In the old days, when I was young, it worked like this. "Hey Man, do you like this band?" "Yeah dude, they're rad" "Hey, I play bass guitar, so so is my influences" "Hey, cool, so so guitarist is mine" "Hey, maybe we should start a band" "Kewl Beans dude...let's jam".

So you started "jamming", which is basically a casual form of PRACTICE, and you accumulated the other members you needed, in this case would be at least a singer and a drummer, and you started covering songs you liked, and performing new originals you wrote yourself after studying the people you like enough to have an idea what to do. If you're lucky, you lived in a metropolitan era, and lasted 3-5 years playing local shows, getting a decent crowd size, selling some merch here and there if you got popular enough for it to be profitable, and if you were really really really really really really lucky - maybe someone at a record label saw you, and cut you a deal....or you got radio or TV exposure, or something else big.

Of course, that 3-5 period end would be caused by any or all of these things in complete or combination: someone fucks someone else's girlfriend/boyfriend and it causes drama that incites enmity across the board, someone fucks someone else in the band and it incites enmity across the board, someone or someones has a serious drug or alcohol addiction problem and it tears the band apart, someone isn't getting compensated fairly for their work and is angry, someone is being ignored and is angry, someone is constantly being hounded or bullied and is getting tired of it, someone is tired of all the other bandmate's stupid decisions, someone is tired of not being able to make a living playing music, social media drama starts over open sharing of peoples problems online, and/or someone is getting married and their partner hates the whole idea of them standing on stage in front of local single drunk people.

Basically, human race being human waste as usual. Human beings are often sexually immoral by default, greedy, self-entitled, lack accountability, and tend to have an over-inflated sense of importance. This fact alone is great inspiration if I do say so myself as someone who composes and writes.

And outside of the band are a whole gaggle of problems....

First off, you have venues with dwindling stage sizes, a tendency to prefer a D.J. to a live band these days, a cranky soundman who doesn't like your gear, a promoter whose going to be irritated when it's load-in and you're the only member of the band who got the memo (or didn't toke their way out of remembering it)...

You're going to be performing to sometimes as few as 0 people in a venue the size of texas, or packing a house the size of a tool shed. You'll have nights as a single musician where there's no groupies and nobody to talk to afterward as well, and other nights where you're married and your wife is pissed because a bunch of amorous ladies don't give a crap if you have a wedding band on your finger, or that you and your wife are five feet away listening and trying not to be rude or snicker at what is never going to happen. You'll have nights where you might need to bonk a skinhead or two on the noggin with a weighty Telecaster or Jaguar, and nights where you come home so late you have a 2 a.m. dinner at Denny's and then try to catch the most of sleep you can before work tomorrow.

It's not easy, it's not always fun, but it IS worth it if you are smart, and can follow some simple rules...

• Don't Shit where you eat (don't fuck or so much as hit-on a bandmate or their partner)
• Keep at least some semblance of sobriety and lucidness
• Don't make personal problems the band's problem