If I were going about it, I would get to know the salespersons down at my local music store real well. They spend their days talking shop with all kinds of musicians, so they might know of one or two who are looking to form a band, or want to join one. More often than not, the salesperson is a musician him/herself, and he/she may also be on the lookout out for up and coming talent to partner up with.

The same music store may also have a bulletin board on which to leave a message. These boards are usually covered with wanted to buy/sell ads, and musicians looking for work or to form/join a band.

If that didn't generate some action, I might take out an ad in the local newspaper, or frequent forums such as this one (maybe one a little more blues oriented) and put out some *feelers.*

Deciding what to play once the band is in place --- it should depend on the makeup of the band. If your instruments are mainly accoustic, then you wouldn't want to be playing electric blues, of course, and vice versa. Deciding what to play is dependent in part on the instruments in your band. My thing happens to be electric blues, performed with the basic complement of bass, drums, and guitar. Therefore I would shoot for covering tunes which essentially featured the same complement of instruments.

How often to practice depends on how often the band can get together. To me the ideal would be, "all the time"...in other words, to get really tight the band should all move in together, quit their day jobs, and play virtually every waking moment. Bands that do this are usually shooting for the *big time.* As this is not a realistic scenario for most of us, I would say at a minimum two nights a week, and these sessions should be fairly long ones - 3-4 hours, because the band isn't meeting that often to practice. The more time that can be devoted to practice, obviously, the better. Regular "weekend gig" bands probably get together about three times a week for 2-3 hours to work up fresh material, etc.

My take on it. Hope this helps.