Bad Audition

jmac · #1 05-27-2008, 08:43 PM

Ok, my friend is a guitarist in a band in NYC. The band is a looking for a bassist. So this past weekend they had an audition. The bassist was one and half hours late. Keep in mind that the band pays for rehearsal space by the hour.

Well he arrives and doesn't know the songs. So he's trying to learn them on the fly. The songs are in D, C#. He can't transpose them on the fly. It was a mess.

Seriously, why do people show up late? Why do they show up unprepared?

Anyway, I thought I'd share.

Foxworthy925 · #2 05-28-2008, 12:36 AM

Hm, you should have hopped in when the guy wasn't working out and schooled his ass..

IAmTheDood · #3 05-28-2008, 07:31 AM

i joined up with a band last week .. they had a memorial party gig on sunday.

They told me that a bass player was gonna fill in for this gig, and we decided to alternate songs.

the guy had a original '73 p bass that he bought new in '73, along with an old peavy amp and fender 2x10 cab.

figured he must be good .. he sucked .. didn't learn any of the songs and tried to play them on the fly figuring them out .. had a week to prepare 22 songs .. i did the other 22 .. i ended up playing about 30 of them at the gig because he didn't know squat.

i ended up getting the gig full time.

Busker · #4 05-28-2008, 07:43 AM

When my old band was looking for a new lead guitarist, this young man around 21 years old answers the ad. This was a country band he was auditioning for. You'd think he'd show up with a Tele or Strat, or some solid body. He shows up with an acoustic guitar wanting to play & sing Beatles and CSN&Y songs, none of which were in our catalog. Didn't know the first thing about playing lead guitar for a country band.

Oh well. That's the kind of thing I might have done when I was young.

scottbass · #5 05-28-2008, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busker

He shows up with an acoustic guitar wanting to play & sing Beatles and CSN&Y songs, none of which were in our catalog.

I think I know him! Or his evil twin...

**Thor** · #6 05-28-2008, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busker

When my old band was looking for a new lead guitarist, this young man around 21 years old answers the ad. This was a country band he was auditioning for. You'd think he'd show up with a Tele or Strat, or some solid body. He shows up with an acoustic guitar wanting to play & sing Beatles and CSN&Y songs, none of which were in our catalog. Didn't know the first thing about playing lead guitar for a country band.

Oh well. That's the kind of thing I might have done when I was young.

Guess he never watched that Ray Flacke DVD. Show up
with the old Tele and kick serious bootay.

http://www.homespuntapes.com/shop/product.aspx?ID=328

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmac

Ok, my friend is a guitarist in a band in NYC. The band is a looking for a bassist. So this past weekend they had an audition. The bassist was one and half hours late. Keep in mind that the band pays for rehearsal space by the hour.

Well he arrives and doesn't know the songs. So he's trying to learn them on the fly. The songs are in D, C#. He can't transpose them on the fly. It was a mess.

Seriously, why do people show up late? Why do they show up unprepared?

Anyway, I thought I'd share.

Well, just like a job interview, he flunked. Seems like your friend didn't need to actually
hear him play, his actions already spoke for him loud and clear.

sevenyearsdown · #7 05-28-2008, 08:22 AM

I was in a psychobilly band a long time ago, and we were in need of a guitarist. Some dude shows up playing some very "metal" looking ibanez......and wants to play Cure songs of all things. The guy wouldn't stop talking about the Cure.....we were both just confused by each other.

invader3k · #8 05-28-2008, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busker

He shows up with an acoustic guitar wanting to play & sing Beatles and CSN&Y songs, none of which were in our catalog. Didn't know the first thing about playing lead guitar for a country band.

Why do people do that? That would really irk me...you clearly state the genre of the band, what you're looking for, and they show up trying to magically convert the band to something else. Did the kid think everyone would be amazed by his awesome rendition of "She Loves You" and think you'd suddenly decide to switch from country, or what? I had a similar experience when I was jamming with a blues cover band, and this guy auditioned for the lead singer spot, wanting to do folk tunes and his originals. It's like "Why did you bother even coming?"

TimWilson · #9 05-28-2008, 11:47 AM

I WAS the bad audition one time. I was called by the agent who represented my then-current band to come try out for another popular variety act he had touring the east coast. I thanked him, but I explained (very clearly) that I can't sight-read. He insisted that it wasn't required. I finally accepted and they gave me a set of tunes to learn.

You can imagine the rest. The agent didn't even understand what sight-reading MEANT. I showed up with a dozen songs memorized that the band was already phasing out. They handed me a dog-eared stack of notation with years and years of other bassists' handwritten notes scrawled all over. It was the single most humiliating experience of my musical life. I still have occasional nightmares about it.

Eilif · #10 05-28-2008, 11:54 AM

A few years back, I was helping my band find my replacement. They wanted to start touring, and I was married with a job I like. It was an amicable split. Anyway, a friend of the drummer walks in to tryout for the bass role. He had a 44-01, and seemed very friendly, and personable.

He starts playing and was terrible. We had given him 4 of the more straitforward songs (pop-rock stuff) off our album to learn, and he didn't know any of them, He probaly got less than 25% of the chord changes, and seemed to be playing randomly. I tried to work with him, show him parts, etc. But nothing.

What confused me was how he could be so sincere and so nice and yet have absolutely no clue how bad/unprepared he was or how much he was wasting our time.

Spinal Tapper · #11 05-28-2008, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimWilson

You can imagine the rest. The agent didn't even understand what sight-reading MEANT. I showed up with a dozen songs memorized that the band was already phasing out. They handed me a dog-eared stack of notation with years and years of other bassists' handwritten notes scrawled all over. It was the single most humiliating experience of my musical life. I still have occasional nightmares about it.

Dude thats ROUGH!!! Sorry for LOL, but LOL. Nice delivery. Probably bad karma though - I actually have a gig coming up in a couple weeks for a trio and the lead guitar/singer guy's songs. I'm currently learning them as I type.

OtterOnBass · #12 05-29-2008, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmac

He can't transpose them on the fly. It was a mess.

He couldn't transpose D to C# on a bass? It's the easiest of all instruments to transpose on. You just pick up your finger and move it one fret. No changed chord shapes, no black keys, no strapping on a capo, no mental work at all. He wasn't the right guy.

There really needs to be a step between phone call and audition. The bandleader of my band wanted to set up a meeting before we got together so that we could meet and check each other out before inviting me to his studio. Maybe that's it, meet up and talk shop. Then you'll know if they like your music, if you think they're cool enough for the gig, or if they have any musical knowledge at all.