How do you feel about......

[DWBass]

.....musicians that can't or don't hear they are playing something wrong??? I was at a band rehearsal (not my regular band) and we were playing We Are Family by Sister Sledge. What are the 4 chords being played during the chorus?? Very simple. The chords are A to a G to a D natural to a G7 sus2 sus4 over a G. On the second chord, the keyboard player kept playing some weird chord and trying to justify it. Annoyed the heck outta me!! I turned to the guitar player and asked him what he was playing. He played the correct chords. I turned to her and said 'can you please play the G. She copped an attitude and changed it on her notation.

I'm not understanding how folks can be musicians and not HEAR wrong notes or chords?? If I said nothing, she would have been happy to continue playing the incorrect chord!! SMDH!! I just don't get it!

 

[JRA]

some players get something in their head and it gets stuck (a habit) until it's corrected just the way you did it --- she'll get over it.

 

[Michedelic]

I've run into that, I chalk it up to ego or laziness. It's annoying. There's been many discussions here about people who just can't be bothered to play a song correctly, and if you point it out, you get a pushback of defensiveness or excuses.
In a way, I see it as a sort of arrogance. In a cover band situation, I'm not one to obsess over sounding just like the record, that's a fool's errand, but an effort should be made to come close as possible, for the benefit of who's paying to come hear you, let alone respecting the intent of the composer/artist. You are basking in the glory of their song. Unless you're in some sort of interpretive context, but that's a different can of worms and frankly, you better bring something truely unique to the arrangement.

 

[FRoss6788]

I've run into that, I chalk it up to ego or laziness. It's annoying. There's been many discussions here about people who just can't be bothered to play a song correctly, and if you point it out, you get a pushback of defensiveness or excuses.
In a way, I see it as a sort of arrogance. In a cover band situation, I'm not one to obsess over sounding just like the record, that's a fool's errand, but an effort should be made to come close as possible, for the benefit of who's paying to come hear you, let alone respecting the intent of the composer/artist. You are basking in the glory of their song. Unless you're in some sort of interpretive context, but that's a different can of worms and frankly, you better bring something truely unique to the arrangement.

Well said.

My take on it exactly.

 

[Micha84]

This is like asking how I'd feel about a cook who can't tell salt from pepper...

 

[Groove Doctor]

Had a guitarist do the same thing. He got defensive and imsisted he was right.

He then pulled out a print out of a dodgy TAB site he found on the internet to 'prove' he was right.

He genuinely couldn't hear the chord he was playing was wrong, and even worse, couldn't comprehend a stranger on the internet could have made a mistake.

 

[pepj]

If an adaption worked, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but if they couldn't hear it clash, that would concern me more that the wrong chord itself.

 

[LiptonJigglers]

You mean to tell me that the keyboardist has been playing the wrong notes all this time and none of her band mates have pointed it out to her in all this time and here comes an outsider and points out the problem almost immediately...
Who's "ego and laziness" are we discussing here; hers or the rest of the bands?
No wonder she got annoyed and probably a little embarrassed too.

 

[REV]

The guitar player in my band has a pat answer for everything he plays (in my opinion) wrong. " Well that's the way I play it". As much as this drives me crazy nobody else in the band will call him on it.

 

[friskinator]

The guitar player in my band has a pat answer for everything he plays (in my opinion) wrong. " Well that's the way I play it". As much as this drives me crazy nobody else in the band will call him on it.

If I were the BL, I'd say "cool, you can play it your way with another band."

 

[NorthTexasBass]

I once auditioned for a cover band and on one tune the lead guitarist was playing completely different song than the rest of us, and on another song forgot to change his pitch shift pedal from a previous song that was a half step down.
Both times the other guitarist and I were checking our own playing and then looking at each other with a W T F look while the lead guitar was jamming away with a big smile in his face like 'I am killing it right now'.
Needless to say, I politely declined their invitation to join the band. Funny thing is, the lead guitarist (who was not the bandleader) pestered me for about 2 months afterwards, begging me to join. He seemed like a nice guy, so it took every ounce of self restraint I had to not tell him he was the reason I wasn't going to join. I can handle mistakes, but a complete lack of self awareness is a deal breaker.

 

[Ostie]

.....musicians that can't or don't hear they are playing something wrong??? I was at a band rehearsal (not my regular band) and we were playing We Are Family by Sister Sledge. What are the 4 chords being played during the chorus?? Very simple. The chords are A to a G to a D natural to a G7 sus2 sus4 over a G. On the second chord, the keyboard player kept playing some weird chord and trying to justify it. Annoyed the heck outta me!! I turned to the guitar player and asked him what he was playing. He played the correct chords. I turned to her and said 'can you please play the G. She copped an attitude and changed it on her notation.

I'm not understanding how folks can be musicians and not HEAR wrong notes or chords?? If I said nothing, she would have been happy to continue playing the incorrect chord!! SMDH!! I just don't get it!

She was playing jazz.

 

[iiipopes]

Thirty years ago I terminated a bass player in another band I was in back then (I was playing guitar and keys at the time) for that very reason. The band wanted to grow, and he didn't; he just wanted to play the same dozen favorite songs. I took over bass, hired another guitar player who could sing, and went on to be a local favorite band back then with some (IMO) great originals.

 

[Rib 13]

Keyboards players are rare......female keyboard players are even rarer......providing this happens on rare occasions with this group, it may be a "pick your battles" moment with the rest of the band

 

[themickster]

.....musicians that can't or don't hear they are playing something wrong??? I was at a band rehearsal (not my regular band) and we were playing We Are Family by Sister Sledge. What are the 4 chords being played during the chorus?? Very simple. The chords are A to a G to a D natural to a G7 sus2 sus4 over a G. On the second chord, the keyboard player kept playing some weird chord and trying to justify it. Annoyed the heck outta me!! I turned to the guitar player and asked him what he was playing. He played the correct chords. I turned to her and said 'can you please play the G. She copped an attitude and changed it on her notation.

I'm not understanding how folks can be musicians and not HEAR wrong notes or chords?? If I said nothing, she would have been happy to continue playing the incorrect chord!! SMDH!! I just don't get it!

That's nothing. I know a guitar player - or rather a kid that makes notes on a guitar - that's often been told about playing too fast and in the wrong key. He moans about being told. He took it as an, in his words, attack on his spirit the last time I said anything about it. That was after I'd asked if I could help, and he'd said I could. He now twiddles as fast as he can whilst the singer's singing, all the way through the songs and off-key.

 

[HardNHeavy]

my guitarist friend is similar, he plays only what his fingers are only comfortable with.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

There are bad chord charts and bad tabs out there. Maybe they've "learned" on those? If something sounds "off", I'll suggest that we check out the original recording. But I'm not "that guy" for every transgression. Sometimes you just have to let it roll.

 

[DaveParker39]

depends on how "wrong" really
some degree of "wrong" might work for the arrangement, but if its like a dissonance issue it has to be addressed

 

[Low-End Steve]

And if it's "wrong" but still works, everyone needs to play it the same "wrong" way.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

The worst is when I've done sub gigs, learned the set list, show up for rehearsal, and have to re-learn the songs - the wrong way - wrong notes or chords in the progression, wrong voicings- especially when they clash with the bass part, etc...
"but that's the way we've always done it".
You're never going to win that one....