15 yo wants to be in a band
Hello!
My HS freshman (he/him) wants to be part of a band, but doesn't know how to connect with other like-minded musicians. He plays guitar, and we don't have room to practice at our cozy apartment. He likes shoe gaze and post punk music.
He is not interested in BandCamp and the like. Does anyone have any leads on how to connect a painfully shy, but musically passionate kid with a group of simliar kids?
Any advice is welcomed! Thank you!
Feb 8, 2023
Parent Replies
Surely hanging around Emeryville Guitar Center bulletin board or similar??
IMHO, what finally worked was weekly "school of rock" style classes. Our daughter was similarly shy and eventually did well with Bandworks. The trick is to keep on signing up and trying out different configurations of kids. It didn't work out immediately. The first two seasons, she didn't click with the kids either due to personality or level of musicianship. Now she's in a trio of kids who are having a great time and playing great music. https://bandworks.com/ Call them up and have a chat!
Another option is that sometimes private music teachers "match up" students into a band.
My kids are in a more folky/acoustic genre, but what worked well for them was finding interesting mentors/teachers who were in a position to put them together with other kids they would gel with musically. The teachers sometimes work kind of like mini-agents. They also met kids at music summer camps and formed bands there, often orchestrated by same teachers. They made some lifelong friends at these camps, which can be very intense. A lot of the really focused music kids we met this way were homeschooled and would have been hard (impossible?) to connect with otherwise.