LEAD SINGER CONSTANTLY SCREWING UP LYRICS!!

[QORC]

New band (2 months). Noticed that the lead singer doesn't seem to know the lyrics to songs they've been "doing for years". Ends up singing the same verse twice or worse, completely forgets a verse and goes straight into a bridge and screwed us all up.

But it's constant. Little bits here and there or major parts. The guy obviously doesn't do any work on the songs on the side.

Yeah, I admit -- I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want the songs done the "right way".

Guitarist says "Hey, that's the way he is! I try and tell him but it doesn't help." Drummer "I agree, but I'm new too".

Not asking for advice. It's just driving me batshit. I want to just stick the damn lyrics in front of him, but I'm new and thus afraid to assert myself that way.

Just a rant....

I feel better now.

[VanillaO]

There's no excuse for screwing up that much if he really has been doing the songs for years. You're not a perfectionist. An attentive crowd will notice the singer singing the same verse twice just as easily as you in the band would. At least you're probably doing originals. Cover something that a lot of people know and prepare to beg for mercy :P

[QORC]

no, they are COVERS!!!!

ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[invader3k]

I hate lazy singers like that. It's not that hard to learn the lyrics to a song. All you really have to do is play the same track on a CD over and over, and anyone can get them nailed down pretty quickly.

Maybe he's, like, under the influence of something.

[txbasschik]

Your singer is lazy. He needs to fish or cut bait...learn the songs, or do something else.

Cherie

[hartke20g]

my old singer was like that. needless to say, we ditched him pretty soon. if i can memorize an 18-minute song in a week, and play said 18-minute bass-driven song (with plenty of bass 'solos') and sing it at the same time, while operating my fuzz/od/multi-effects which are a ***** to operate, i think it's completely annoying of him to not be able to memorize the lyrics (on top of not wanting to learn it in the first place, due to 'not agreeing' with it). sorry, that was a bit of a rant. i suggest you see what the other members will say to either kicking him out, replacing him, or starting a new band without him with one of you guys singing.

[Depth_Charge]

Yeah our vocalist is frustrating too. We're a cover band and he hasn't learned alot of the lyrics. He often rehearses with lyric sheets (not chord charts with timing). If he forgot them he'll borrow my laptop with my notes on it.

I stopped bringing the laptop. Sorry, I forget to bring it. . .

Timing is an issue too, he doesn't listen to the songs enough to learn how the go, so we have to scoop to save him sometimes. He does it in 2 songs same place every time without fail. We all know to save him. When I jam the song with recording or with friends now, I always stuff it up I'm so used to the 'rescue' version.

He argues set lists, sometimes without listening to suggested songs. One time he says no to a song, then later is telling me about this great song at the end of a movie, and it's the same song he said no to before.

He also suggests songs we can't cover because we don't have the effects or number of instruments or says this one will be easy, but plays no instrument to actually know. Won't sing vocals a chic sings the original to.

Plus he's been 'borrowing' our gear for about 8 months now and doesn't pay for pizza!

Do use his place to rehearse sometimes though. . .

I feel better now. Thanks

[Bayou_Brawler]

haha well i don't sing so i don't have much room to talk. i never understood how guys i play with can remember the lyrics to 60+ songs...

the only tips i have heard is just work on really remembering the first few words or sentence of every verse and you can usually remember the rest from there....and singing along in your car a bunch!

[invader3k]

Originally Posted by Bayou_Brawler

haha well i don't sing so i don't have much room to talk. i never understood how guys i play with can remember the lyrics to 60+ songs...

the only tips i have heard is just work on really remembering the first few words or sentence of every verse and you can usually remember the rest from there....and singing along in your car a bunch!

Well, the nice thing about playing in a cover band is the material usually isn't too terribly challenging to learn. Is it really hard to get the lyrics down for stuff like "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Ring of Fire" (as examples), since we've all heard them a million times on the radio? Not really.

[scorpionldr]

Originally Posted by QORC

New band (2 months). Noticed that the lead singer doesn't seem to know the lyrics to songs they've been "doing for years". Ends up singing the same verse twice or worse, completely forgets a verse and goes straight into a bridge and screwed us all up.

But it's constant. Little bits here and there or major parts. The guy obviously doesn't do any work on the songs on the side.

Yeah, I admit -- I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want the songs done the "right way".

Guitarist says "Hey, that's the way he is! I try and tell him but it doesn't help." Drummer "I agree, but I'm new too".

