Why Teen Bands Fail: Evolution of a Teen Rock Star
Teens generally follow a pattern when learning to play a musical instrument.
1.
They ask their parents for a drum, guitar, bass and sometimes, a keyboard.
2.
They try to teach themselves a few things.
3.
They ask for lessons.
4.
Either someone comes to the house or the student goes to a store that sells musical equipment for those lessons.
5.
Somewhere near the six-month mark the student decides he wants to form a garage band.
At this point he either finds other kids to play with or loses interest in playing.
6.
If he finds others, rehearsal is typically at the drummer's house because the drummer can't haul his equipment as easily as the guitars can.
a.
At this point the drummer's mom gets tired of them always being at her house - or b.
There are two guitarists and one of them usually has a conflict in their ability to get to rehearsal or c.
The band gets better and they decide they want to perform 7.
In order to perform the band needs to buy additional equipment: sound board, speakers, monitors, microphones.
a.
Who pays for it? b.
Where do they store it? c.
Who owns it if the band breaks up? 8.
If they cross this hurdle then they have to find places to play.
This requires someone in the band to take responsibility for finding clubs and teen centers and contacting them to find out how they get to play there.
9.
When they find a place to play then it is their responsibility to "market the gig" and get their friends to come to their concerts.
This means someone has to design flyers and someone has to pay to have them printed.
10.
The next hurdle is getting the equipment to the venue.
Do they each have a car big enough to haul their own equipment? What if they need to take their sound gear? 11.
They arrive at the club, set up and hope a lot of people come.
12.
If 20 people show up they're lucky.
13.
The band breaks up because they discover it's a lot harder and more time consuming than they imagined.
Many young musicians dream of being "discovered" like Justin Bieber.
How realistic is this? Well, there are 6.
5 million music videos on the leading video website and only ONE Justin Bieber.
The odds are not in your favor.
How wonderful would it be for teen musicians if someone took care of all of this for them? Offered a place to rehearse.
Had "house equipment" so drums, sound boards, etc didn't need to be hauled back and forth.
Found other musicians with similar musical interests and similar skills to play with.
Booked and marketed the gigs?
1.
They ask their parents for a drum, guitar, bass and sometimes, a keyboard.
2.
They try to teach themselves a few things.
3.
They ask for lessons.
4.
Either someone comes to the house or the student goes to a store that sells musical equipment for those lessons.
5.
Somewhere near the six-month mark the student decides he wants to form a garage band.
At this point he either finds other kids to play with or loses interest in playing.
6.
If he finds others, rehearsal is typically at the drummer's house because the drummer can't haul his equipment as easily as the guitars can.
a.
At this point the drummer's mom gets tired of them always being at her house - or b.
There are two guitarists and one of them usually has a conflict in their ability to get to rehearsal or c.
The band gets better and they decide they want to perform 7.
In order to perform the band needs to buy additional equipment: sound board, speakers, monitors, microphones.
a.
Who pays for it? b.
Where do they store it? c.
Who owns it if the band breaks up? 8.
If they cross this hurdle then they have to find places to play.
This requires someone in the band to take responsibility for finding clubs and teen centers and contacting them to find out how they get to play there.
9.
When they find a place to play then it is their responsibility to "market the gig" and get their friends to come to their concerts.
This means someone has to design flyers and someone has to pay to have them printed.
10.
The next hurdle is getting the equipment to the venue.
Do they each have a car big enough to haul their own equipment? What if they need to take their sound gear? 11.
They arrive at the club, set up and hope a lot of people come.
12.
If 20 people show up they're lucky.
13.
The band breaks up because they discover it's a lot harder and more time consuming than they imagined.
Many young musicians dream of being "discovered" like Justin Bieber.
How realistic is this? Well, there are 6.
5 million music videos on the leading video website and only ONE Justin Bieber.
The odds are not in your favor.
How wonderful would it be for teen musicians if someone took care of all of this for them? Offered a place to rehearse.
Had "house equipment" so drums, sound boards, etc didn't need to be hauled back and forth.
Found other musicians with similar musical interests and similar skills to play with.
Booked and marketed the gigs?
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