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Pre Screening, Audition For Guitarists

B

bluewine

Inactive
Sep 4, 2008
10,296
27
WI
#1
We interviewed people to audition for our opening for a 2nd guitarist. Below is the start of a list of concerns.

Comment or ad to the list



  • Age

  • Stable life style, full time job, car/transportation married, single girl friend ect..

  • Gear, if gear is inadequate does he/she have the resources to upgrade.

  • Look/ Image ( this will be more or less important depending on the band)

  • Can he/she sing (it always helps)

  • Experience, how long have you been playing,what was the last band you played with, genre and last venue you played

  • If you win the spot, how much time are you willing to commit to the band
  • Influences


blue
 
#3
DanAleks said:
Please tell me these are not in order of importance...
Click to expand...

+1! the 4th one should come first or second... :D

I'd say skip the interview and start playing with potential candidates... if you have that many applicants, you may want to ask some questions about ambitions in music - nothing will kill a band sooner than differences in ambitions :D

also, commitment - check how much time etc. they are willing to commit to the band (this also depends on ambitions)... if you wanna practice 4 times a week and they only have time once a week... well, it's gonna be a problem :)

then, just general chemistry between them and the rest of the band etc.

actually, the first 4 questions you listed are not really important.. and the last one also... 5 is ok, but who cares really - unless you have two identical candidates where one can sing and the other cannot ;)

6 is cool though, but you gotta play with people to see how good they really are. hell, i can play Little Wing, it's just that no-one would recognize it the way i interpret it :P
 
#7
It's hard to assess this list without knowing what your band is meant to be. e.g. a full time job is a massive disadvantage if the band is to tour, but awesome for a hobby band or semi-pro outfit.

Can I caution you not to get too hung up about age, too? The top of the list seemed an odd place for it. At least try and break it down into some of the reasons why age might be important and think on these when you meet them:
-Someone's Calendar age (how old they actually are) is rarely relevant.

-Mental age is a double edged sword - someone who's too young-in-the-head is usually a bad business partner, yet someone who's at different stage of life might be a poor social fit - and mental age is usually really hard to assess with just one or two meetings.

-Visual age is important for some bands on some scenes - a fit 45 year old usually looks younger/better than a really unhealthy 25 year old. So I might suggest asking people's age, but try not to reject anyone on just their calendar age. See how they play instead!
 
#8
David1234 said:
It's hard to assess this list without knowing what your band is meant to be. e.g. a full time job is a massive disadvantage if the band is to tour, but awesome for a hobby band or semi-pro outfit.

Can I caution you not to get too hung up about age, too? The top of the list seemed an odd place for it. At least try and break it down into some of the reasons why age might be important and think on these when you meet them:
-Someone's Calendar age (how old they actually are) is rarely relevant.
Click to expand...

The list is for all bands, not mine specifically. I was hoping people would just make general comments.

For example age is important to me and maybe others under certain circumstances.

Supose that image is a concern and you have a balance of older and younger cats in the band.

It might be that you lost a younger cat and you want to replace him with a youger cat to maintain that balance.
 
#9
In my view, instead of asking these questions and screening players who don't fit, you could just describe your band and what you are looking for. Is image important to your band? What kind of time commitment are you looking for? Is the band a social or professional activity? Why do you care about marital status?
 
#10
fdeck said:
In my view, instead of asking these questions and screening players who don't fit, you could just describe your band and what you are looking for. Is image important to your band? What kind of time commitment are you looking for? Is the band a social or professional activity? Why do you care about marital status?
Click to expand...

Marital status could be looked at from a lot of different angles depending on the band. Remember,the thread is not about me or what I think is important or what I care about. It's all collective.

Mariage might be a sign of stability to some bands, the guy is married, has a full time job, he has responsibilities and won't flake out on us like the last guy. Say the last guy was single, no other job or source of income and they were not even sure the guy had a stable place to live.

On the other side of the coin, the band that just lost a member because his wife said, enough is enough, it's either the band or your family.That band might think about bringing in someone single.

It depends on the type of band.
 
#12
bluewine said:
We interviewed people to audition for our opening for a 2nd guitarist. Below is the start of a list of concerns.

Comment or ad to the list



  • Age

  • Stable life style, full time job, car/transportation married, single girl friend ect..

  • Gear, if gear is inadequate does he/she have the resources to upgrade.

