When sophomore music media production major Scott Chapman arrived on campus last year, he expected to find an established music scene and plenty of musicians to play with. However, he said he was disappointed at how hard it was to find bands to join.
That’s when Chapman got the idea to start a group for musicians to network with each other on campus. The Garage Band Club, he said, helps connect student musicians with each other and assist them in forming bands to perform with in the area.
“I wanted to create a club that essentially got kids together, musicians to start bands,” Chapman said. “[I was] hoping for me to find players to play with for myself but as well as everyone else who’s looking for the same thing I’m looking for.”
Chapman's vision for the group is for musicians to network, form bands and eventually perform around campus and the Muncie area.
“I figured if you got every musician together we could form a couple bands,” Chapman said. “I’d like to put on house parties or set up our own stages around campus and just do like, one show a month anywhere on campus that we could find a gig.”
Even though the club was officially started last year, Chapman said he’s had some trouble setting up meetings and getting his project off the ground.
“It’s a tough process is what I’m learning,” Chapman said. “It’s hard to keep both [school and the club] going, obviously school comes first. Two weeks or three weeks might go by and I realize I haven’t even contacted anybody about updates, things like that.”
So far this semester though, he’s had 16 people ask to join the email list, as well as some additional people who expressed interest in the club last year. He’s planning to have the first meeting in the next week or so.
A member of the club and president of another student organization said it can be hard juggling running an organization and being a student. Alex Rodriguez, a senior music media production major and the president of the Audio Engineering Society, said while he doesn’t have much experience, he still had a few tips for Chapman.
“It’s extremely difficult, getting people to show up for events and everything like that is really hard, even for meetings,” Rodriguez said. “I gave him advice on how to approach things on social media, how to make sure there’s no typos or anything, make it look professional so that way it’s taken seriously, just kind of little things like that because other than that I don’t really know much about running an organization. “
Rodriguez joined the group after meeting Chapman in University Singers, and plans on running live audio for the shows the club plans to put on.
“Scott’s a brilliant musician,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a great model for the group that he’s trying to produce … if it can get off its feet and he can get something going there, I think it’s going to be a really unique organization to Ball State.”
Students from all different majors and all performance acts can find a place in Garage Band Club, Chapman said. Once the organization grows, the group also plans to look for managers, audio producers and people with marketing skills.
“Anyone who wants to be on stage, anyone who’s an entertainer [can be a member],” Chapman said. “It can be more than just music, if you think you’re funny and you want to be a comedian, this is the time to get on stage and try your stuff. Anyone who just loves to perform their art in front of people, that’s what it’s for.”
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