Scaring Guitarist Into Learning New Stuff

[CJ_Marsicano]

The last band I was in back in 1996, I was promised three things:

a) Equal say in the set list
b) We'd learn new songs every week or so
b) There would be no heavy reliance on bar-band standards.

So I joined up with them. As it turns out in retrospect, these turned out to be lies to get me to join their band. The "learn new songs every week" ended up having an unspoken clause of "...until we have enough for three sets of material", I only ever got three or four picks of mine in the set list out of 40 songs (so much for an equal say in a five-member band!), and the bar-band standards we were trying to avoid started to rear their ugly heads when our lead singer started to cave into the pressure of the one or two rednecks in a couple of our regular venues and start to suggest adding Skynyrd material to the set list even though NO ONE in the band liked the material.

My advice would be to scissor your Jimmy Page-wannabe guitarist if you haven't done so already, as it looks like after a couple of weeks he may put his tiara back on and start to fall back into his old habits. You shouldn't have much trouble finding a replacement even in a town of 35,000 - guitar players are a dime a dozen.

 

[LiquidMidnight]

. You shouldn't have much trouble finding a replacement even in a town of 35,000 - guitar players are a dime a dozen.

Actually, he may have some trouble. I never believed in the "guitarists are a dime-a-dozen" maxim. Sure, there are a ton of hack guitarists that may know a bunch of riffs, but an experienced guitarist with great chops, great feel, and great technique is just as hard to find as any other musician. (and we're not even factoring attitude into the equasion)

 

[bigcatJC]

Invisiman, are you sure you're in Moose Jaw? Because this guitar player sounds exactly like a guy I used to play with down here in the US (South Carolina).

I'd hate to think he emigrated and is ruining another bass player's life!

Seriously, I've dealt with two guitar guys like this: One, a Van Halen nut and another, the Zep Head (In seperate bands, thank goodness). The VH guy was mature enough to get off the clone path and learn more stuff when given "the talk" (At one point in rehearsals, we were playing the first side - back when records/cassettes had sides - of Van Halen 1 straight through. Something had to give!). The Zep Head, on the other hand, pretended to go along, but when it was time to practice different tunes the next week...

"Aw, man, I didn't get to that one yet. Let's do Dazed and Confused instead..."

I'm not a violent guy, but my singer had to stop it from becoming a fist fight! The moral of the story is this: Some folks just won't go along with a band concept. Everyone else is just background for them, and you must get rid of these people as fast as you can.

I hope your experience ends better than mine.

(BTW, my Zep Head played - you guessed it - a sunburst Les Paul through a Marshall stack. If he'd had the cash, he would've owned the Jimmy Page Les Paul. I half expected to see a violin bow or a Theremin in practice one day...)

 

[invisiman]

Awww, yes, the sunbusrt Les Paul, my worst enemy. Right after the sunburst Stratocaster.

Like I said, he basically told me to learn my parts, and then teach them to him, which is not realistic when it comes to prog metal, or pretty much any other style of music I listen to.

But I figured something was better than nothing and I've tought him 1776 by Iced Earth, and told him to learn the solos, so I'll see if learns them, or if he's able to come up with some solos that fit. New Millenium by Dream Theater is the next song I'm gonna tell him to learn(today), so I'll see if he does in the next week or so.

 

[mikarre]

Does this guitarist listen to Iced Earth ordinarily? Or anything similar to them? Maybe the problem is that he's a little freaked out.

I played guitar in a band about 10 years ago with a guy who was maybe 10 years again older than me. So, he was of the era of Led Zep, Zappa, Nugent, etc where I cut my teeth on James Hetfield and Scott Ian riffs. He was a really good guitar player...as long as he was playing that older stuff. When it came time to learn some Metallica, Anthrax, Sepultura, Slayer, etc he was just lost. I mean, lost to the point that he didn't know how to set up his amp, didn't know which pickup to use, didn't know how to pick and palm mute in thrash metal at all. I had to show him everything, from the ground up. It was very frustrating for both of us. He really WAS a good player, he was just way out of his element.

It's a big jump from Led Zep to Iced Earth. Maybe your guy doesn't really have the tools to pull it off and he's feeling nervous or something. Especially if he's the only guitar player in the band. I can't imagine him wanting a bassist to show him riffs for songs like that. That's a little odd and it really doesn't seem like it would help him a whole lot, and also pretty lazy on his part.

 

[invisiman]

Iced Earth his his first metal band ever, really. He expressed interest in playing this particular song just after I showed it to him, just to introduce him to metal. so it's not like it was my idea to play this song, although I jumped at the oppurtunity of playing something non Zep in this band.

In retrospect, it does seem realy weird he made me teach him the riffs to this song, even though he was the one who first expressed interest in it I dunno, I'll see how he reacts when I bring up New Millenium at our next practice and tell him I can't teach him his parts.