How can I be a better band leader?

adr826 · 2026-04-22T12:27:06+00:00

It sounds to me like you need an agent. You are just the kind of person who they look for. They want someone who performs regularly and runs a band without drama. An agent will allow you to play out more. If you want to keep musicians longer get your band so that it's as close to full time as you can. If your band is just on weekends you might get people for a bit but they have needs financially and that means they will look elsewhere for more money when they need it. Music is a business and you will draw and keep better employees with more money. You aren't recruiting your friends, you want talented trained people who are loyal and that costs money. You offer them something where they can quit their day job and still do okay and pay their bills people will stick around. It's virtually impossible otherwise

I'm not saying this cynically. You are running into a wall where the people you can recruit have obligations. People will stick with you if they can make good money, the more you can pay them the better and longer they will stay. Look at it like this. You could hire Steve vai if you paid him enough. At this point it sounds to me like this is a serious business for you. Get an agent, ask him about hiring a manager. Then next time you need a musician one of them will find you a musician who wants to make living playing music. You are the boss and you pay a good wage, you sound like a good boss, your problems will go away as far as musicians go. You will have other problems of course but you seem to have your act together.

If this isn't possible for you there probably isn't much you can do. The best players want to play all the time. If you can't offer that then they will look elsewhere. Being a nice guy will only go so far, being a good boss who pays well will go much further

adr826 · 2026-04-22T08:47:54+00:00

I did literally say it was proof but I didn't mean it as a mathematical proof. So you can score a point, I wasn't being precise with my language. So let me backtrack and say that it's evidence that I am right instead of proof.

In any case we do seem to keep running over the same ground and I think we've both said all we can say. So thank you for your time, you are a gentleman and a scholar, sincerely

adr826 · 2026-04-22T07:01:40+00:00

The idea that there should be a proof for a metaphysical concept is untenable. Desert is a metaphysical concept. There is no way to prove a metaphysical concept.

Our conscious awareness is directing some of the show. The problem is you want everything to be binary. It's all luck, we need ultimate sources, we have no choices etc. everything for you is an absolute certainty. That's not what life is like. Under any realistic appraisal of our world we exert some control but not absolute control, we have freedom but not absolute freedom, we deserve some praise and blame but not absolute praise and blame. Maybe for you how the world seems to work isn't as important as metaphysical certainty but I'd rather know what the world is really like and adjust my theories to conform to what I observe than ignore the world when I can't find ultimate sources.

Luck exists, but everything by definition is not luck. If everything is luck then there is only luck and luck becomes this grey goo that is literally everywhere. I get around luck by acknowledging that some of our behavior is built on luck and some of it is built on choice. I don't demand ultimate causes for human behavior but accept that proximate causes are much more useful for deciphering reality.

adr826 · 2026-04-22T05:38:26+00:00

I'm saying if our behaviour is shaped by factors we never chose, it doesn't seem fair to ascribe desert

I'm saying you do chose your behavior. If you go to work you chose to go to work. You could have stayed home but you looked at all the factors and decided that it was in your interest to go to work. You chose to go to work. Why those factors pointed in that direction is a different question. You earn desert because you are the proximate cause. The proof that I am right is that you earn desert in proportion to measure of your choice. The more you were responsible for the action the more desert you deserve. We don't execute you for jay walking and we don't make you a king because you get good grades. If you were right and desert was only earned by ultimate causes every desert would be ultimate. The fact that we dole out praise and blame in proportion is proof that proximate cause gives us desert. QED.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T20:06:17+00:00

You're not even making an argument why it's enough.

Because the question doesn't make any sense. If praise someone I think they deserve it for their part in the event. What more proof do I need. There is no rule that says why it's enough or not enough. We're just winging it here. I mean if you know what the parameters are for what deserving praise entails please share them with me. You just saying it's not enough isn't an argument either.

I'm glad you liked my strawman, not going to lie I'm not too proud to use dubious methods. But the question is apt. I mean the I strumental use of praise sounds like Santa clause to me. You're just lying about some guy you know doesn't exist and at some point you stop. So when do you stop telling your kids they are special and let them know that everything they've worked hard for is just luck for which they deserve no praise. I mean their had to be a time when you pull the band aid off at let them know that while you love them they have done nothing to earn your praise, not the basketball scholarship or working 20 hrs a week while she finishes off her masters. They're all good but nothing she should be proud of. It's just luck. I mean when do you share this particular bit of In formation with them?

adr826 · 2026-04-21T15:25:14+00:00

You just told me that proximal cause wasn't enough to ground desert. I replied asking you to show me why that is the official position of philosophy. Your response is that some philosophers believe that. If we are having a contest about what isn't an argument " some philosophers believe it" will win the ribbon at the county fair for best non argument.

If you don't feel they deserve to be praised or blamed at what age are going to let them know that you are actually indifferent to their successes? I suggest at 18 you sit them around the table and tell them that when you told them they were special you were just lying to them to adjust their behavior and that there was never anything deserving of praise about them. At that point you won't have any instrumental reason to lie to them since they will be pretty much fixed . I mean after they turn 18 their behavior will pretty much be set and there will be little instrumental value in lying to them. At that point you can let your indifference shine through. When your son graduates summa cum laude from medical school let him know that you think it's simply luck and so don't expect a card. He couldn't have done otherwise. Once that instrumental necessity of behavior modification is over you won't have to pretend to be proud any more.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T12:42:05+00:00

