How do I get everyone to show up to band practice?
 

So I've had a band for about a year, but we've been inactive for most of the time. This is because we can't all three make it to practice every week. I have a great drummer, a pretty decent bass player, and I'm pretty good at guitar and vocals. But we have made very little progress due to our un-organization.

Lately, I have been taking measures to become organized. I have arranged for a band Skype meeting twice a week before practice. This has been [I]helping[/I], but we can never all make it to band practice. My drummer says she is always busy, but I doubt that she can't squeeze in an hour or two into her day to practice. My bassist lives in a strict Mormon household with 12 people living there. They don't care that he's in a band, but they constantly go on trips, go to church, and have chores to do on their ranch. It's very difficult to find a time when he can get a ride out here and practice.

We are all 16 and go to highschool. Do you guys have any advice as to how to get this band organized and practicing every week?

lol

Start sucking their dicks and I'm sure they will come.

Convert them all to satanism and put them to work in a sadomasochistic brothel.

It's rly gd for the creative side and if you live there too - practise.

Btw is your girl drummer hot post pics.

yeah i need pics, hows her donk?

Find more players. They'll all get jealous that your getting new players and actually doing something, and they'll wanna play. (:

Used to fight with bandmates all the time over stupid shit like this.

Fire everyone and find new band members.

rape your drummer then she'll be subservient to u

'sup Frankie?

[QUOTE=Killzone;18984431]Find more players. They'll all get jealous that your getting new players and actually doing something, and they'll wanna play. (:[/QUOTE]

Not a bad idea, if you can find more people. It's always good to keep your options open and to get as much practice as you can.

At 16, nobody's serious about anything...your brain's just not wired yet for true, serious commitments, even if you think you'll be with your girlfriend 4 EVR. Based upon your attempts so far, it seems you might be an exception...which is good. Stick with it...get better. Find more people to play with who ARE serious. If your friends grow up and decide they want to get serious, then you always have that as well.

Most of the bands that make it today didn't start as garage bands with 16 year olds.

lol same thing was happening with my band. We jam every week at least once, sometimes twice. I have one secret to getting it done. Use the band members against each other to get stuff done.

Ok, first off I assume your band is run democratically and not just run by one person in the band. So just convince one of your band members to vote on your side about jamming and progressing as a band. When you talk to the other member he/she will have to side with the popular vote. Worked very well for my band and now we just finished recording and are starting gigging.

kill the mormon scum of the earth

whoa...

Yeah that was a little extreme.

He's probably trying my idea and it's probably working.

YOU'RE FRIGGIN WELCOME!

Age about 5 years, and then find people the same age as you to join a band with.

That may sound harsh, but the previous poster is right, kids at 16 aren't going to be taking this shit seriously, generally speaking. You will find exceptions, but most 16 year olds aren't going to. Find people who will.

just don't get so stoned that you can't function

that ruined a couple of jams between me and my housemate a couple of years ago

[QUOTE=Conorman11;18985423]He's probably trying my idea and it's probably working.

YOU'RE FRIGGIN WELCOME![/QUOTE]

We all voted to have practice last Thursday, and we were all going to. But shit came up and everything got screwed, so none of us could. But yeah your idea works, at least, in the sense that everyone intellectually agrees upon something. We have difficulties actually carrying those ideas out, though...

Well two of mine were in another band that lost their bassist just after we formed the new one so I just joined that, meaning our band became pretty inactive and we lost contact with the last member. So eventually when I decided I wanted to do it again I just sacked the rest of the band (amicably, after all I still have a band with 2 of them) and brought in an entire new lineup with me moving from bass/backing vox to lead vox/rhythm guitar and a new band name (but I consider this and the old band to be the same thing cos the material we were writing with the old band is still being used by this new one, and it wasn't really long enough for the old lineup to establish itself as its own entity).

[QUOTE=Zekry;18988561]We all voted to have practice last Thursday, and we were all going to. But shit came up and everything got screwed, so none of us could. But yeah your idea works, at least, in the sense that everyone intellectually agrees upon something. We have difficulties actually carrying those ideas out, though...[/QUOTE]

Yeah I've got nothing past my idea...

it sounds like you need to ask them seriously if they are pulling in the same direction as you, and share the same goals. it seems to me that they don't being in a band is like being in a relationship - with multiple people! you need to speak candidly about what you want and if you're not on the same wavelength you might need to find other people to practice with.