(If this is breaking the rules at all, I'm very sorry.)
Hey.
So I'm a keyboardist, violinist and backing singer, who can also do some very basic guitar and bass.
I want to do music as a career after my degree, and of course the best thing to do is start early, which is what I'm doing now.
I've got 10 songs written (well, they're drafts, they need some editing, but they're quite nice, at least in my opinion and a few others).
And I've been trying dutifully (over the last few months) to set a band up. My best mate was going to form a band with me, but he's stubborn and won't accept keyboards/violin 'cause of "image problems". Not going to lie, it pissed me off a bit, but I'm not one to get hung up over stuff.
I'm hoping to do metal/rock really. Symphonic/gothic/pagan metal. Any of those genres is good.
So since then I've been trying to look for members on places like Joinmyband.com
No luck. Well, I've got one conditional offer (if they still need me after my exams, when I can come for practises, this one band will take me), a couple of maybes, and LOADS of rejections. Either I'm too young, not good enough (which I'm not going to argue with, though I'm REALLY trying hard to improve), too far away, wrong genre, poor gear, no travel, the list goes on.
With all this...I'm close to exasperation.
I'm honestly thinking of going it as a solo artist.
Because the idea of a solo performance has some romantic appeal to me, I wrote the sheet music for all my pieces in what I call "standalone" format first. This is sheet music purely for piano and vocals. It's the kind of thing that I could just play by myself at a bar, for example.
Now, playing solo isn't something I want to do, I'd far prefer playing with other people. I like the atmosphere of it more.
But it looks as if I may be forced to go solo.
If you've read all the way to the bottom - that's what I want to know. Should I keep trying to form a band, or go solo? What are the pros/cons? Any tips? Thanks so much.
I've gone to the music department. There's a small metal scene that I sometimes hang out with and jam with, the rest are INCREDIBLY pretentious classical musicians that I absolutely hate.
But the metal scene in my school view me as not being brutal enough. They're into vegetarian grindcore mostly, and I'm into symphonic and pagan metal.
I asked one of my friends there if he wanted to form a band - he declined 'cause of the genre.
At the moment I am in three bands, two of them are solo-projects.
To stick with pros and cons:
Pros of solo are that you can play and record anytime. You are the one deciding on your musical direction. No trouble with bandmembers not showing up or wanting to go try out another style. You always agree with yourself.
The only con I can think of is the fact that other people can be inspiring.
Nevertheless, I prefer solo.
Just start your pagan band solo, and if you happen to find people who are interested, let them join, but don't hold yourself back just because others are not interested in your genre.
If you're totally serious about music as a career, and you don't already know someone who's alongside you with equal passion... go solo. As you say, it's good to start early. You can always bring people on board later.
depends really on what you want to gain from the experience... both have their merits.
A compromise could be reached with the right people... how about coming up with the music totally and then asking for 'help' to get people involved and provide musical input, but not actually have any leverage when it comes to musical direction and so on as they just unpaid session men really
You can definitely bring people in later if needed, it's something that's quite common.
As it was mentionned it just completely depends on what you want to do. Personally, the one thing I truly dislike about being solo is that it becomes impossible to improvise in a traditional jazz way. I can't give myself a bunch of chords to play the harmony and solo at the same time.
I too am solo ?I have a possible "light" vocalist and I am "dark" vocals synth and drums or at least drum machine you can try to be solo but it is more fun to be in a band of at least two
