You are starting from scratch. You have an instrument, friends who also have instruments, a place to make a lot of noise and a dream… now what? You all want to make good music. You all have opinions. Everyone wants the same number of people who walked into the band room to walk out of the band room alive. Here are some things I’ve found helpful to establish in a first band practice:

influences – this is the cornerstone of any band, and can quickly let you know if there is any sort of compatibility…as weird/cheesy as it sounds, think of a first band practice as a first date: you’re trying to find find out if there is something in common and if it is worth continuing. If one person is totally into prog rock and another is into death metal, you can form a prog metal band or, more likely, those two people should be in different bands.

If you find some common influences, it’s a great starting point. While you should never go out and say “I want this band to sound exactly like (insert artist)”, it helps set the general mood in which you’ll be working by saying you like the sound of (artist) or (artist), then over time find a way to make it yours.

It should also be mentioned here that you don’t have to start writing on the first day. Sometimes starting with one or two song versions allows you to see how they work together and will also help establish that foundation. You can look back and say yeah we learned that song as a whole band (come on team! the band goes down pretty fast too)

Collaboration Styles – you want to get an idea from the beginning of how each member works and how best to work with that, changing their styles as little as possible…if possible. For example, some guitar players are very good at just improvising and creating riffs on the fly and improvising. Others often need to take an idea home, go over the details of the solo, and re-practice with a finely tuned riff.

These need to be handled in very different ways: if you have a guitarist who is a riff machine, invest in a shitty boombox or something with recording capability, put it in the room, hit record, and let it go to town. You can always go back to review the tape at a later time to see what went well and what didn’t. I worked with a guitarist who forgot more good riffs than I had written, and we found this to be the best way to deal with it. Conversely, if someone is of the second type, don’t expect him to strike gold on the spot. In all likelihood, you will only waste practice time and also make them uncomfortable.

Remember: it’s only when you let each member contribute their own style and NOTHING comes out of it that you should start to worry.

expectations of each person. – It doesn’t hurt to set the ground rules from the beginning. If someone in the band consistently falls short of your expectations, then, well, it’s your own fault for not making it known. Set the basics:

-How many days of practice a week would you like?

-What days can everyone meet?

Do any of the members have fluctuating work schedules?

-How will you keep in touch with each other? (side note: it’s always a good idea to make a sheet of everyone’s email and cell phone addresses, and make sure each person has a copy)

-How many days in advance should a member try to let everyone know if they can’t do a practice? (With the obvious emergency situations left out here…we once had a drummer who was an hour late for his audition, only to get a call from him and look out the window of our practice space to see what was happening.) had screwed up half a mile away. It was fine, and obviously punctuality wasn’t a factor in this situation)

Expectations of the band as a whole. – this is one that is often ignored and acts as a ticking time bomb for band implosions. Some band members may want to quit their day jobs, tour the world and sell a million albums. Others may see this as a creative outlet and just a fun hobby. And some may just want girls.

It’s important to clarify this early on and figure out what each member wants to do with this that they’re collectively creating, because the conversation becomes much more difficult later on. Imagine if you were about to sign a record deal and found out that half of the band never had any intentions of going on tour… do you see the dilemma?

Member Roles: Finally, find out the roles of each member (but this is also something you can relax on). For example, some members may be better at handling finances, some better at booking shows and interacting with other bands, some better at writing song lyrics, etc.

…and there’s always someone who needs to be the guy in the band and make sure things stay on track. If no one else is stepping up after a few practices and your band wanders aimlessly, then dude, it might just have to be you. It’s not that bad. If you’re wondering if I’ve ever been in that situation, I’ll answer you with a question: how do you think I was able to write this so easily?

Rock on.