Egotistical guitar players

[truand85]

Don’t forget his wife.

The wife would've reacted differently had he smiled and moved on. But in his shoes I would've smiled and told her "some people have the ability to play a song by ear, others work at guitar center, I think I deserve a new bass" and bought myself something nice, at a different store

 

[ThudThudThud]

I guess working with Paul McCartney is out of the question. He doesn’t read music..

Nor does Elton John.

It goes like this: The fourth, the fifth
A minor fall, a major lift
A baffled king composing
Hallelujah.

 

[azureblue]

Every once in a while I have to play with an "I'm all That" guitar player. And most of he time, they are one trick ponies.

My best "put 'em in his place" moment, was when I was in a horn band, and the guitar player started telling me how to play my bass part. And what he said was wrong. I corrected him and he said that no, I was wrong (major vs minor). So I grabbed the lead trumpet chart, played the passage for him, and showed him where the riff was minor, then told the guitar player to play the trumpet part, while I play the bass part, so he can hear it. No he could not read and transpose. He shut up. So, just to rub his nose in it - I played the bari sax part (and easy transpose, since bari is in treble clef - just change key and read it in bass clef.)

 

[whero]

Must have been this one.

View attachment 4632513

I dunno. Might have been this one.

 

[brianrost]

You mean you don't know your arppegio's which are linear chords? Ignorance is bliss I guess.

I don't recall writing anything about my personal knowledge of chords and arpeggios.

 

[MartinzeBassman]

I can understand you, I often joke about guitarists and vocalists for a reason. Irony is that I mostly play guitar when I am not playing bass, haha

 

[ELG60]

I couldn't make it through the OP. I recognize that we all come from different backgrounds and abilities, but it was just too f'ed up for me to bother. I get the gist via the comments. Poopie move on the part of the gui+@%!$t and clerk.

As to the other comments, the list of those who couldn't read music included Glen Campbell who was not only a member of the Wrecking Crew, (admittedly, the only on I know of who couldn't read music) but also a guitarist of singular and amazing talent.

Just look at the myriad of great players and music stars sitting in obvious awe of his virtuosity:



That being said, I recognize that reading music has an obvious benefit if one is a professional musician, but as a Grammy award winning Nashville bass player friend of mine once said upon learning that someone had attended Berklee: " It don't seem to have hurt him none . . . He can still play alright."

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Learning guitar chords is a super helpful skill to have. Being able to watch a guitarists fingers and follow along is better than trying to figure out chords by ear when the band starts playing a song you don’t know while on stage.

 

[jchrisk1]

Learning guitar chords is a super helpful skill to have. Being able to watch a guitarists fingers and follow along is better than trying to figure out chords by ear when the band starts playing a song you don’t know while on stage.

That's how I do it. It's especially helpful when they use a capo, try and help you by telling you the wrong chords, and you get to tell them to shut up.

 

[whero]

Learning guitar chords is a super helpful skill to have. Being able to watch a guitarists fingers and follow along is better than trying to figure out chords by ear when the band starts playing a song you don’t know while on stage.

+1.

After playing bass for about a year, I started taking guitar lessons, which lasted about two years. I'm no great shakes as a guitar player (good enough to hold my own at a barbecue singalong) but it's so much easier as a bass player in auditions, jam bands, etc. to be able to look over at a rhythm guitarist and know what to play, and not have to rely on guess work, or use my ear (which often leaves you a beat or two behind), or have someone yell out root notes from across the room.

 

[Verb the Noun]

Learning guitar chords is a super helpful skill to have. Being able to watch a guitarists fingers and follow along is better than trying to figure out chords by ear when the band starts playing a song you don’t know while on stage.

One of my oldest friends cant use his left pointer finger due to an injury. Didnt slow him down on guitar much, but he uses inverted chords or just drops the root. Have gotten good at "reading" his hands with really weird chord shapes.

Forward to current two guitar rock band. Lead guitar uses a lot of inversions so he and the rhythm guitar have some sonic separation. I kinda fried his mind being able to pick up what he was doing with a glance. Never bothered to tell him I had a lot of practice, just nodded like it was no big deal.

 

[tbz]

I guess working with Paul McCartney is out of the question. He doesn’t read music..

George Martin, who helped them arrange songs, and produced every one of their albums but Let It Be (despite participating in those sessions) absolutely could.

Which means they didn’t have to. Since he could just take care of anything they needed that would have required it.

If they wanted a horn line they’d either play it, and have him transcribe. Or he’d just write it. Depending.

Kind of a weak example when they always had a grown up in the room overseeing their work, that could read music and was quite well versed in theory.

I feel like it’s also not really clear if Paul ever eventually learned to read music. Unless you have a contemporary quote you can provide to that effect.

 

[40Hz]

No, he judges his writing on lack of paragraph breaks.

The way I see it is this: If someone decides to go to the trouble of conveying information in written form, presumably because they feel it might be of benefit to others, then great, that's a generous thing to do, but said information must be presented in a manner that makes it simple for others to comprehend.

Again, not a judgement of the OP, but on the style of writing used.

Something interesting about paragraph breaks I learned from someone who was an expert on forgeries. His main line of work was authenticating found manuscripts for academia and rare document dealers.

He said the handwriting, along with the paper and ink used, were all important factors in determining how genuine the manuscript was. But the real clincher in longer manuscripts (ex: a supposed “lost” Fitzgerald story) was its paragraph style. He said that paragraphing style is one of the most individual of all aspects in someone’s writing style. He said it’s also one of the clearest giveaways a manuscript is a fake. It’s very difficult for almost anyone to convincingly and consistently copy someone else’s way of breaking their text into paragraphs.

Who knew?

 

[40Hz]

One thing I have essentially ruled out is working with non-readers. I will occasionally jam the blues or whatever with folks who don’t read, but if you cannot look at a chart and make appropriate musical choices that means you cannot be bothered with giving your fellow musicians the courtesy of sufficiently educating yourself. In which case I cannot be bot

Wow! All that? Boy are you ever strict.

 

[coyote1]

Wow! All that? Boy are you ever strict.

chewing gum online! I hope you brought enough for everybody?!?

besides, I figured that a thread complaining about egotistical guitar players needed a bit of an egotistical response from a bassist.

 

[40Hz]

chewing gum online! I hope you brought enough for everybody?!?

besides, I figured that a thread complaining about egotistical guitar players needed a bit of an egotistical response from a bassist.

Only meant it to be taken as a tongue in cheek reply to your earlier post.

P.S. If you’d actually like some gum, just let me know which brand and flavor you prefer. I’ll arrange for it be sent out today.

 

[Fishheadjoe]

I would have verbally destroyed both those numbskulls at the counter. It's a skill I have developed over the years that far exceeds my sight reading skills!
Fishheadjoe

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Punctuation is your best friend.
A meal is consumed in small bites.
So is a paragraph.

 

[5StringBlues]

I judge a man by whether he brought donuts or not.

 

[40Hz]

Punctuation is your best friend.
A meal is consumed in small bites.
So is a paragraph.

It’s five, seven, five
The syllables in haiku.
Never more nor less.