating, etc. all have one of us who does the lions share of that particular area. We know people outside the band see it as the singer/guitarists band. He is the front man after all and we're comfortable with that now and he certainly doesn't lord it at all.
It's very interesting that since we got rid of the sensitive bloke with the ego we can write 10 times faster and also be much more ruthless on ditching stuff that's not working or isn't up to standard.
It'd be fascinating for me to be in another band just to see how it would work if I had all the power or little control.

[the_skezz]

God, I'd hate to be completely in control of a band...I'm sure we'd end up as an Iron Maiden ripoff...

Current band, we're pretty democratic in terms of songwriting - we each generally write our own parts, we might vaguely suggest something for another instrument to play but we're all pretty respectful towards each other. Otherwise, the singer and guitarist unofficially take charge of a lot of areas - they book most of the gigs, came up with the name, etc. They'll ask me and the drummer for our opinions, or we might take it upon ourslves to book the odd gig, but for me it's fine not to have too much power there - so long as I can express myself in the songwriting, I'm happy.

[Marvin]

The band I've just go into seems very laid back about things. No one is top dog, everyone is encouraged to bring their ideas in, and if you're not happy with something you just have to say. I'm chuffed to bits, we all seem to get along. With some practice we should have a good laugh when we get out gigging (fingers firmly crossed).

[BassCat]

My band is full of ego's but luckily they are all in perfect balance with each other! We each have different roles in the band other than the instrument we play (eg, the drummer arranges gigs, I do the website etc) & we all get along just fine.

It helps that we make an effort to go out for a curry every so often just as mates & air any grievances that we may have.

[Happy Jack]

My 5-piece is depressingly democratic, to the point where an icily cold and extremely polite civil war has existed for the last month.

Bizarrely, my 3-piece comprises three of us out of the 5-piece. You guessed it, the other two are the two with whom I entirely disagree about the 5-piece.

It gets better. The 3-piece is comfortably the most easy-going, friendly, supportive band I've played in.

Go figure.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1012077' date='Nov 4 2010, 02:14 PM']Go figure.[/quote]


5-2= the answer

[thisnameistaken]

I keep trying to get our front man / guitarist / songwriter to take the reins a bit more! We're pretty democratic in that if anybody in the band really doesn't like something we either do it differently or stop doing it, but he's got a good head on his shoulders and good ideas, so I don't think it would be a bad thing if he were to start calling the shots a bit more.

[lojo]

I play in a very democratic cover band

and

I have just left a band which is not democratic but says it is, but I am gigging with them as a non member until they can replace me


Im happy either way as long as I like what is being played and asked of me

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1012084' date='Nov 4 2010, 02:21 PM']5-2= the answer[/quote]


[b]And the Lord spoke[/b] saying, "First shalt thou gather thy band members, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then hast thou a band."

[mike257]

[quote name='mike257' post='571472' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:29 AM']Amazingly, considering there's 6 of us, we come pretty close to managing it. There's three singers/writers in the band, one of whom was the driving force behind getting the band together in the first place, so he's the 'de facto' gaffer, but it rarely needs to come to one person to make the over-riding decision.
....
Sometimes egos have to be massaged, and compromises have to be made, but we were all close friends who've played in various bands together before this one, so it all tends to work out in the end![/quote]

Interesting to see this thread revived 12 months down the line - seems things have changed for plenty of us!

My democratic, bunch of mates 6 piece has, after a fairly horrendous year of bad luck and bust-ups, become 4 band members and a session drummer.

One of our original three singer/guitarists has got off in a storm of tension and unspoken grievances, and took the drummer with him. The remaining four of us, after resolving to carry on regardless, trained up a stand-in drummer and rearranged the set, with a view to not having to cancel any commitments.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and a guitarist is losing the plot, and now [b]all[/b] our shows for the rest of the year are pulled, and nobody seems capable of agreeing about anything.

I'm sure it wasn't always this difficult!!

[Low End Bee]

"One of our three singer/guitarists"

That's just asking for trouble.

[elephantstone]

Pretty much all been said in here, we are a democracy of sorts.

we are all involved in the writing process and decisions,

however, if someone turns up with an idea that is almost 90% complete and has an idea in his head as to what the other instruments should do, then we will try it, if it works great if not we change it.

if one of the band comes up to me and says "i have a great bassline idea for a song, why dont you try this?"

if the idea is good i dont feel i need to change just because it wasnt my idea or that i never wrote. i would defo play and and maybe alter a wee bit just to my personal taste

[mike257]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1013099' date='Nov 5 2010, 11:17 AM']"One of our three singer/guitarists"

That's just asking for trouble.[/quote]


Don't I know it!! The vocal harmonies were incredible - the ego clashes, not so much. I can't say I reccommend it!

[Gust0o]

Still early days, but we all seem reasonably relaxed - the guitarist possibly has a shade on us, but then we're [i]using[/i] him for the organisation, so who's really leading?

We're very honest about the music. Yesterday I was too quiet, I was told; which, I explained, would account for your shoddy f***ing rhythmn then. I enjoy this patter

[mike257]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1013099' date='Nov 5 2010, 11:17 AM']"One of our three singer/guitarists"

That's just asking for trouble.[/quote]

I found the most elegant solution to this most complex of situations.

I've jacked it in!

Bassist for hire then - let's see how that works out.