How to start a band and practise ect

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Acoustic guitars
Electric guitars
Bass guitar
Drums (and accesories)
Amplification
Mic stands and microphones
Cables

Step 1

Finding the members
First of all, start hanging out with a few people who could be potential band members. They have got to have similar tastes in music to you as it is hopeless forming a band with a heavy metal guitarist with a drummer all set for jazz. Its always better to find your band mates early on because otherwise you'll get fed up of waiting for a full band.
Step 2

Forming the band
Start with the rhythm section. First off, find your drummer. Instead of telling them you want to form a band, just ask them to jam with you first and then ask them to join. Bassist is the next task with the rhythm guitarist (optional). It helps if either the bass player or guitarist can sing backing vocals. Find a lead guitarist that works well with the rhythm section and has their own style. Finally, find your front man, get someone with style as he/she is the one the audience will be watching. Make sure everyone has good equipment. The singer must have a microphone and some kind of amplification. The guitarists must have good guitars (possibly with spares) and amps, make sure their amp is at least 50 watts. Drummers must have their own kit complete with cymbals and other accessories. Bassists are the same as guitarists.
Step 3

Deciding a name
You should all get together to decide a name. Choose something catchy that audiences will remember. Don't just call yourself something crap like the players or something. Drink names make good names, such as (my band's name) Whiskey on the Rocks. If you are really stuck, either look in a random book page 64 line 2, or name your self after a song.
Step 4

Practising
Find a room away from other distractions where you can make loads of noise as your practice space. Garages and basements are good. First of all set up and discuss a potential set list. Choose 5 songs from various artists to practise. This was my band's practice set list:
AC/DC-TNT
Chuck Berry-No Particular Place To Go
Rolling Stones-Jumpin' Jack Flash
Elvis Presley-Jailhouse Rock
Jimi Hendrix-Hey Joe (acoustic)

You should start of practising with just the drums, bass and rhythm guitar, then introducing the lead guitar and vocals. Old blues songs like Baby please dont go are good to cover as you can add your own style to them.
Step 5

Gigging
To get gigs, offer to open for local band for free and talk to club/ pub owners. Hand out CDs and leaflets ect.
Once you have got a gig make sure all of the band knows what they are doing, ie the setlists and what equipment to bring ect. If there is a sound check, turn up early, not only will this impress club owners, it will give you more time to set up. When on stage, a good way to set it up is, have the drums on a drum riser, with amps to the left and right of it. Stand the rhythm guitarist to the right of the kit and the bassist to the left. Set up microphones to the front of the stage so when they do backing vocals, they move forward to sing and then back to where they were when they are not singing. The reason they stand at the back is really so they dont detract from the frontmen of the group, the lead guitarist and the singer. The Lead guitar and vocals can go anywhere they want. When you are on stage dont go all glam, you know, wearing make up with platform boots on, it works well if you just wear jeans and t shirts with NO sportswear. If you want, have one of the frontmen have a gimic such as Angus Young's school boy outfit. AC/DC is a good example actually, Malcolm, Cliff and Phil (guitarist, bassist and drummer) just wear simple dark clothes while Angus has his school suit and Brian has his flat cap.
Step 6

Always be nice to your fans, dont take the typical rockstar attitude and be too snobby to talk to people, but be especially nice to other club owners and people from record companys, do what ever it takes to impress them, buy them a drink offer them a smoke etc.