Well, it may seem backward to go from "joining a band" to "forming a band", but since the original band was put together by the music store, it was "preformed" for lack of a better term.

We've had a week or so off from the last open mic performance. The adreneline has worn off and the drummer and I are looking to build up a "real" band around us.

Today we invited the guy that played bass for us to continue on as our bass player. His perferred instrument is guitar, but he was eager to jump on the opportunity to keep going with us. He did pretty well on bass, so it should work out well for everybody.

We've decided that our goals are to play "out" 3 to 4 times a year. We were invited to come back to play at the open mic again whenever we want, so that will be a great venue to perform songs as we learn them in front of an audience. Our dummer's husband has a band that will be performing a free concert in a local park in the summer. He's tossed out the idea of us opening for them with a 3 song set that feature the singers from his band. So, we've got some gigs, albeit small ones, lined up.

We've also chosen 4 songs to start working on - "Listen to the Music" and "China Grove" by the Doobie Brothers, "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones, and "Oye Como Va" by Santana. I know more than half of each of these songs, so ramp up shouldn't be too bad, so we can concentrate on getting the groove down as a band. I have some lead guitar to learn too :-).

We plan to meet once a week to rehearse for 2 hours or so. Everybody will be expected to learn their parts oustide of this rehearsal time. When folks worked on their parts outside of rehearsal for the music store band, it worked well and were able to nail about 2 songs down per month.

I was quite surprised to find that my Zoom G5 pedal works VERY well when run through a powered monitor via a mixer! This was a pleasant surprise. The PA we will be using has more than enough power, so this will save me having to haul around a heavy amp. I'll also have a wide variety of sounds to choose from regarding amps and stuff. I'm excited about that.

We are also waiting for a callback from a singer that was interested...

So, that's where we are at. This band is still in its infancy, so there's a long road ahead. At the moment though, it seems to be coming together.

I'll post updates here as we get out legs under us.

Should be an interesting journey...