Does Conduct Count?

 

How you band conducts itself is a major indicator of your seriousness and professionalism. The more you come across as a unified, polite and professional band, the more likely you are to meet people who genuinely want to work with you or further your career.

 

As the music industry experiences major growing pains, there are becoming extremely choosy as to whom they are willing to invest in. If you are sloppy, unprofessional, late, drunk or just have lousy manners; you are risking a bad reputation in an increasingly smaller community where people definitely talk. The same applies if you’re keeping it small and local. You want to keep that weekly gig? Then clean up after yourself and be respectful of the owner. 

 

I’ve already discussed the importance of band meetings, though we all know how annoying they can be. Frequent meetings are important ways to check in, clear the air, come up with game plans and generate concepts not directly related to your music. The conduct of your band is a great topic to discuss, although you may feel like you’re in 4^th grade again.

 

Here are some conduct questions to toss around:

 

• How does your band come across as a whole? When you walk into a venue, are you friendly? Professional? Respectful?

 

• If there’s a disagreement in the group, how is it handled? One way to destroy credibility is in-fighting. An audience likes a group that seems to like one another.

 

• How business savvy is your group? If you sit down with a promoter or a record producer, can you hold your own as a group or do you sound like you crawled out from a rock in Stoophole, Arkansas?

 

• Drinking on stage is a slippery slope. Make some guidelines so you don’t appear like a bunch of careless drunks.

 

• Who’s the spokesperson for the group? If someone is well spoken, let that person do the talking. It’s nice to have a “wing man” as well – a secondary spokesperson that can back up or reiterate.

 

• How do you deal with hecklers or drunks in the audience? Yelling back can cause some more problems if you’re not careful. What are some clever ways to diffuse a tense situation?

 

• The Big One – Do you clean up after yourself and respect the venue you’re performing in? Once you enter the building, your professionalism should begin. Same holds with touring and the places you stay. 

 

You may think you’re beyond all this “conduct” stuff. Maybe you’re too rock and roll, too free-spirited. The truth is: if you plan on moving forward musically, conduct counts. People gravitate toward professionalism. They know they can count on you and your band and that you’re hassle-free.

 

Simply put, good conduct shows you mean business.