Band members who are posers and pretenders.

[RicPlaya]

I thought this would compliment other threads that has to do with commitment. What do you do if the people are committed but are pretenders? What I mean is say you have members in your band that don't practice, can't play thier instruments or fill their roles well at all, do their jobs! They are committed to "get signed" or be in the spot light, or have nothing better to do. The rehearsals are when they practice! When you question them on what they are doing they are close minded and are in denail because they can't sing, or play correctly. They want to write songs that have a certain sound, write lyrics that are always angry, play drum beats just trying to cram as many hits into a measure, or the guitarist won't play anything besides bar chords aka power chords. Why am i writing this? Because we all have to evaluate the bands we are in and the people we jam with to determine if it is fullfilling and worthwhile, if the people you play with are on the same page as you on many levels. As bass players, the glue musically sort of speak in a band setting we can get borred very quickly under bad circumstances. Choose your bandmates wisely!

[cowsgomoo]

there's nothing wrong with getting up on stage and pulling a few rockstar poses... it's often all part of the entertainment... and we're all entertainers at the end of the day

(cue: cries of "hey, i'm not an entertainer, i'm a serious musician!!")

but I think if you're not actually a rock star, when you leave the stage, the posing needs to stop.. otherwise you're probably a self-deluded idiot

the members of my band are all down to earth and nice offstage, but we like to get aggressive and silly onstage.. sometimes forgetting about 'musical performance perfection' to just put on a show... and I think that's fine too

[brianrost]

What do I do?

I either see to it that those people are replaced or I quit.

I'm in the process of quitting a band right now as it has turned out to be just not worth my time. One more rehearsal, one more gig and it's over and on to something else.

[RicPlaya]

[quote=cowsgomoo]there's nothing wrong with getting up on stage and pulling a few rockstar poses...

Like you said, rock star poses not "posers"!

[Nick man]

Originally Posted by RicPlaya

I thought this would compliment other threads that has to do with commitment. What do you do if the people are committed but are pretenders? What I mean is say you have members in your band that don't practice, can't play thier instruments or fill their roles well at all, do their jobs! They are committed to "get signed" or be in the spot light, or have nothing better to do. The rehearsals are when they practice! When you question them on what they are doing they are close minded and are in denail because they can't sing, or play correctly. They want to write songs that have a certain sound, write lyrics that are always angry, play drum beats just trying to cram as many hits into a measure, or the guitarist won't play anything besides bar chords aka power chords. Why am i writing this? Because we all have to evaluate the bands we are in and the people we jam with to determine if it is fullfilling and worthwhile, if the people you play with are on the same page as you on many levels. As bass players, the glue musically sort of speak in a band setting we can get borred very quickly under bad circumstances. Choose your bandmates wisely!

I played with that guy for a couple of years. He stole our drummer's fashion and music taste, my idea for a tattoo, and pretty much anything else that came by him.

He was a decent guitarist, an ok songwriter, and a fair performer, but he was such a nice guy. He was pretty much the founder of the band and a good friend to everyone. He worked really hard on it all and really wanted to make it big but it was just the same stuff that came out of him all the time. It all sounded so much like what was comming from the radio too. We were too close to him to do anything about it so we just kept on playing untill we all moved to different places for college.

[jive1]

Originally Posted by RicPlaya

What do you do if the people are committed but are pretenders? What I mean is say you have members in your band that don't practice, can't play thier instruments or fill their roles well at all, do their jobs! They are committed to "get signed" or be in the spot light, or have nothing better to do.

Dont' forget about the guys that want to hit it big, and yet they don't have the will to do anything to promote the band. Whether it's simple as typing up a press release to send to a newspaper, or hanging up a couple of posters on the local kiosk, or call the local club to book a gig, they just don't seem to have the "time" or "energy" to do it.

There are plenty of guys who have musical ability and sit on their a$$es thinking that a gig is gonna pop up out of the ground for them, or they complain about how lousy a gig is when they put no effort in finding them.

I find this more frustrating because the talent is there, but the motivation isn't. What a waste.

[Nick man]

Originally Posted by jive1

Dont' forget about the guys that want to hit it big, and yet they don't have the will to do anything to promote the band. Whether it's simple as typing up a press release to send to a newspaper, or hanging up a couple of posters on the local kiosk, or call the local club to book a gig, they just don't seem to have the "time" or "energy" to do it.

There are plenty of guys who have musical ability and sit on their a$$es thinking that a gig is gonna pop up out of the ground for them, or they complain about how lousy a gig is when they put no effort in finding them.

I find this more frustrating because the talent is there, but the motivation isn't. What a waste.

That was the other half of my band.

[scorpionldr]

i have a situation like that.....sorta...for the past couple of weeks my guys have been trying to find a guitarist, and our drummer (who needs a better set anyways) usually comes off with this attitude like "there's no motivation to be had if we don't have a fully lineup set." i once took care of a guitarist that was basically just a pain in the a$$, and just stopped calling him cuz he not only had no license to drive, he had no real talent because he believed that he could just "learn everything off the streets." we dropped him and for a while $hit got done. now that we have a new guy looking to join, we just gotta audition him, see what comes out of it, and i might be set for a few shows.

[Rich600]

Yeah i know what you mean, guitarist in my last band was obsessed with playing solos all the time and said that my music taste 'sucked' cos the songs have meaning, all he was interested in was showing off and playing solos, the drummer was no worse he only did it for the ladies, and he had a girlfriend! but i think youre wrong about rock star poses, i find them cheesy and fun and i think it kind of breaks the ice with tough crowds.
Rich

[szvonek]

Originally Posted by RicPlaya

I thought this would compliment other threads that has to do with commitment. What do you do if the people are committed but are pretenders? What I mean is say you have members in your band that don't practice, can't play thier instruments or fill their roles well at all, do their jobs! They are committed to "get signed" or be in the spot light, or have nothing better to do. The rehearsals are when they practice! When you question them on what they are doing they are close minded and are in denail because they can't sing, or play correctly. They want to write songs that have a certain sound, write lyrics that are always angry, play drum beats just trying to cram as many hits into a measure, or the guitarist won't play anything besides bar chords aka power chords. Why am i writing this? Because we all have to evaluate the bands we are in and the people we jam with to determine if it is fullfilling and worthwhile, if the people you play with are on the same page as you on many levels. As bass players, the glue musically sort of speak in a band setting we can get borred very quickly under bad circumstances. Choose your bandmates wisely!

You say they're committed but I disagree. Anyone that doesn't practice at home or do anything to help the band is not committed to it. Just because they 'want' to make it big doesn't mean they're really going to strive for it. I've found that it's important upfront to find out what everyone's goals are in the band, that way there are no surprises later on when let's say you have an opportunity to go on tour but drummer guy says 'no way,' I have a full-time job, etc. Not everyone's that into it, so you gotta find that kind of stuff out right away...