Finding People You Don’t Know

You may already know your future bandmates

When you’re starting a band, you start looking for potential bandmates from the list of people you already know. You call up some friends who you think may play bass, or drums, or can sing, but after a few days of asking all your friends, you may find that none of them either can, or want to. Here’s where the auditions begin.

Tap into your social network… Facebook!

Finding people you don’t know can be as easy as posting a simple Facebook status, or as hard as putting up fliers around town. Either way, you’re going to have to get some person who you don’t know, over to your house or practice space, and spend some one-on-one time with them.
If you get someone to reply on Facebook, then you at least know something about them, even if it’s just knowing that they’re friends with one of your friends. But if you have to go hang up fliers with your phone number, or your email adress, it’s going to be a bit more tricky.

First you’re going to have to determine if they’re some sketchy person who wants to rob you. Once that’s out of the way, you’ll have to ask them how long they’ve been playing, what school they go to, if they have their own instruments, who their favorite bands are, and other stuff like that. If they pass those first tests, thenyou’re going to have to meet them.

Places to Find People:

• Facebook
• Music teachers’ other students
• Posting an ad
• Asking friends if they know anyone

Before you even meet up with the person, send them a list of some songs that you could play, so you don’t end up sitting around, not knowing how to play any songs. When they come over to play, or you meet up somewhere to play, test their skills, but also hang out with them. See how compatible you are. There is a Foo Fighters video where their singer, Dave Grohl, says that when they were auditioning, they would play, then hang out for a few hours to see how the guy is, because you want someone in your band that you can just hang out with. That being said, they should also be pretty dedicated, and pretty good players, or else they won’t work well in your band.