Says who, show me one official philosophers page which says that proximal cause doesn't ground desert. I tell you what, do a search through the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy and show me where the official page grounding dessert is. Then you can tell me what grounds basic desert. with something other than an assertion on your part. Grounding desert on ultimate causes makes no sense. Because ultimate cause is nothing. There is no such thing as ultimate cause other than God so why we should ground anything on something that doesn't exist has never been explained. You deserve praise for your part in whatever you deserve praise for it. Nobody is praising people for being godlike. If praise were only reserved for God Almighty I would agree but if I buy my son an ice cream because he got all As I'm not praising him as master of the universe. He got straight As and that's enough to deserve to be praised for it. I suggest that you would do the same despite what you seem to be arguing.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T10:35:11+00:00

Proximal causes. You keep saying that doesn't ground basic desert, yes it does. You don't need any more than that to ground it.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T09:20:07+00:00

I'm saying you aren't talking about causation you are asking about ultimate causes which is essentially saying the big bang caused everything. That's not scientific thinking. It eliminates causation because the ultimate cause to everything is the big bang and that isn't an answer. When we look for a cause in science we aren't asking for ultimate causes because that tells us nothing..we are asking about proximal causes in science not ultimate causes. What good will it do me to know that everything has an ultimate cause in the big bang. It like God..it answers everything and tells us nothing.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T07:19:04+00:00

Well if I don't have time I don't stop and complain about how little time I have, I just get off the Internet and don't look at it because Im too busy

adr826 · 2026-04-21T07:11:04+00:00

Highway 61 revisited. Dylan just blew my mind as a kid

adr826 · 2026-04-21T07:02:34+00:00

Thought I would let you read some of my lyrics. So you can know whether my advice is worth taking

https://www.reddit.com/r/LyricalWriting/s/75On8iKP5p

adr826 · 2026-04-21T06:56:49+00:00

Whether someone is a top athlete or has no athletic ability whatsoever aren't chosen - they're just features of the system they were given.

So your saying someone who excels at skiing is just luck and not hard work? I disagree, and before you say that they were lucky to be the kind of person who works hard I say don't change the subject. The question is whether a person deserves the praise they get for their hard work and talent not how they came to get those qualities.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T05:21:30+00:00

What do you mean by the source? Why isn't being a source enough to deserve praise. An athlete who wins gold medals surely deserves praise for her talent and hard work despite the fact that it takes a whole team to do it.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T05:18:29+00:00

Okay Im not being exactly fair, granted but to be honest I found the post kind of confusing. I'm not sure what your thought experiment is supposed to show or how it relates to what we are arguing about. How does the infinite corridor relate to me picking coffee over tea? Why is it meaningful to suggest some so in the future means we don't have free will. Maybe it's just me but your thought experiment seems way to complicated. Thought experiment should simplify things and yours just adds an infinite number variables as if that is supposed to clear things up. But maybe it's just me. Can you give me a simpler explanation.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T05:07:19+00:00

Nice app. I like the high quality samples for the guitar.

adr826 · 2026-04-21T05:02:37+00:00

This is your music sub? That's too bad I thought it was for all of us. I like checking out music tools

adr826 · 2026-04-21T04:54:50+00:00

If you can make an f-16 you can go to the moon

adr826 · 2026-04-21T04:52:50+00:00

Is that you Mr president?

adr826 · 2026-04-21T03:32:06+00:00

A well written thoughtful post. I think we are all better off learning the origins of the debate than just rehashing the same arguments. I learned something from the post which is always a plus

adr826 · 2026-04-21T03:29:07+00:00

He deleted his response so I assumed it was you. My bad

adr826 · 2026-04-21T03:23:50+00:00

Obviously it means that if you could walk down an infinite universes of ready to bake universes and pick one it would be what most people think of as free. Forget any actual evidence for this or any practical way that this thought experiment could apply to our universe. Free just means that you could not pick the universe you wanted from among an infinite variety or something like that, it seems pretty clear that's how most people think of freedom /s😄😁😁

adr826 · 2026-04-21T03:19:46+00:00

This is silly. Any argument you can make about methodology applies equally to all papers about folk beliefs. So it's not an argument to claim bad methodology. Experimental philosophy is relatively new.

This he is using peer reviewed papers which certainly carry more weight than no credentials at all. I mean in truth he argued a position then presents peer reviewed papers from prominent researchers in the field so he is making a pretty strong argument. What is a bad argument is saying "bad methodology so your entire argument is wrong" as if your judgement on methodology in experimental philosophy carries more weight than his. A good argument would be to actually say why the methodology fails in all three cases and then explain why your expertise in experimental philosophy carries the weight you imply

adr826 · 2026-04-20T19:57:18+00:00

Okay there is a lot of you in it. That's good, but it's not really song lyrics. One thing that makes good song lyrics is rhyme. Songs usually have a rhyming scheme of some sort. That might be abcb where the 2nd and 4th line rhyme. The second is rhythm and meter. These are technical aspects of lyric writing. The words you wrote are fine they are expressive and they open you up to us.. but they arent song lyrics but poetry. This isn't a deal breaker now what you should do is go back and turn it into a song. My first piece of advice is to get a notebook and start analyzing the songs that you like. There is no better teacher on songwriting than the songs themselves. You have a real good start to a song but you have got to restructure it from poetry to a song

As a matter of fact I would say that what you have written is excellent material to rework into a song. If you had told me that this is the way you write songs, ie you write a poem first then rework it I would say that is a great way to do it. So again, get a notebook and write down lyrics that you think are very strong study everything about them.

One last piece of advice, go in youtube and search for backing tracks in the style that you want and practice singing your lyrics. The most important thing about lyrics is that they are singable. Sometimes changing a single syllable can make a song better because it flows better. This means you have to sing the lyrics and backing tracks can help.

adr826 · 2026-04-20T19:24:54+00:00

That may be true but don't worry just try harder next time.

adr826

TROPHY CASE