Hi Leaf,

I can see my old self in you. I also played in a youth band during my highschool days. It was a really great experience for me both musically and spiritually. I suggest that you must exercise your right to open up ideas, after all you are the one playing. YOU are the one making the music. Never be afraid of sharing what you know because of fear of some criticism or being accustomed that "someone else" has to do the job for you.

Ok, the next time that you are with your band mates, be proactive. Don't wait for your friends or members to open up with their ideas. Start sharing your notions that you want to contribute. Be the role model and then your mates will eventually follow. And always make the sharing healthy. In my experience, I used to collaborate with musicians who let their ego surmount them and in some cases I too often let my ego unconsciously conquer me too. If you are starting to sense some ego with your members or from you ,as you are now collaborating, control that ego and let that go.

Persistently remind yourself or your members that that will only hold the band back from the level of success that all of you are seeking. Let the sharing be as productive as possible. ALWAYS be positive.

It might be a good idea to spend a great amount of time talking with your band mates about this before attempting or setting up a practice routine. Schedule a meeting. Tell them that all of you needs to talk about specific things. You can start something like this, "Hey guys, I was thinking that if we are serious in being great at what we do, I think we need "team work". We need to work in a way where we can talk freely about what we really want to achieve. Let us think in a way successful rockstars think. Let's not wait for someone to do the job that we want. That would be great but that would also unlikely happen. So, we need to start collaborating about future goals and plans now and not wait for someone to do the job. Let's be creative, I know that you guys know something. When we start sharing remember to let this be healthy and productive. Leave your egos behind the door please. " Just some ideas. Anyhow, In my experience during those years, we used to cram at the last minute... and then we end up fighting or have hidden regrets instead.

When you start creatively planning and sincerely collaborating before doing the actual process of whatever that is (songwriting, practicing, etc.), only productive things will be the result.

So in summary:

Be proactive. Be the role model. And think of creative ways on how to do things and be sincere with one another. Never wait for the right moment. You create that moment. You hold the pen, you write the story that you want to read before you die. Now the question is: What is your story?

P.S.

If you have other questions man. Feel free to PM me. Take care!

Keep the Fire burning,
Jose Daniel