When a band functions like a unit it can become the ultimate dream team. Being in a band teaches you many methods of cooperating and working together with people of different backgrounds, cultures and personalities.
Being in a band helped me to develop my social and leadership skills, and even how to deal with challenging and clashing personalities. It is a rewarding experience to see a group of people functioning as a unit and reaching success.
There are many elements we can learn from playing in a band and also apply to our daily and professional lives. Let’s take a look at the exact reasons why teamwork is the golden key to making a band successful.
To Progress Faster
If there’s a high level of chemistry between all the members, then the band will operate like a unit and reach rapid success.
This does not happen overnight though. It takes time to build trust and to gain the mutual respect of the team that you are finding yourself in.
In the early stages of a band, it’s quite challenging to build the team chemistry that a band needs. We often focus on putting music together where it’s actually invaluable to build personal connections and relationships with each other.
Once there’s a high level of respect and understanding, the execution of putting music together happens much easier and faster.
If you are seeking to work on your band’s chemistry, check out my post 4 Ways To Build Chemistry With Your Bandmates here.
Your Performance is As Good As Your Practice
Working as a team improves your band practices to becoming more goal-driven.
Plan your practices together by expressing some goals ahead of time. This will help your band members to function as a team as they realise that they have goals to achieve. This will lead to feeling motivated and ambitious about working together.
I would like to recommend 2 articles I wrote that will support your band in practising more goal-driven:
This post was written and posted by De Wet from startingmyband.com on 23.09.2023. The content was stolen from me if this blog post is seen anywhere else.
Goalsetting Is Key
Sitting together and planning out what you would like to reach as a band is the key to success in a band, and it can only be achieved by teamwork.
It is crucial to have short and long-term plans in place and that it’s clear to everyone what you’d like to achieve.
This type of clarity provides stability and security to your band members in knowing that their time and talent are being taken seriously and they can feel safe to invest themselves in the musical project.
I wrote an in-depth article called Goal Setting for Bands and Artists that will guide you through the process of setting achievable goals for your band.
Structure and Routine Create Stability
Working together as a group of musicians with a practice and performance routine takes teamwork in order to create the stability of a band.
Without structure and routine, we feel lost and alone, and the feeling of coherence starts to disappear.
Working together as a team creates this much-needed structure which extends the longevity of your band members too.
Trusting in Success
Having teamwork in your band leads to trust. You will feel that you can trust your band members to make the right choices, even when you can’t be there to support them.
It also goes for your members learning to trust and let go, and just believe that things will go well even if the circumstances are different than before.
This often builds with experience with a team that sticks together.
As important as it is to try and have a plan B for every situation, it’s just as important to be risky and trust that things will go well.
Supporting Each Other’s Weaknesses
Working together in a team often exposes the weaknesses of the band members. We all have weaknesses so this is not something to be shy about.
Where the real power comes in, is where we can stand up for each other and support those weaknesses.
Imagine you have a frontman who’s a pro vocalist but is too scared to address the audience. To back him up, we have a backup vocalist who’s an extrovert and not shy to address the audience. There they found a way of supporting the weaknesses of each other.
The more this type of situation takes place, and we can actually acknowledge our weaknesses to each other, the quicker we will build mutual respect and that we actually need each other to function at our best.
The picture below is exactly the opposite way how we should treat mistakes made. We should support each other and try to understand instead of pointing out and blaming each other.
Reflection is Key
Like in sports teams or in the corporate world, reflecting on what went well and what we could improve on takes teamwork and honesty.
Reflecting on your live performances is already the first step in improving for the next concert.
We usually have an appointment with each other after shows when we take our gear to the car where we speak about what went well and what we would like to do again. But also saying what didn’t go so well.
Quite often, family members, friends and partners join us so that we can get more input from an audience perspective as well.
I am a risk taker, so often I tried something different at spontaneous moments, which sometimes worked well and other times didn’t. Getting honest feedback helped us to move forward and only take the good from each gig.
Another great method for us is to video record the whole concert and watch it again afterwards. You automatically see the cringe moments yourself and where you would like to improve.
Also, elements like how to improve on the setlist, how songs were started or ended, audience banter, and stage energy can easily be noticed through this method. The only challenge is actually having the time to watch it and reflect.
Each band finds their own way to deal with reflection, but those are my 2 preferred methods.
You Can’t Control Everything
Being there for each other as a team also helps individual members to let go of their fears and doubts.
That means that even if the worst happens, you are there for each other and can deal with all situations in a positive and optimistic approach.
When we released our previous album, we planned, together with our label, to release 3 singles before the whole album dropped. That didn’t happen as we planned it. The morning of the release we saw that the whole album was available to the public. We immediately knew there was nothing to do about the situation, but hold together as a team and try to find the positives.
We tried to turn this around in a positive experiment to see which songs of the album would perform best without us manipulating the charts by feeding it single by single.
Amazingly a very random song found its way to the top of the rock charts and we realised the potential and power of the other music on our album.
We can’t control all of the outcomes, but we can control our approach to the mistakes made by others by standing together as a team of band members and not a bunch of angry individuals.
De Wet Kruger
Relying On The Strengths Of Others
By knowing the strengths of your team, you will know the best weapons your band has to progress and perform well.
All of us have different talents and skill sets that make us happy when we can apply them and receive recognition and support from our peers and colleagues.
Use the strengths of the band members to deliver the best product you can.
I am also a firm believer that all band members should continue to learn and develop different skills than just playing their instruments. These days, bands need skills like graphic design, video editors, songwriters, managers, and organisers to make them stand out from the rest and give them a chance to progress faster by also saving time and money.
I wrote an article about various skills that are helpful for bands to have. Check out 13 Best Side Jobs for Musicians here and start expanding your skills.
Use Mistakes To Your Advantage
We all make mistakes, and without taking chances, we’ll never reach success. See mistakes as trial and error.
A band standing together as a unit gives each other the chance to make mistakes and grow from them. We mostly feel comfortable trying out new things in an environment where we feel respected and supported.
Once a mistake is made during a live performance, try to recover as well as you can, but support your band member and reflect on it. That’s the only way that we’ll grow from our mistakes and experiments.
I hope that you enjoyed the read! If you can think of any other points to add to the list, please add them to the comments below. I’d love to add them!
If you are keen to read more, here are some relevant articles:
- 13 Struggles Of Being a Musician
- The Hardest Things About Being In an Independent Band
- How to Balance Your Band Commitments With Your Personal Life
- Being in a Band is Hard Work
Until next time, Rock On!!