Players that won't learn a note

[themickster]

I worked with someone on two songs. One of them I was writing the music. I told her in messenger which notes to play in the verse. 'I don't know what any notes are. I go by the string and fret'. This same one had written the first song we worked on. She had to tell me the bassline with 'That string that fret' all on the 6th string, where 'B A G' would have done. I found it easier to play on the A string for the first two bars. The first time I did that, she freaked out. She screeched 'You're playing the wrong notes!'
I played her opening B and mine. 'They're the same note. Listen.' She was truly disappointed in herself for going only by string and fret. She still didn't bother to learn a note, though.
Another guitarist refuses be told what chords are in a song. 'I can play well enough by ear' and 'I don't want to learn open chords'. He's been told many times about his lead breaks not being right for the chords. 'What do mean?'
It took three goes to get him to understand what DADGAD tuning is. 'Tune the E strings to D and the B string to A' was too hard for him. This same guitarist once started a song riff in the wrong key in a gig. I stopped the song and told him the mistake, which he seemingly couldn't hear. He explained that he'd tuned the bottom string a tone out. That was with a tuner. He's no longer in the band.

 

[ArtechnikA]

I have a word for such people.
It is 'bye.'

 

[Jazzdogg]

I have a great deal of difficulty understanding why these kinds of limitations aren't discerned in advance, which would have eliminated these folks before a note was played.

 

[LiptonJigglers]

All we really have is time.
Don't waste it on plonkers!

 

[roccobass]

You have the patience of a saint. You’ve paid your dues and tried to help them. You’re not going to change these people. One problem has left the band. Your choice to endure the other one or not.

 

[LBS-bass]

It is one thing to have the talent and ability to play by ear and do it well. That's sort of a rare skill and people who have it can take themselves pretty far.

The only thing is, you still have to work with others and you still have to learn the common vocabulary in order to effectively do that. It's OK to not know something because you haven't been taught it, but it's not OK to actively avoid learning things from a misguided sense of pride or "I'm better than you" or some other weird hangup that makes you defensive when you're confronted with your own deficits.

That said, if you're lucky enough to be one of those people with a great ear, it can take a bit of experience to get to the point where you understand the need to learn certain things. You might find yourself learning them gradually as you gain more experience overall. Age and experience level matter here. Someone who is relatively young and inexperienced would get the benefit of the doubt from me, but they would also get the conversation about why it's important to be open to learning about the ways other people communicate.

 

[themickster]

You have the patience of a saint. You’ve paid your dues and tried to help them. You’re not going to change these people. One problem has left the band. Your choice to endure the other one or not.

I don't work with either any more.

 

[themickster]

I have a great deal of difficulty understanding why these kinds of limitations aren't discerned in advance, which would have eliminated these folks before a note was played.

All we really have is time.
Don't waste it on plonkers!

Not everyone is as intolerant as you. Neither of you would last long, based on one comment each.

 

[FRoss6788]

Not everyone is as intolerant as you. Neither of you would last long, based on one comment each.

 

[Marko 1]

Not everyone is as intolerant as you. Neither of you would last long, based on one comment each.

As in, they wouldn't be in the crowd you hang out with for long?

If you need to build something that functions properly, it's not intolerant to exclude people from that project who don't know the craft.

Nobody's saying to run them out of town.

 

[51PRI]

Having and knowing common musical nomenclature is essential to good communication.

What bugs me most is guys who have the ability to, but won't take the time to, learn signature guitar parts on cover songs.

 

[Grinderman]

Did it go kind of like this?



Or this?

