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Beautiful Tone

REV

REV

Jun 18, 2006
3,405
6,119
#1
Our band is auditioning guitar players. It is a painful process. We've auditioned six so far and first of all, none of them learned the songs we asked them to learn for the audition.
It seems like they all thought they could bluff their way through or something. But, the real purpose of this post is to say that one of these guys came in with a '55 Strat and his tone was so gorgeous. He said that the Strat belonged to his uncle but that he was letting him borrow it. This guitar sounded amazing but still the guy had not learned the tunes. Next.
 
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#6
Incredible. I can't imagine not showing up knowing the material.

Sadly, my experience has been the opposite. I show up knowing the material cold. Turns out tue band does half @$$ versions of everything. So the proper bass line didn't even fit.

The most common band that is never covered correctly is Skynard. If you hate playing Skynard music, it's because you never learned how to play it right. On every instrument there is a TON going on in their music.

But, yeah, usually the bands around here aren't as prepared as I am. :meh:
 
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#7
two fingers said:
Incredible. I can't imagine not showing up knowing the material.
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Same. During an audition with a band I learned 10 covers for, I got: Singer had lyrics for the songs, but had not even heard half the songs and had clearly not prepared whatsoever (icing: showed up with his girlfriend in tow). Guitar player "knew" the songs, but in a his version way. Drummer had actually learned the songs. Both drummer and I bowed out after 1 rehearsal.

Likewise, we had similar issues auditioning drummers for my current project last year. Sent MP3s to each and every candidate. Out of 40+ drummers over a full year only ONE guy actually learned the material, and his style was not a match.

Kinda strange how low the bar for musicians is set.
 
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#10
I went on an audition a few years ago.
Sounded like a fun project. I learned 10 tunes (chosen by the band leader) as though I were going on a 1 set, sub gig.
The band had potential but did not know the tunes well. At the end of the audition, they asked me what I thought of the band. I was honest and explained why their band was not for me. “Thanks for the opportunity to audition.”
 
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#13
two fingers said:
I show up knowing the material cold. Turns out the band does half @$$ versions of everything. So the proper bass line didn't even fit.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Been there. Alas.

My worst/best example: A Marvin Gaye tune with James Jamerson on bass playing a wonderfully sophisticated, nuanced part from beginning to end. The BL's face kept asking me, "Why aren't you just playing the root of every chord?"

Nobody at that tryout, it seemed, had ever paid attention to the brilliant original bass part. The BL chose another bassist. That band NEVER performed that tune onstage.
 
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#16
ddnidd1 said:
It seems to be more common among drummers, since they do not need to know progressions, etc. and don't have to be concerned with owning melodic clams.
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While they may not need to know the progressions, the do need to know the correct rhythm pockets, song form, where fills are required (more importantly where fills are NOT supposed to be), dynamics, as well as the correct feel. I’ve worked with one drummer in 50 years that understood this concept. The one I’m playing with now. Scotty has been a God send!

When he auditioned he was one of two. We sent them CDs of a recent gig to prepare. The competition went first, set up his impeccable drum kit, a phenomenal sounding set of cymbals, clicks off our 2nd set starter The DooWhoop Standard, Tonight Could Be The Night, and proceeds to play it with a jazz feel.

Scotty showed up with his well loved Rodgers Kit 1 small ride, a Hi-Hat had our whole show down, 100 times better that what was on the recordings. Totally blew us away.

Plus he’s a great guy, very reserved but with a good sense of humor. A good hang.
 
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#17
kevindahl said:
Yup I never could understand "the show up to an audition not knowing the 4 songs requested" mentality. I mean 4 songs, is it that challenging to memorize 4 songs?
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It is how I got the crew I play with now: They didn't tell me until a month or so after I'd joined up, but they'd auditioned 25 bass players before me. I was the only one who showed up prepared to play the five songs they'd requested. 90% of success is showing up ready to go.
 
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#18
dbsfgyd1 said:
While they may not need to know the progressions, the do need to know the correct rhythm pockets, song form, where fills are required (more importantly where fills are NOT supposed to be), dynamics, as well as the correct feel. I’ve worked with one drummer in 50 years that understood this concept. The one I’m playing with now. Scotty has been a God send!

When he auditioned he was one of two. We sent them CDs of a recent gig to prepare. The competition went first, set up his impeccable drum kit, a phenomenal sounding set of cymbals, clicks off our 2nd set starter The DooWhoop Standard, Tonight Could Be The Night, and proceeds to play it with a jazz feel.

Scotty showed up with his well loved Rodgers Kit 1 small ride, a Hi-Hat had our whole show down, 100 times better that what was on the recordings. Totally blew us away.

Plus he’s a great guy, very reserved but with a good sense of humor. A good hang.
Click to expand...
I love this response. A great drummer makes playing SO much fun. i once heard a brief interview with Eric Clapton discussing Steve Gadd. Clapton was practically bubbling about what i was like to play knowing Gadd was behind him.
 
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#20
REV said:
Our band is auditioning guitar players. It is a painful process. We've auditioned six so far and first of all, none of them learned the songs we asked them to learn for the audition.
It seems like they all thought they could bluff their way through or something. But, the real purpose of this post is to say that one of these guys came in with a '55 Strat and his tone was so gorgeous. He said that the Strat belonged to his uncle but that he was letting him borrow it. This guitar sounded amazing but still the guy had not learned the tunes. Next.
Click to expand...
Glad you liked his tone, but none of the songs learned, by any of them? I learned this lesson long ago, and fortunately have not needed a new guitar player. Not sure how you are advertising for a guitar player, but if the person is an "unknown" variable you should definitely have him/her send you a clip playing 1 or 2 of the songs before pulling the band together to play. Just a simple "phone recording" playing along with the original would do the job. You will weed out the slackers and bad players quickly that way. If your advertising over Craigslist you will definitely want to weed out the scrubs, you would be shocked who thinks they can play guitar, or just assume you will play along with what they want to play, just insane.

My crew would not be happy if everyone showed up and the person auditioning was clueless.

If I show up to jam with another band as their potential bass player, I would work up a solid 10 songs, especially if they were a band I know and want to be a part of.
 
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