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Deadbeats in bands..............
- Thread starter DWBass
- Start date
Howdy, Funkfather!
Hang in there... IME, a band in which everybody's aptitude, diligence, professionalism, motivation, and talent match up is a rare and beautiful thing. I'm lucky that way with my current gig--but I haven't always been lucky in the past.
Seems like a good plan, to lobby for a bit of corrective feedback to be applied to the slackers. Might do the trick! Stay positive, good buddy.
Side note: did you ever gig on the NJ shore? That's where I worked up until the middle '90s. I wonder if we crossed paths...
It's like a few months ago when I visited a drummer that wanted to play prog-rock stuff, like Rush. When he says..."I'm not going to be able to play that stuff EXACTLY the same".....I stopped right there. It's not that you might not be able to play the stuff EXACTLY right...it's that you sell yourself short and most likely refuse to take the time to break songs down into sections and work out the parts.
Sorry, but if you want to play in a band that does Rush or similar precision music, then you have a LOT of work to do and I have no time to waste with people that don't think it's too important to take the time to even TRY. There really isn't two ways to play Neil Peart's drum parts. You are either right or you are not. EVERY hard core Rush fan in the audience will pick up on BS improvising to get through the tough spots.
I hate lazy bandmates. Oh, and if you have LOTS of outside obligations like family, kids, job, etc, then re-consider being in a serious musicians band with me.
I don't really care about all of your problems. I just care about playing the material correctly without excuses.
Actually, in any band with more than 3 members, one of them is not pulling as much weight as the rest. It's usually the singer, that doesn't play any instrument.
Had a rehearsal cancelled yesterday due to one singer not bothering to let everyone know he was on call. He would have just not called and NOT shown up if we didn't pester him to respond if he's coming or not. And another who said his son broke his arm and had it cast. Ok, that's cool but we find out his son is in his mid teens. You could have left him home for a couple hours to rehearse. Am I wrong to think that?
Well if you want to get technical about it. And that's fine if they know and sing their parts well.
Life is too short to jam with people who don't share your passion. Unless she's, like, super hot...
You're not wrong to think that at all IMHO.
Singers. What investment do they really make? Their mouth and a microphone.
Our rhythm guitarist tried to cancel at the last minute. The rest of us showed up and decided to fire him. We are moving forward with one guitar, which means I can turn down during rehearsal, which is awesome.
I consider myself lucky.
The current band i'm in, as a whole is prepared, and rehearsal is to smooth over the kinks.
That said, often enough someone will have a song that they have been learning because they dig it.
We will look up the lyrics on the iPad(s) and if no one else is familiar, we will give it a listen, then a quick crash and burn run with the suggester leading us through. we then woodshed it and bring it to the next rehearsal.
Sometimes, we all "kind" of know it well enough to fake our way through, other times we nail it outta the gate.
one recent addition that came out this way was:
we're gonna add it to the setlist soon.
on the other side of the coin, i've been in bands where members drift in late, show up inebriated, pull no shows and don't answer calls, Learn the songs IN THE WRONG KEY, and cannot adapt, passive aggressively "mess up" songs they DON"T like on and on.
I tried to work with one band, where the music (original) was REALLY good, but the songwriter kept CHANGING THE ARRANGEMENTS on the fly at a shows?
The current band i'm in, as a whole is prepared, and rehearsal is to smooth over the kinks.
That said, often enough someone will have a song that they have been learning because they dig it.
We will look up the lyrics on the iPad(s) and if no one else is familiar, we will give it a listen, then a quick crash and burn run with the suggester leading us through. we then woodshed it and bring it to the next rehearsal.
Sometimes, we all "kind" of know it well enough to fake our way through, other times we nail it outta the gate.
one recent addition that came out this way was:
we're gonna add it to the setlist soon.
on the other side of the coin, i've been in bands where members drift in late, show up inebriated, pull no shows and don't answer calls, Learn the songs IN THE WRONG KEY, and cannot adapt, passive aggressively "mess up" songs they DON"T like on and on.
I tried to work with one band, where the music (original) was REALLY good, but the songwriter kept CHANGING THE ARRANGEMENTS on the fly at a shows?
I see your in VA, my keyboardist/sax player is from there and he's super funky *and* younger than me, but I'm in Hawaii so that wont do you any good, sorry!!
Maybe its a regional thing? Growing up by Minneapolis there was tons of funk groups with ages all over the map..sorry, I was trying to be encouraging!!
He was using TABS and for the WRONG ARTIST.
We were covering a cover.
His solution was even more ridiculous, rather than relearn it, he brought a guitar RETUNED 1/2 step UP???? (i guess he has never heard of a CAPO.)
My drummer makes every excuse to not learn songs. He constantly complains that he gets no vote in the material we cover, but when we ask what songs he wants to do to looks at us like a deer caught in headlights. Once we talked about doing "Dammit" from Blink 182 and his response was "There is no way I can play like Travis Barker".... this was after he busted out "Tom Sawyer" beat for beat. Another time we talked about a selection of songs to do, the rest of the members went home and rehearsed them for 2 week, we communicated key changes and changes via FB Messanger, then when it came time to practice together... this drummer looked at us and just said flat out "I didn't even listen to these songs. I didn't pick them, so why should I care". I've never seen the guitar player get so mad in my life.
Now normally I would just fire someone like that, but he not only drums but does all the sequencing for the band as well (Keyboard and Synth parts are pre-recorded). Its tough to find someone in the area that can do that.
Now normally I would just fire someone like that, but he not only drums but does all the sequencing for the band as well (Keyboard and Synth parts are pre-recorded). Its tough to find someone in the area that can do that.
