--- title: Starting a band — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Starting a band», a lesson of the arts course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A band is a team where everyone has a job: the drums keep the beat, the bass plays the low notes, a guitar or keyboard plays chords, and someone sings; the b --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/) / Starting a band # Starting a band Lesson 4 of the arts course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/arts/4-starting-a-band/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/0/) — A band is a team where everyone has a job: the drums keep the beat, the bass plays the low notes, a guitar or keyboard plays chords, and someone sings; the bass and drums together are the rhythm section, the floor the whole song stands on. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/1/) — Picture three friends arguing for an hour about calling themselves "Skibidi Wolves" or "The Toast" without playing a note: the name is the least important part, and lots of famous bands changed theirs early on. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/2/) — Most bands begin with covers, songs written by other people, with cheap gear or even pots and buckets, and with a short plan for each practice; skills come from playing, not from shopping. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/3/) — Bands break up over bossiness, no-shows and volume wars, so good bands turn up, share decisions and play at a level where everyone can be heard, and protect their ears from loud drums. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/4/) — Bands talk in their own slang: in Liverpool "our kid" is your brother or sister, "la" is mate and "boss" is great; in Australia a "galah" is a fool (from a noisy pink parrot) and "yeah nah" means no; in the southern US "fixin' to" means about to. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/5/) — Many famous bands changed their names early on, and it is smart to check nobody else already uses a name. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/6/) — The rhythm section is the bass and drums together, which hold the beat; the bass plays the low notes. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/8/) — A cover is a song written by someone else; an original is one the band wrote itself. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/9/) — The Beatles played many cover songs in clubs in Hamburg before they became famous for their own songs. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/10/) — A rehearsal is a practice session for a performance; a band cannot rehearse full songs if people do not turn up. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/11/) — Balance means getting each part at the right volume so every part can be heard; being loudest does not make you sound best. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/12/) — Stage fright, or performance nerves, is fear of performing; many famous performers say they still get it, and it often fades once they start playing. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/14/) — Pointing the microphone away from the speakers or turning it down stops feedback. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/15/) — Many famous bands have split up after arguments about who decides things; good bands talk, vote or take turns. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/4-starting-a-band/16/) — A setlist is the list of songs a band plans to play. - ← previous: [Practising when you would rather not](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/3-practising-when-you-would-rather-not/) - next →: [The songs on everyone's phone: streaming, playlists, earworms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/5-the-songs-on-everyones-phone-streaming-playlists-earworms/) - ↑ back to [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/)