The jam session is the seemingly last step in the screening process of finding a new band mate for your band. It is simply a confirmation of your decision. At this point, you should feel comfortable choosing one musician over the another but want one more opportunity to make it official. Call the selected musician and invite him or her over for your next practice or jam session.
Spend a few hours playing together with your new band mate and get the vibe of how the person responds in practice and builds off of the team. Like a working interview, you are judging the candidate in a live setting. At this point, he or she should be comfortable and showing true personality and confidence.
The goal of this jamming session is to effectively “try before you buy”. This first practice as a full band will be an indicator of future meetings and song writing. You are letting a new musician dig deeper into how the band works and operates and seeing how he or she handles more details aspects of a band practice.
Although you will not outright say, “welcome to the team”, there will be obvious hints and confirmations to the musician that they have been accepted. You want the new team member to feel that they still need to impress the team, but you also want them to enjoy themselves and understand that if all goes well, there will be many more practices and eventually shows with your group.
As the practice winds down, begin to ask the new musician some pointed questions for input and understanding. If the time has been valuable and all signs point to move forward, it is time to gather everyone together and sit down to have one final conversation. This lock down conversation is the defining point of welcome for the new band mate and, as always, should be handled with preparation. |