There is a YES and NO for subbing. I did ALOT of pickup work aside from my projects for a time...then I fell out, when I stopped playing regular I stopped going out to bars. Not to sound egotistical but I went to bars to get paid....not pay and be broke and frustrated. Most musicians are "fair weather friends" and if you're not active on the scene you get forgotten real quick. I'm in the same boat as the OP...when I do run into other players its always..."I didn't know you were still around..." Not to mention the scene here in Muscle Shoals has changed ALOT so it just gets more and more difficult to find sidework...venues drying up and whatnot. Not the brotherhood it used to be so I definitely feel the OP's pain. Guys don't book anymore..then call up the "list" and say "hey...van you make it here on such and such for x amount?". But if you're subbing ALOT I'm happy for ya dude. I always enjoyed showing up freshfaced with a couple strangers and just bringing the house down.....memories....like a flower in my mind.........
Hawaii???? POYNT BLANKK RULZ!!!!! Check out Bhuddhist Priest and tell Robbie on the drums Billybladez said HOWZIT BRADDAH CUZ!!!!" And go check out Killswitch (not engage) if they still play. BRADDAH Rubz on guitar... dems my da kine brah!
They are also available for hire, but you have to be in a position to pay.
This is an interesting thread for me, because it makes me wonder if I am the deadbeat. Or the other 3 guys.
I play in a band consisting of two guitarists who have played together 20+ years. They are both very, very good. (IMHO) The current drummer has been playing with them for 6+ years, and they have had a revolving door of bassists over the years. We are around the same age (I am youngest at 37, guitarists are 38 and 39, drummer is 46). I myself have only been playing a little over two years (although I have owned bass guitars most of my life). I joined this band a little over a year ago, via reaching out to an acquaintance who I knew lived in the area and was a guitar player. The band has never 'played out' or gigged, it's more of a hobby thing I guess, I just love having the chance to play with other musicians for the first time in my life. Although I can not say that the thought of one day making money doing this [even $20] does not excite me.
The three of them drink, I do not. But we all get along very well, and have very similar tastes in music, although I myself tend to be a bit more eclectic. We have no dedicated singer, for a couple of the songs we play, one or the other of the guitarists will attempt to sing. We play mainly 90s metal/hard rock with some classic rock thrown in. They have 1 and a half original songs.
I do practice at home, everyday. Sometimes I can only get in 30 minutes, sometimes 3+ hours. Problem is, I never know what they want to play. We have a kind of set list (a book filled with songs they have learned over the years), and I have lyrics and music (tab), and always come prepared (have even received compliments on that, and the fact that I always show up). When I show up on band night, I am ready for anything, because I never know what will be thrown at me. Invariably, if I spend the week focusing on 'Wasted Years", "Comfortably Numb", and "Man in the Box"; they will want to play "Clean my Wounds", "Heading out to the Highway" and "Whole lotta Rosie". I guess, after a while of doing this, I will eventually get better (I can already tell I have improved marginally). We usually have about 3.5 hours once a week to practice/jam/whatever. On some of those occasions, we have all been focused, and get through 17-18 songs. The normal night for us (especially lately), in the same time-frame, we play about 8-12 songs. And is it normal to never, ever play the same song more than once (in one night)? Seems to me attacking 3 or 4 songs a night until we 'nail it' would be the way to go. But I digress.
Thanks for reading!
//rant
I play in a band consisting of two guitarists who have played together 20+ years. They are both very, very good. (IMHO) The current drummer has been playing with them for 6+ years, and they have had a revolving door of bassists over the years. We are around the same age (I am youngest at 37, guitarists are 38 and 39, drummer is 46). I myself have only been playing a little over two years (although I have owned bass guitars most of my life). I joined this band a little over a year ago, via reaching out to an acquaintance who I knew lived in the area and was a guitar player. The band has never 'played out' or gigged, it's more of a hobby thing I guess, I just love having the chance to play with other musicians for the first time in my life. Although I can not say that the thought of one day making money doing this [even $20] does not excite me.
The three of them drink, I do not. But we all get along very well, and have very similar tastes in music, although I myself tend to be a bit more eclectic. We have no dedicated singer, for a couple of the songs we play, one or the other of the guitarists will attempt to sing. We play mainly 90s metal/hard rock with some classic rock thrown in. They have 1 and a half original songs.
I do practice at home, everyday. Sometimes I can only get in 30 minutes, sometimes 3+ hours. Problem is, I never know what they want to play. We have a kind of set list (a book filled with songs they have learned over the years), and I have lyrics and music (tab), and always come prepared (have even received compliments on that, and the fact that I always show up). When I show up on band night, I am ready for anything, because I never know what will be thrown at me. Invariably, if I spend the week focusing on 'Wasted Years", "Comfortably Numb", and "Man in the Box"; they will want to play "Clean my Wounds", "Heading out to the Highway" and "Whole lotta Rosie". I guess, after a while of doing this, I will eventually get better (I can already tell I have improved marginally). We usually have about 3.5 hours once a week to practice/jam/whatever. On some of those occasions, we have all been focused, and get through 17-18 songs. The normal night for us (especially lately), in the same time-frame, we play about 8-12 songs. And is it normal to never, ever play the same song more than once (in one night)? Seems to me attacking 3 or 4 songs a night until we 'nail it' would be the way to go. But I digress.
Thanks for reading!
//rant
Big Hoss
Up note, down note, blue note, brown note...
- Sep 5, 2014
- 5,455
- 4,234
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I'm in a currently 3 piece, and while not exactly deadbeats, the guitarists bring skill / talent, manpower for load in / out, and little else. One of my guitarists I provide guitar, and amp for even. I understand the financial issues, he is also the one pushing for more frequent gigs. We learn our parts, practice together, and get it as tight as we can before we go out and gig. We are a party band, that's what we want to be, and are happy as a clam that way, again, except one guitarist that wants to do more... This could end up being a problem soon.