Not asking for advice. It's just driving me batshit. I want to just stick the damn lyrics in front of him, but I'm new and thus afraid to assert myself that way.

Just a rant....

I feel better now.

sorry dude, your preaching to an empty choir....best way to do anything now is just learn the music without the lyrics or get out if you want the right band.....I had one of those lead singers......one of those guys trained from the Jello Biafra style of how to sing: if you mess up, sing faster and make sure noone knows what your saying. I didn't really mind after a while because it just sounded like some guy trying to auction off a car with music behind him...so long as he actually stops and starts at the right times (we were original, blatantly)

[Sundogue]

Every member of the band has a job to do. All of the musicians have to learn their parts and so does the singer, because his voice is his instrument.

Tell him to learn his "parts", or maybe the whole band will decide to "forget" their parts all at once and leave him singing BS to a crowd A capella.

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

Yeah our vocalist is frustrating too. We're a cover band and he hasn't learned alot of the lyrics. He often rehearses with lyric sheets (not chord charts with timing). If he forgot them he'll borrow my laptop with my notes on it.

That is just flat out annoying. We had a singer that used to bring a music stand onto the stage. LAME. If you can't remember the lyrics, then how can you focus on your singing? My first run through a bass line is never as good as it is when it's remembered. We told him to leave the stand at home. That was the beginning of the end. I can't beleive we tolerated it for so long.

[tlwaps]

The singer for my band doesn't have lyrics for the 3 songs of our set (we do originals). All he does is just scream and make noise, which is fine cause you can't understand him anyway, but it's just annoying when the band tells me to back him up and I have no idea what he's saying. And for some reason he doesn't work on lyrics while we're at practice, yeah they're probably personal but if they're that personal why would you put them in a song? Just annoys me. Then on top of that he and the one guitarist always, always, always, always get into arguments over the dumbest things that have nothing to do with the band or the music but some how the rest of us in the band and the music gets drug into their arguments.

[Depth_Charge]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

That is just flat out annoying. We had a singer that used to bring a music stand onto the stage. LAME. If you can't remember the lyrics, then how can you focus on your singing? My first run through a bass line is never as good as it is when it's remembered. We told him to leave the stand at home. That was the beginning of the end. I can't beleive we tolerated it for so long.

Once we were discussing the issue and I said "you don't see rock pro's on stage referring to lyric sheets or music notes during their shows" and our drummer pipes up and says the singer from REM often does, then throws them into the crowd.

While his hilighting an exception to the rule was valid and he was trying to make the vocalist fell better about these "constant critiscms and personal attacks I keep suffering", it certainly didn't help us to get him learning his lines any quicker

[invader3k]

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a cheat sheet on stage. Our last lead singer had a sheet that listed maybe the first line of each verse for certain songs (mainly ones we had just added to the set list). That's one thing...having each song word for word on a music stand is different. It's kind of hard to be a true front man (which is a dedicated lead singer's main job, IMO) if you're always staring down at a music stand, reading the words as you're singing them.

[KPJ]

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

Once we were discussing the issue and I said "you don't see rock pro's on stage referring to lyric sheets or music notes during their shows"

A lot of big name bands use teleprompters for the lyrics nowadays. Looks like a monitor enclosure so the crowd can't tell the difference.

[scorpionldr]

Originally Posted by tlwaps

The singer for my band doesn't have lyrics for the 3 songs of our set (we do originals). All he does is just scream and make noise, which is fine cause you can't understand him anyway, but it's just annoying when the band tells me to back him up and I have no idea what he's saying. And for some reason he doesn't work on lyrics while we're at practice, yeah they're probably personal but if they're that personal why would you put them in a song? Just annoys me. Then on top of that he and the one guitarist always, always, always, always get into arguments over the dumbest things that have nothing to do with the band or the music but some how the rest of us in the band and the music gets drug into their arguments.

haha your lead singer may suck, but your drummer's double bass makes up for it!!

[davidmurphy]

Deliberately play bum notes every time he messes up the lyrics.
Train him as you would a dog...............

[scorpionldr]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy

Deliberately play bum notes every time he messes up the lyrics.
Train him as you would a dog...............

haha a dog would probably be smarter

[JimmyM]

Hey, you're new, he's not, you can either do the gig or not. Don't try to get him to learn the lyrics. It's his gig. If you don't like it, quit.