  • Look/ Image ( this will be more or less important depending on the band)

  • Can he/she sing (it always helps)

  • Experience, how long have you been playing,what was the last band you played with, genre and last venue you played

  • If you win the spot, how much time are you willing to commit to the band
  • Influences


blue
Click to expand...

I think the age question is good since you are an older band but it is not a reason to punt a good player.

On their lifestlye..that one is weird. Married or single ..ok, Employed , for sure p/t-f/t is not a big deal as long as they can afford themselves and support themselves, transportation a must! As well as a phone, PC etc.

Gear- agree, good stuff or be willing to upgrade right away if you get the job.

Look? Well depends on what you want to look like. I would pick a great player who does not quite fit the look over an average player who drips a "Rockstar" look.

Sings Big +

Experience- a must . Need to find out where they have been what they have done.

Committment -Big one as is dedication. This one is huge since there are allot of great players out there that lack this and its makes it hard to work with them.. I would also find out if they have any other projects or bands that could cause issues with committment etc.

Screening anyone who wants to audition saves a band allot of headaches and time. This way the people who try out will be the ones you feel have a decent shot and then you can see what they have to offer and a chance to maybe fill the spot instead of fishing and wasting time.
 
#13
For me, priorities for a new band member, usually are limited to whether or not they enjoy your genre/style of music and their level of commitment. These, of course, are secondary to how well he or she fits in with the band. Everything else, I try not to worry about. I accepted long ago that noone wants to play as often as I do, I'm a rather solitary person outside of the band and I lack other hobbies.:bassist:
 
#15
ummm.. how about "likes to have fun and doesn't take this too seriously"

I understand your points, but the full time job, married, being able to upgrade gear... those are some pretty touchy points. Since when does a full time job make someone more committed to a band? Or married for that matter.

I get it, but you honestly left out the "having fun" part.. if i saw your requirements i would move on. maybe lighten it up a little bit and you might get a better group of musicians to to choose from. just my opinion tho...
 
#17
gustobassman said:
ummm.. how about "likes to have fun and doesn't take this too seriously"

I understand your points, but the full time job, married, being able to upgrade gear... those are some pretty touchy points. Since when does a full time job make someone more committed to a band? Or married for that matter.
Click to expand...

Have you ever worked with the guy with no job, no money, no car and has nothing in his life that provides stability?
 
#18
bluewine said:
Have you ever worked with the guy with no job, no money, no car and has nothing in his life that provides stability?
Click to expand...

honestly no, i have never gotten that point. sorry for you if you had. I think all kinds of red flags would be up long before i had "worked" with someone like that.

Then again i've never had a "musician" respond to an ad with "hi, i have no job, i'm completely unstable, my rig barely works and i have six psycho girlfriends. or maybe i'm really single and just imagine the ladies. but i can play a mean version of 'back in black', i tell ya...." hahaha
 
#19
gustobassman said:
honestly no, i have never gotten that point. sorry for you if you had. I think all kinds of red flags would be up long before i had "worked" with someone like that.

Then again i've never had a "musician" respond to an ad with "hi, i have no job, i'm completely unstable, my rig barely works and i have six psycho girlfriends. or maybe i'm really single and just imagine the ladies. but i can play a mean version of 'back in black', i tell ya...." hahaha
Click to expand...

There's all sorts of little scenarios that can blind side the screening process.

For example, the band that has to play that big gig coming up in 4 weeks. So they drop some of their screening criteria and take the first cat they think they can have up and running for the show.
 
#20
badstonebass said:
My list in order.

Personality
Professionalism
Experience
Chops
Click to expand...

Good, simple list. Our order of importance (when we searched and found our lead guitarist) was a little different:
  1. Personality
  2. Chops
  3. Professionalism
  4. Experience

However, you really won't know about #2 until you get past #1, #3, & #4.

We spent about nine months searching; I spoke with about 20 guitarist by phone; we met with nine; auditioned four. Our thinking was that we have to get along and have similar interests & goals in music long before we turn on the amps. It was painful at times, but I think we saved ourselves a lot more pain by waiting until we brought someone on board who we genuinely like and respect.

In retrospect, there were only two persons who we REALLY liked after our informal meetings with the band and both them were very good guitarists. I don't think that was a coincidence; we found someone in tune with our direction.

I suggest that you consider general personality and musical interests as a top priority. The other factors will follow if that goes well.
 

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