BREAKING NEWS :

Keeping the band together; I’ve written about it before, I’m writing about it now, I’ll write about it again in the future. Why? It is the single most discussed topic of frustration at Dace’s Rock ‘n’ More Music Academy. Seldom does a week go by that I’m not talking to a student and/or parent about how the keeping of a band together is extremely difficult to do with professional musicians and nearly impossible to do with kids who go to school and play sports and adults who have jobs and kids. From the many conversations I’ve had, however, it seems to me that keeping a band together for an extended period of time is one of the top priorities for some of the kids and a surprisingly large amount of parents. I don’t want to be a buzzkill, but these people – as wonderful, smart, and thoughtful as they are – are setting themselves up for failure due to the retention of a virtually impossible goal.

I could go on to draw a correlation between the personnel turnaround in our bands and any sports team in the world or the personnel turnaround at the company where you work and ask you how you expect a band of hobbyists to keep it together ad infinitum, but I think I’d rather take a more positive approach instead and ruminate about Eric Clapton.

I’m sure the vast majority of people reading this know who Eric Clapton is. He is a legend in rock ‘n’ roll, blues, and guitar circuits. He is considered by most guitar aficionados to be one of the best rock guitar players of all time. He’s hung out with Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles and they were big fans of Clapton. In fact, Clapton has had such a prolific career that he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times!!! That fact is the true source of this meditation.

No one else has been inducted as many or more times as Clapton. In order to be inducted that many times, he’s had to have been a member of at least three extremely successful and/or influential bands. For Clapton, three bands is nothing. Looking at the list of bands he’s been a member of, you might think he could go through three bands before breakfast. In fact, in the eight years from 1963-1970 Eric Clapton was actually a member of 8 different bands! Count ‘em: The Roosters, The Yardbirds, The Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Dalaney and Bonnie and Friends, Derek and the Dominos, and another band as a solo artist. The Yardbirds, Cream, and Eric Clapton as a solo artist are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In that time, and since, Clapton has played and recorded with numerous acts such as George Harrison and John Lennon, but I think you get the idea by now, so I’ll digress.

Eric Clapton has been in a lot of bands. He could have gotten frustrated about not staying together with one of these bands and quit but he didn’t. Instead he led most of these bands to success and made the most of every opportunity he had to play. That’s the point I’m trying to make here.

Whether or not you decide you want to be in the rock ‘n’ roll hall of fame is up to you, but as long as we’re dealing with people who possess the freedom to do what they want and the desire to exercise that right, neither you nor I can force any band member to stay in any band. I think it’s safe to conclude from the data gathered here that if one’s glass is half-empty, one would probably notice that one’s Rockology band might not last more than one quarter. If one’s glass is half-full, I’m sure one would be delighted to find out that one’s Rockology band is going to be together for at least three months and one would get to play a gig with these people. You are a free person, so you get to decide which of those two options works best for you.