Unconfident lead guitarist

Lazarus12 · #1 10-18-2009, 03:59 PM

Okay I recently started a band and we are playing simple covers of songs, Shadowplay and some others. Well, we take turns picking songs. And suprisingly, our lead guitarist picks New Divide by Linkin Park -_-. Atm we are all learning are parts. Well at school our drummer says "Hey man! How bout we learn Tom Sawyer by Rush?" our guitarist goes "HA! No!" and storms off. He is a perfectionist and is afraid to play anything hard b/c he might mess up. Which is different than me, drummer, rhythm guitar, and our vocals. We will try any song they throw at us. But our guitarist is incredibly negative. How to fix this?

bassinplace · #2 10-18-2009, 04:04 PM

Place an ad. Guitarist wanted. Must have good attitude and chops.

Lazarus12 · #3 10-18-2009, 04:19 PM

He is not a bad guitar player, see we are really young and just started out..we are 15, we have all been playing for a year or a year and 3/4 at the most. How do you develop his confidence? We are hoping that we can make him play a difficult song, he will get it, then he will be more confident in his playing. He is one of those people that could be 2x better than he already is if he was more confident.

Beej · #4 10-18-2009, 05:35 PM

Find him the tabs and then practice practice practice. When you all have it down, you'll know. The other thing to remember is, he's just a kid...

Lazarus12 · #5 10-18-2009, 06:12 PM

Im don't hate him, he is one of my best friends. Just that me and our drummer are trying to come up with ways to boost his confidence

stinger12345 · #6 10-18-2009, 06:23 PM

Don't rush him into learning songs. Hard songs take time to learn, especially if you want to do them justice. Learning difficult songs for a band is the same as learning it under any other pretense, he's gotta take it slow (metronomes are more important than alot of younger people think).

Lazarus12 · #7 10-18-2009, 06:28 PM

Thanks for the advice, its not the fact we want him to learn mega tough songs. We just want his confidence to be raised just a little bit, so when we suggest something he doesn't shoot it down.

basefx · #8 10-19-2009, 12:41 PM

get him to do some ear training, in fact you all should, check out "ear training for the contemporary musician"

MatticusMania · #9 10-19-2009, 12:50 PM

Maybe he just doesnt like Rush?

Lazarus12 · #10 10-19-2009, 02:07 PM

No he likes Rush, in fact he adores Alex Lifeson. Im not sure he has heard Tom Sawyer that many times, and based on other Rush songs "*cough* YYZ *cough* he is intimidated. And wait, ear training for a contempory musician? Is that on youtube?

capnsandwich · #11 10-19-2009, 02:33 PM

I had a guy like this in my last bad. The difference between your guitarist and that band's guitarist is that my old band's guitarist was a Musicians' Institute graduate and studied jazz and classical guitar. I guess an education won't work because even to this day, every time we played, he used to turn way down to the point where we couldn't hear him. He did this at gigs too.

Lazarus12 · #12 10-19-2009, 03:28 PM

Thats so wierd, honestly I was excepting for him to be egotistical...I suppose not, I wish he was just a tad more...experimental. He isn't to creative, you know what I mean? Afraid to try something a different way.

**jmattbassplaya** · #13 10-20-2009, 12:57 AM

Some people don`t like to be living in the limelight

Prime BASS · #14 10-20-2009, 06:04 AM

be straight with him, tell him to learn in it, and practice it till he gets bored stupid of playing it.

Also he may need some assurance about messing up on stage, it's no big deal, I mess up at least twice a song, and thats a good day, the trick is not panicking and picking it back up as soon as possible.

I know guitarists who are very good but can't play live or by themselves cause they are too afraid, and if they mess up they have to start from the beginning.

Mo'Phat · #15 10-20-2009, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus12

Okay I recently started a band and we are playing simple covers of songs, Shadowplay and some others. Well, we take turns picking songs. And suprisingly, our lead guitarist picks New Divide by Linkin Park -_-. Atm we are all learning are parts. Well at school our drummer says "Hey man! How bout we learn Tom Sawyer by Rush?" our guitarist goes "HA! No!" and storms off. He is a perfectionist and is afraid to play anything hard b/c he might mess up. Which is different than me, drummer, rhythm guitar, and our vocals. We will try any song they throw at us. But our guitarist is incredibly negative. How to fix this?

Have your rhythm guitarist learn the lead parts and take over that spot. If your lead guitarist wants to play in the shadows, make him play rhythm. Say to the guy that a lead guitarist needs to play leads and if he's not going to do it, someone else will.

It's not about you disrespecting your friend...he's slowing your band down. He needs to step his game up or be passed by.

btw, the lead to Tom Sawyer is freakin' hard. It might be possible that he's aware of his talent, knows he can't even come close to an accurate recreation of the solo, and is throwing a hissy fit instead of facing facts.

Lazarus12 · #16 10-20-2009, 02:33 PM

Very true very true. I talked with the drummer and like was said before, we decided to take it slow for a while

So we are going to get gradually harder. So Enter Sandman it is :P No but seriously, our rhythm is only rhythm. He is a lazy one. Incredibly creative and spontaneous. But lazy. But he gives the songs the heaviness it needs. Its hard to cut it with the bass though <.< Our lead is getting progressivly more confident as the weeks go on. He is learning more and more everyday so thats a bonus

Now our singer.....she is shy :P

Christopher · #17 10-21-2009, 04:18 PM

"Unconfident lead guitarist" is an oxymoron. Without confidence, he's no "lead," regardless of how good his bedroom chops are.

Lazarus12 · #18 10-22-2009, 05:09 AM

He plays with me in a praise band at school, and he seems fine there. And he is in front of his piers. At practice, its just his buddies. He has an odd persona. There is one in every band I assume :P

bassbully · #19 10-22-2009, 08:50 AM

I dont see the big deal here. If a player in a band or in this case your band is not skilled or comfortable enough to play a song skip it and choose another. There are thousands of songs and bands cant cover them all due to a singers pitch, guitarists or other players abilitys etc. I hate it when a band trys to force a song on a player or the band themselves that they just cant do. It causes issues...dont do it.

I would love to have the bass skill to cover some popular songs. I know i dont so i wouldnt choose to do those songs if i was in a cover band.

Lazarus12 · #20 10-22-2009, 02:41 PM

Very insightful

Thanks for all the input guys, really has lightened my thoughts on it and whatnot. So we will just take it slow and progress together as a whole.