 

[Pilgrim]

I worked with someone on two songs. One of them I was writing the music. I told her in messenger which notes to play in the verse. 'I don't know what any notes are. I go by the string and fret'. This same one had written the first song we worked on. She had to tell me the bassline with 'That string that fret' all on the 6th string, where 'B A G' would have done. I found it easier to play on the A string for the first two bars. The first time I did that, she freaked out. She screeched 'You're playing the wrong notes!'
I played her opening B and mine. 'They're the same note. Listen.' She was truly disappointed in herself for going only by string and fret. She still didn't bother to learn a note, though.
Another guitarist refuses be told what chords are in a song. 'I can play well enough by ear' and 'I don't want to learn open chords'. He's been told many times about his lead breaks not being right for the chords. 'What do mean?'
It took three goes to get him to understand what DADGAD tuning is. 'Tune the E strings to D and the B string to A' was too hard for him. This same guitarist once started a song riff in the wrong key in a gig. I stopped the song and told him the mistake, which he seemingly couldn't hear. He explained that he'd tuned the bottom string a tone out. That was with a tuner. He's no longer in the band.

I understand the frustration, at least with someone who won't learn notes. She won't be playing long unless she gets smart.

Never heard of DADGAD tuning...I've only been playing since I started on upright in 1964, so I guess I missed it. OTOH, it's a guitar tuning, not bass. Doesn't make much sense to me unless you're specializing in Celtic music (I looked it up.)

 

[Micha84]

Sounds like very young beginners. No, to be more honest, sounds like me when I was fifteen. "Learning theory? Not me! Music is art, creativity is freedom, there are no rules!" Part of me always knew that those were petty excuses for my lazyness, though.

My point being, teenagers say stupid things. If they are young, there is hope in educating them (although, if one has the time and patience for it, everybody has to decide for themselves). However, if they are not teenagers anymore...

 

[Nebadon2000]

One of the best Lead Players I ever heard and had pleasure to play with was gifted with a 'Golden Ear'
Could hear a song once and play it perfectly including lead parts.

We were on stage and guest singer said I sing this in 'C'; He looked at me and said play a C So I played a C and he then went to position on his neck.

It then struck me he didn't know notes by location on fret board just by Ear could he correlate it.

I would much rather have the 'Ear' than knowledge especially if Guitar was a un-knowingly a little out of tune

PS to OP I guess you despise Tablature

 

[Slevage]

Without going into detail,
I wouldn’t continue to be involved in that project.

 

[MCF]

I worked with someone on two songs. One of them I was writing the music. I told her in messenger which notes to play in the verse. 'I don't know what any notes are. I go by the string and fret'. This same one had written the first song we worked on. She had to tell me the bassline with 'That string that fret' all on the 6th string, where 'B A G' would have done. I found it easier to play on the A string for the first two bars. The first time I did that, she freaked out. She screeched 'You're playing the wrong notes!'
I played her opening B and mine. 'They're the same note. Listen.' She was truly disappointed in herself for going only by string and fret. She still didn't bother to learn a note, though.
Another guitarist refuses be told what chords are in a song. 'I can play well enough by ear' and 'I don't want to learn open chords'. He's been told many times about his lead breaks not being right for the chords. 'What do mean?'
It took three goes to get him to understand what DADGAD tuning is. 'Tune the E strings to D and the B string to A' was too hard for him. This same guitarist once started a song riff in the wrong key in a gig. I stopped the song and told him the mistake, which he seemingly couldn't hear. He explained that he'd tuned the bottom string a tone out. That was with a tuner. He's no longer in the band.

Astonishing. I blame bad tutorials on the internet substituting for basic beginner lessons. And laziness.

 

[gln1955]

Never heard of DADGAD tuning...I've only been playing since I started on upright in 1964, so I guess I missed it. OTOH, it's a guitar tuning, not bass. Doesn't make much sense to me unless you're specializing in Celtic music (I looked it up.)

Throwing alternate tunings at a player who doesn't have a command of the fretboard and at least some theory is setting him up for failure.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

You get what you pay for.

 

[themickster]

I understand the frustration, at least with someone who won't learn notes. She won't be playing long unless she gets smart.

Never heard of DADGAD tuning...I've only been playing since I started on upright in 1964, so I guess I missed it. OTOH, it's a guitar tuning, not bass. Doesn't make much sense to me unless you're specializing in Celtic music (I looked it up.)

My punk band plays only our own songs, but we have done a charity CD of songs written by friends and done our way. One of them is in DADGAD and not celtic. There's nothing odd about it on a bass, either. It's drop D to us.