What role do you play in your band?

[Konfyouzd]

Not *exactly* what the title says but more or less...

I've been playing with some friends lately. It seems that beyond our designated instruments we all seem to play different roles. For instance, the drummer seems to provide structure and genuinely enjoy doing so.

The pianist and I are pretty much unstructured idea factories.

We come up with idea after idea and variation after variation of a given idea until we're blue in the face and usually have a whole bunch of "parts" that sound good but no real coherent progression.

Thus, the drummer typically takes a lot of the randomness we come up with and will suggest a structure that he thinks flows well based on what we present and from there we take bare bones structures and fill them in with various dynamic elements.

If I were to paint a picture I'd look at it like the drummer is an architect/builder and the piansit and I would be parts manufacturers/builders (we make the doors, windows, floor boards, what-have-you; the drummer designs a structure; and together we build the foundation and proceed to complete the "house").

Nerdy topic ftw...

Discuss!

 

[Riffer]

I'm in a cover band so there isn't really any writing rolls anybody plays. Our singer is our booking guy though if that counts haha. But when i was in a metal band a few year ago I was the principle song writer. I'd write 98% of the music and present it to the band. The drummer would then add a little flavor to the parts that I wrote. The other guitar player was basically just there so we could play harmonies. He never wrote anything and when he did write stuff, it wasn't good. The bassist was our booking guy and came up with a few riffs here and there. Our singer just wrote lyrics and did merch stuff.

 

[Marv Attaxx]

I was the last member who joined the band. My task (or the one I gave myself) is it to fill the spaces, to make our sound "full". I play keys (the singer used to play keys AND guitar) and guitar, depending on the song.
I do have solo-passages but most of the time I play fills or pads/strings to create a certain atmosphere or use the 7/8 string for more low-end
The singer/lead guitarist and the drummer write pretty much all of the music.

for example:
http://soundcloud.com/marvattaxx/04-delusion
at the beginning I play guitar, in the end keys (bigass choir and strings).

EDIT: I forgot that I am the engineer (recording/mixing/master), too

 

[Konfyouzd]

^ That's really cool stuff.

I'm trying to push my band in a similar direction musically... It'll be interesting to see where we actually end up.

 

[celticelk]

I *am* my band. Insofar as I'm doing anything right now besides unplugged practicing/noodling, I do solo loop improv. And not enough of it. Need to finish wiring up my gear after the house move and programming my HD500....

 

[skeels]

I have always been the primary writer and arranger.
Also a director, caregiver, nurse, babysitter and sponsor!
Really want to be in a band where roles are equal and somewhat adult - like.

 

[ArtDecade]

I wonder how Trent Reznor would answer this question....

 

[Sephael]

Not in a band, but I'm the go to guy for gear fixing, suggesting, setup, etc for friends bands. I do occasional lyrics, suggestions on riffs they are messing with and am pretty much the guy they go to when they ate stuck and need inspiration or an impartial (as I can be) ear.

 

[Larrikin666]

I generally feel like a babysitter more than anything else.

 

[Konfyouzd]

It's a tough job but someone has to do it. I find that I have to stay on top of everyone about making sure we meet at least once a week. Somehow it tends to slip everyone else's mind.

 

[ArrowHead]

Band Sheriff. In a potential threat I do an ocular assessment of the situation, garner that they're not a security risk and I clear them for passage.

 

[jordanky]

I proclaim myself as the band mechanic haha. I do tech and repair in a guitar shop so I'm always having to re-wire this or set this up, change strings and I'm always in charge of fixing pedalboards and whatever else etc. It sucks, but I do enjoy all of our gear working properly when it's game time haha

 

[Dan]

I basically write the overall songs and then hand it over to our keys player to fill bits up. I usually end up changing his keys parts too

On top of that i deal with all the PR, the management side of things and i generally crack the whip. It's 'my' band i guess and im someone that likes things done properly, so i end up doing it all myself. The whole EP besides the vocals and the drums was done by me took me forever too.

I've got a little less OCD about it all now and i let other people take the reigns, but i still have those moments. I think its all about finding a happy medium and making sure that you can trust the others when you need to.

 

[brutalwizard]

my guitarist is the main songwriter and the slut.

I just give riff and song ideas, keep up all the gear maintenance and tone sculpting.

Also I play all the leads and stuff, been coaching my guitarist to get into soloing

 

[MrPepperoniNipples]

yup, that's me

minus the chick magnet stuff

 

[Polythoral]

For the current EP/album, only our vocalist is doing writing, as he sorta started it and wrote the for couple songs before finding others and now feels that he needs to do everything himself for it to prove to himself he can, which I have nothing wrong.

So, as of now I'm sort of the level headed thinker when it comes to other things. Everyone else tends to have insane ideas of things we can do to promote and for the future that are clearly without reason and I typically refine them to things that make sense, haha. It's good cause I'm not the best at coming up with ideas at first, just refining them.

We plan to collaborate between everyone on the following releases, at which point I feel I'll be the guitar melody/lead writer, harmony guy, and groove man.

I also am sort of our current amateur tech when it comes to guitars/basses/computers and many other electronic things.

Oh, and I'm Guitar Pro king. I get to be the one to tab everything out always, hahaha.

 

[Scattered Messiah]

Up to now, my main band consists of 2 guitarists, one bassist, a drummer and a keyboarder/pianist:

It is to a big part "my" band - I am the creative center, bringing in ideas for jamming, artwork.

The keyboarder is the theorist, helping me working out song structure, lyrics, variations of themes.
we together take the role of a conductor during rehearsals [timing details, dynamics, ect..]

Our drummer is in charge of the soundengineering and maintenance side of things, though I take a good part in that, too.

The bassist is the "sherrif" and is more or less in charge of the organization of the rehearsal procedure itself, getting us really to do anything, kicking our arse to finally tab "this", and generally being the most organized one of us, ect.
In due time [with the first records done] he'll be in charge of our internetz^^

The other guitarist is our pr manager, and currently raising a record-label with a few of his friends, knowing everyone and everything.

 

[Rockwaves101]

Its really quite interesting to read that the majority of the responses on here are from what I would term 'band leaders'. I think it takes a certain amount of initiate to be on forums such as these reaching out to other musicians & seeing how they can improve. A quality the 'other members' probably don't do.

 

[ChrisRushing]

I fall somewhere in the 95% producer and 50% writer followed (somewhat unfortunately) by enforcer. Anytime someone gets things twisted and needs "a Talk" or heaven forbid "The Talk" I am usually the one that ends up dishing it out. This task tends to fall on me because I am very good at thinking about what I am actually saying before saying it. Also, my mood is almost always calm and collected regardless of how stupid or irrational the other person is acting. It is what it is. I am sure some of you know exactly what I am talking about.

 

[Polythoral]

Its really quite interesting to read that the majority of the responses on here are from what I would term 'band leaders'. I think it takes a certain amount of initiate to be on forums such as these reaching out to other musicians & seeing how they can improve. A quality the 'other members' probably don't do.

I in no way feel comfortable being considered the leader, haha. I have no prior band experience and as such don't know how a lot of the business ends of things work, so that's entirely our vocalist's work. He is also the one who makes sure practice goes smoothly and that everything is perfect. He hears every timing mistake and such, and I am awful at that and could in no way call it out.