Being in a Band

Troy wanted me to talk about this a little more to capture some memories of my time in a band, so here goes.

First off, am I in a band?  Maybe?  Maybe not.

A few years back, JF, Jon, Mike and I got together one night to jam.  It was a chaotic experience with everyone all over the map.  For a drummer, Jon must have been frustrated.  But who wouldn’t be?  This was the first time ever getting together without even thinking of what songs we would play.  All in all, a fun night fueled by beers and cheers, but it was just that.

Fast forward a few years and we decide to jam once again.  So we pick a few songs and play them a few times and it’s not bad.

Fast forward another while and everyone convenes for Vero and my wedding and everyone has a great time.  When we get back home, an email awaits from JF saying “Hey, we should get a band together!”

We get together one night and hash out approximately a billion songs that we would be interested in learning.  It was a little ridiculous at one point!  But we also discussed the fact that we just want to get together once in awhile (like every three weeks) and play some songs together.  At this point, there’s no end goal in sight of playing in bars around the area or anything like that.  Martin seems to be the seasoned pro in being in a band (from what I can tell, maybe the others have all been in groups before) and he said we need minimum a year together to be able to play proficiently together.

Challenge accepted!

I like the setup of the group so far…we have Jon on drums, JF on lead guitar as well as Martin on lead and myself taking up the acoustic and vocals.  There has been talks of needing to bring the bass guitar in there somewhere so we may switch up positions depending on where it is needed.  Here’s to hoping the bass guitar doesn’t come around my side too often considering I don’t know how to play it and I think vocal duties will be severely diminished if I took it on!  But, everything comes with practice so I’m not afraid to try it out!

So here we come upon the three week mark and I have a few songs I’ve been learning in prep for the jam session.

Digging a Hole (Big Sugar): So this was an interesting one to learn.  It’s all bass guitar at the beginning!  So I gave up on it for awhile until JF just pointed out that we could strum an A chord instead.  Bingo bango, didn’t have too much trouble with this one.

Sunshine of your Love (Cream): The bane of my existence is to pick some notes and sing at the same time.  Give me some chords any day and I’m fine.  But have me pick and sing at the same time?  Well…it takes a little more practice.  A fun song to play and it just outlines how simple some classic songs really are (until you get to the solo!)

Jet Airliner (Steve Miller Band): Great tune to strum to.  I’m glad I had to practice this one because I’ve played it a few times but only from memory so I know I missed a few details over the years.  Part of me likes making a song my own, another part says “Learn how to play it correctly, damn it!”

Sixteen Saltines (Jack White): A vote from JF as he loves this song.  It was the first time hearing it so it is taking me awhile to get the hang of it.  Plus, Jack’s vocals are on the screamy end of the sprectrum so it’s taking a little getting used to.

Hold Me In Your Arms (Trews): Oh man!  Talk about a vocal killer!  Collin can NAIL the awesome classic rock high end vocals whereas it’s taking me everything to get up to that level.  I used to be able to sing really high but nowadays…not so much!  Not sure how this one will work out.  I may have to bring it down a key.

So that’s that.  Practicing is going well and I’m looking forward to the upcoming jam session!