Finding, auditioning and replacing band members

The keys player has given notice, there are eleven confirmed gigs in the diary, and the first one is in five weeks. This is the moment most bands make their worst hiring decision: they take the first person who can make the dates. Six months later they are doing this again.

Replacing a member is a project with a deadline, and it goes better if you treat it like one. Here is the process that working bands use, from the first message to the last gig with someone who did not work out.

Before you look: write the brief

Ten minutes on a brief saves ten hours of auditions. Write down:

• The role. Instrument, backing vocals or not, who sings lead on what, any doubling (keys and sax, guitar and mandolin).
• The dates. Confirmed gigs in the next six months, rehearsal night and frequency. People say no to vagueness and yes to a calendar.
• The money. Per-gig rate or share, and how quickly people get paid. Say it in the first message; it filters efficiently.
• The repertoire. How many songs, in what styles, and how many are needed for the first gig. "Forty songs, function pop and soul, twenty for the first gig on 18 October" is a brief. "Wedding stuff" is not.
• The deal-breakers. Own transport, own in-ears, reads charts, lives within 60 km. Be honest about which are real.

Where to look

Rank these by hit rate, in the experience of most function bands:

1. Your deps. The best hire is often someone who has already played three gigs with you as a substitute. You have seen them on a bad monitor mix. See deps and substitute musicians for why keeping a dep list pays twice.
2. Other bands' members. Musicians in the local scene who are in bands that gig less than you do. Ask discreetly; do not poach a friend's rhythm section a week before their wedding season.
3. Music colleges and conservatoires. Final-year and recent graduates want gigs and often read well. Expect to teach them how a function gig runs.
4. Musicians' Facebook groups, local forums and notice boards. High volume, mixed quality. The brief does the filtering.
5. Recommendations from engineers and venue staff. Sound engineers hear everyone and know who is easy to work with.

Post the brief, not a plea. Include a link to live video, because good players audition you too.

The audition: two rounds, one week

Round one: 15 minutes online or in a room, three songs. Send charts, keys and reference recordings five days ahead. Pick one straightforward song, one with a tricky arrangement (a stop, a key change, a specific ending), and one that shows the style you actually play. You are listening for three things: did they prepare, do they play with the drummer or over the drummer, and do they listen. Ten minutes in, you know.

Round two: a full rehearsal, 90 minutes, eight to ten songs. Invite the two or three best from round one to a normal rehearsal, one per session. Run a real set including transitions and count-ins. Have them sing backing vocals if the role needs it. Then go to the pub. The pub is part of the audition: this is a person you will spend 200 hours a year in a van with.

Score everyone on the same sheet: preparation, time and feel, tone and gear, singing, listening, attitude, logistics (transport, availability). Five points each, 35 total. It looks clinical and it stops the loudest member's opinion deciding.

Decide within three days and tell everyone, including the ones you did not choose. Musicians talk to each other.

The trial period

Make it explicit: "three months or the first six gigs, whichever comes later, then we both decide". During the trial:

• The new member is paid the full rate from gig one.
• They are not yet in the band's decisions on money or name (see the band agreement).
• There is a check-in after the second gig, ten minutes, with two questions: what is working, what is not.

At the end of the trial, the band votes and the new member says yes or no too. Be prepared for the second half. Good players have options.

Onboarding is your job, not theirs

The number one reason a good hire underperforms in the first month is that the band assumed they would "pick it up". They need charts with keys and structures, recordings of the band (not the originals), the setlists for the next three gigs, the dress code, the money rules, and one person to ask stupid questions to. Onboarding a new band member in two weeks is the checklist.

When someone has to go

Sometimes the person who has been in the band for four years is the problem: late to every rehearsal, unprepared, or simply making everyone else miserable. Handling it badly costs gigs and reputation. Handling it well is not pleasant either, but it is short.

1. Name the problem specifically and early. "You have missed six of the last ten rehearsals" is a fact. "You are not committed" is an opinion that starts an argument. Do this in person, one to one, not in the group chat.
2. Agree what changes and by when. A written note afterwards, two lines, so that nobody remembers it differently.
3. If it does not change, the band decides, according to whatever the agreement says. Usually a vote of the other members.
4. Tell the person in person, with two people from the band present. Say what has been decided, what gigs they will still play (if any), when they are paid, and what happens with the name and the gear. Do not relitigate.
5. Tell the rest of the band the same day with the same words. Then tell deps and anyone else who needs to know, without commentary.

Pay everything you owe, promptly. Return anything of theirs within a week. Do not talk about them to clients or on socials. Everyone in your scene will know within a month how you did this.

Replacing without losing gigs

• Keep two names per chair on the dep list at all times, so that a departure is a scheduling problem rather than a crisis.
• Have the charts and recordings ready before you need them. If a new player can learn twenty songs from your files without a rehearsal, you can survive a departure with three weeks' notice.
• Tell clients nothing unless the line-up on the contract is named. Tell them only if the change affects what they booked (a specific singer, for example).

Do this today

• Write the brief for your most likely next vacancy, even if nobody has given notice.
• Check the dep list has two names per chair. Fill the gaps.
• Check that a stranger could learn your top twenty songs from the files you have. If not, that is next rehearsal's homework.

Where expert.band helps

A new member gets an invitation link and joins the band free; they immediately see the repertoire with keys, tempos, structures and attachments, the setlists for the coming gigs, and the gig calendar with times and addresses. When someone leaves, removing them takes their access away at once while the band's history stays intact. Availability requests go out by email and SMS to everyone in the current line-up, so a new player is in the loop from the first gig request.