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Complain about musicians here :O

In my area, all of the bass players decided that they wanted to play using a pick and not read theory or try to learn anything new or interesting.

So I'm recruited a lot for new bands, which is a little awesome, I'm famous in my area!, but it gets annoying when i have to turn these people down, and when they tell people that I'm AMAZING! at playing bass. At the time this was all happening (which was about a year ago), I wasn't really all that good. I didn't know theory or rhythm (still really suck at READING rhythm) and everyone was saying I was the best, which pissed all the other bassist of. Thankfully every one is settled with a bass player now, I was in four bands at once at one point. Morale of the story: don't let your lead singer think you are good because he will spread it like fire and take it out of proportion.


Another story (I have a million):
I was in a band with my friends, a guitar player and a drummer. We practiced like 20 miles from home (Because the lead singer, the guitar player's girlfriend, lived near there :/), and since I didn't have a car, (I'm only 17) i had to either find a ride, which pissed off my parents, or take the bus all over the place and waste all of my free time money on travel and on the practice space we rented. That made me mad, but i sucked it up. Maybe things would turn out okay.
Well they didn't. I was in my very first band with the guitar player and the drummer. The drummer is really good for hard rock and jazz; he wasn't my concern. The guitar player, however, was bad. And wouldn't admit it, along with refusing to learn covers properly and compensating for it by saying he didn't like the song. Well, he had the same problem in the band, except, it was HIS band. you'd think he'd WANT to learn the songs he told everyone else to learn.Well, the lead singer did a great job with the poor quality P.A. system we had, and she was a good female lead singer (the ones I know who go to my school are... not so... good). Here's where another problem started. We did a recording after about two months of practicing. The guitar player F***ED UP really badly on one part of the song. He didn't re-do his part which would have taken up all of ten seconds.
Oh, but that's not all, the guy who recorded it was a girl I-liked-who-hung-out-with-the-band's dad. Well, after free-styling an amazing bass part for the song, he decidedly turned me down so low, that i couldn't hear myself. His excuse was he "put me at 80% distance away in both ears for effect." Which was lame. Really lame. I asked his daughter, who I still liked a lot at the time, who kept telling me she could hear me fine. Every one i showed that song to, could NOT hear me.
It led to one thing or another and the me quitting the band and the guitar player saying he would kill me :D



AFTER THAT: (new story, a short one)

I devoted all of my time to my other band,whom i had more confidence in at the time, and still do. Well, Around the same time i left that other band, THIS band had practice, and I wasn't there. We did not have practice for two months afterwards, thanks to my drummer who never held practice.
We found a new drummer, and had a steady practice time for a month.
Played a talent show. Moved to a new place. Found this new place to be GREAT. First day we get bi...-yelled at by some old lady.
We move into new place. We can practice in this person's basement, as long as it's not to loud. Go figure, the drums were to loud, even with brushes.
Another two months of not playing.

Finally moved into my basement. My mom is now telling me we might not be able to have practice down there.
My guitar player told me if my basement does not work out (this was two days ago), I can have the amps and the speakers, he's "done f***ing around looking for a place to practice"

And this is the only band I'm confident with in my entire area. :/
I'm clearly a very fortunate person.
 
is it me or is TB full of "complaint" threads these days? ;)

here's a handy list to save you time.

tick as many of the options below as you like about the musician(s) you wish to complain about:

- does not know musical theory
- knows too much musical theory
- plays too loud
- won't let me play as loud as I'd like
- insists I play 4th notes on the root
- complains when I play 4th notes on the root
- is constantly stoned/drunk in practice
- won't let me get stoned/drunk in practice
- is obsessed with karaoke
- won't come with me to karaoke and complains when i talk about it
- is a woman
- stole my girlfriend
- is a woman and stole my girlfriend
- is my girlfriend and left me, now i sleep on the couch
- stole my couch
- won't tell me what key the song is in
- can't figure out what key my song is in
- doesn't know what a key is
- won't tell me what a key is
- won't let me use my fretless
- won't let me use anything but my fretless
- burned my fretless
- listens to Dokken
- used to play in Dokken and never shuts up about it
- I am in Dokken and I hate these guys
- books us gigs in old people's homes
- is in an old people's home
- steals all the chicks when we play old people's homes
- is aggressive
- is passive
- is passive aggressive
- is FINE, everything's just FINE as long as YOU'RE happy. OKAY?

and so on

- does not know musical theory-- All of the 'bands' in my area.

- knows too much musical theory-- All of the 'band kids' who I work with during Indoor Drumline season.

- plays too loud-- Most of my guitar players

- can't figure out what key my song is in-- This goes with all of the people who can't figure out a treble clef from a Bass clef.

- doesn't know what a key is-- ^Stated above.

- is aggressive-- My old guitarist told me he would kill me if he saw me in school the one time. :D

- is passive-- Me. ;)

- is passive aggressive-- Me. ;)
 
- Gives people crap about not knowing music theory or complex time signatures.

- Insists on one particular brand, be it Ibanez or Fender or what have you, and if you don't play one of them you suck.

- Gives you crap for owning a signature model instrument, whatever your reasons are for it.

- Gives you crap for not thrashing around while playing (I can't headbang well, I get dizzy rather quick).

- Dumbs down a bassline or guitar line for no real reason.

- Tells you you're playing something wrong.

- Tells you to change your technique or setup, such as "Your action is way too high" or "Use more fingers to pluck".

- Insists on showing off and soloing as much as possible.

- Rips on every band or musician you like or has inspired you.

- Rips on someone for not meeting their standards of a drummer, bassist, guitarist, what have you.

Ok, i'm done.
 
Russell L said:
Boy, have I been there! Except the lead sang sharp. No way you could harmonize. And for a slap in the face I was the one who was told to stop singing, like it was my fault.

I eventually took the stance that others performance is not my problem. I have no problem singing in tune with only my bass as a pitch reference. If the only thing out of tune is the lead vocal it's obviously not my fault (I had video footage to back it up).
 
Got told by the band leader that the keyboard player thought I missed too many notes so they were going with someone else..uh, ok. I suggested we practice atleast ONCE, ONE TIME and they all said 'no we got it....'I was there just to meet women anyway (of which I did, a lot of'em..)
 
Singers who should just stick to singing, but feel that because the rest of us have intruments they should play guitar... Than just flat out doing it wrong, and refusing to stop because it's "Their" Song and only they truly know how it goes....

Our singer is just like that, he should not try to play and sing at the same time. To top it off he is the biggest show off, its rediculus, and there is no telling him that he is playing all the songs wrong. He does not have a ear for music, He will sit there and argue with you till you are blue in the face that he is playing it the right way because thats how they play it on youtube, while us mucisions that have been playing for 25 years are looking at him like, are you kidding me. Im getting pissed just thinking about it right now!!!!! We have a real singer that does not play a instrument and is learning the setlist as I type this.
 
musicians in general that just have a loud mouth about anything, but beeing in a band and having a loud mouth just makes it worse. A musician that talks like they know their stuff and are very opinionated about music style, band members or other bands and are not really that good at all from the get-go. i believe some people look at bands and try to seek out the most self centered one in the band and 99 percent of the time get it right.