Steve S
01-17-2003, 01:35 PM
I've been playing with a classic rock band for almost two years and wonder if it's time for me to go.
This group has been together for 10 years and added myself on bass and a lead guitar player because the former members never practiced or wanted to practice. With the two new people, we learned a lot of different songs that required more harmony because we were willing to put the time into it. Over time, I've noticed some things that have made me wonder about my future with this group.
1. The leader is a nice guy and sings most of the songs while playing rhythm guitar and some lead. He's not very organized so I started doing some of it like creating our song list and adding the keys. For the gigs, he makes up the set lists but seems to never look at the master list because he usually has at least 6 songs in the wrong key.....and this is for all of the gigs. Luckily, the other player and I knew the correct keys so always played the right thing. The leader.....sometimes we had to tell him the correct note while in the song and on the stage. He doesn't seem to hear the difference.....
2. They have continued to have some gigs with their former band members....and the leader always complains after those gigs about how the former players never practice so they always sound awful....but it's been going on for almost two years.
They have a gig this weekend without me.
3. I love jamming with different people and creating new music. I've asked the leader to play with some other musicians but most of the time he's refused saying that he doesn't want to stand around just playing lead. He did come with me last month to a jam session with some of my friends but only played the songs that the band knows and never got into the creative aspects of jamming.
4. The lead guitar player quit last week because he has another band that is gigging more frequently. He was the best musician in the band and the only person who noticed that I had bought another bass, a reissue '62 sunburst Precision. My other bass is a blue jazz deluxe.
I don't know if I have the energy or desire to work with a new player. The remaining guys don't seem interested in playing music because it's fun but because it allows them the opportunity to play in front of people. I've also noticed that if I make a suggestion, the leader always dismisses it but the several weeks later, he'll repeat it only it's now his idea. An example is "You May Be Right" by Billy Joel. They were only adding harmony at the end of the song "You maybe right but you maybe wrong." When I told him that there is harmony throughout the song he just grunted. Several weeks later, he mentioned that there is a lot of harmony in the song and that I needed to listen to it to learn them.
We're not a group of kids...all of us are around 50 with wives and children so it makes it easy to relate to each other. We've all finished college too so we can interact on the same level which is nice. However, I wouldn't consider us friends.
This group has been together for 10 years and added myself on bass and a lead guitar player because the former members never practiced or wanted to practice. With the two new people, we learned a lot of different songs that required more harmony because we were willing to put the time into it. Over time, I've noticed some things that have made me wonder about my future with this group.
1. The leader is a nice guy and sings most of the songs while playing rhythm guitar and some lead. He's not very organized so I started doing some of it like creating our song list and adding the keys. For the gigs, he makes up the set lists but seems to never look at the master list because he usually has at least 6 songs in the wrong key.....and this is for all of the gigs. Luckily, the other player and I knew the correct keys so always played the right thing. The leader.....sometimes we had to tell him the correct note while in the song and on the stage. He doesn't seem to hear the difference.....
2. They have continued to have some gigs with their former band members....and the leader always complains after those gigs about how the former players never practice so they always sound awful....but it's been going on for almost two years.
They have a gig this weekend without me.
3. I love jamming with different people and creating new music. I've asked the leader to play with some other musicians but most of the time he's refused saying that he doesn't want to stand around just playing lead. He did come with me last month to a jam session with some of my friends but only played the songs that the band knows and never got into the creative aspects of jamming.
4. The lead guitar player quit last week because he has another band that is gigging more frequently. He was the best musician in the band and the only person who noticed that I had bought another bass, a reissue '62 sunburst Precision. My other bass is a blue jazz deluxe.
I don't know if I have the energy or desire to work with a new player. The remaining guys don't seem interested in playing music because it's fun but because it allows them the opportunity to play in front of people. I've also noticed that if I make a suggestion, the leader always dismisses it but the several weeks later, he'll repeat it only it's now his idea. An example is "You May Be Right" by Billy Joel. They were only adding harmony at the end of the song "You maybe right but you maybe wrong." When I told him that there is harmony throughout the song he just grunted. Several weeks later, he mentioned that there is a lot of harmony in the song and that I needed to listen to it to learn them.
We're not a group of kids...all of us are around 50 with wives and children so it makes it easy to relate to each other. We've all finished college too so we can interact on the same level which is nice. However, I wouldn't consider us friends.