so:
Playing in a band for nigh on 4 years now. I'm playing guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, and singing. We also have fiddle/vox, acoustic guitar/tenor banjo/vox, bass, and percussion/vox.
rhythm section: solid, dependable, good meter, good groove. I've played with bass dude in a couple other bands as well. He's my favorite bass player in Seattle.
fiddle player: great chops and has some of the best damned ears ever. She'll quote my own fills and solo bits back after hearing it once.
which leads me to acoustic guitar/tenor banjo/vox dude. He's singing 90% of the lead. Which isn't a problem, just a data point. He's solid vocally, good phrasing, isn't pitchy at all, and has great diction. These things aren't the issue. Neither is the banjo stuff. He doesn't play a traditional tenor banjo style, but kind of a finger picking thing. Not BG style finger picking, more of an acoustic guitar fingerstyle thing. This is also not a problem.
Problem is a buncha other stuff.
dude is a BUSY guitar strummer. His right hand gets going and will. not. stop. bangity bangity bang all the way through. Can't not play constantly. Can't/won't palm mute anything so it just rings and rings no matter what. Only plays basic cowboy chords; it's like pulling teeth to get a 7th or god forbid a 9th or worse yet, something like a Am add 2. Try to write a guitar part that isn't cowboy chords and you can bet it'll be dumbed down and played with cowboy chords. Did I mention that he's the BUSIEST acoustic guitar strummer in the world? Absolutely has to fill every nanosecond of every beat with strumming. Plays the same few strumming patterns on everything no matter what. J. Cash and J. Carter's "jackson"? bangity bangity bangity bang all the way through, none of the classic arpeggiated guitar line. Just smash on through. It's like he's playing by himself and not listening to anything the rest of the band is playing. Rhythm section has a nice greasy groove going on? Doesn't matter, bangity bangity bang totally out of synch with what they're doing. It's mind boggling.
There's other stuff as well. Dude will write a tune and automatically think the band wants to play it. Isn't receptive to feedback about stuff he's written. At all.
Dude is really passive-aggressive. Got his feelings hurt a year ago when he pushed bass dude's buttons hard enough that bass dude told him to 'shag off, man'. Now, bass dude didn't handle it well tbh. Oh well, we all have our moments. Problem is guitar dude held that resentment for 6 freaking months and then brought it up and said "I don't want you to just say sorry, I want you to feel bad about it". W.T.F.?
In full disclosure, there were some ruffled feathers all around. Difference is when a couple folks in the band were called out on stuff, they said "damn, sorry, gonna not do that crap anymore. You're right, it's bs y'all had to deal with my poopy attitude." And then made changes to shift the sub-optimal behaviours. Guitar dude is continuing on with his P.A. crap and has taken to petty crap. Like won't respond to anything bass dude asks in the band chats or emails. Makes stage dress plans with a couple folks in the band and doesn't mention anything to others. Grabs a sub for fiddle chick (damned honeymoons in Greece) and doesn't inform bass dude.
Ignores stage issues that affect other people but will stop the show for stuff that affects him. Like last night for some reason the gain on the bass D.I. went to zero for some reason (I think someone was trying to adjust their IEM mix and fat-fingered the gain) and guitar dude's response was "let's just keep playing" HUH????? I fixed it on the fly but what a PITA.
There's a few other things, like guitar dude's penchant for rambling on explaining things to the audience, blah blah blah, but that may be that I'm just out of patience for the guy right now.
So....?
Playing in a band for nigh on 4 years now. I'm playing guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, and singing. We also have fiddle/vox, acoustic guitar/tenor banjo/vox, bass, and percussion/vox.
rhythm section: solid, dependable, good meter, good groove. I've played with bass dude in a couple other bands as well. He's my favorite bass player in Seattle.
fiddle player: great chops and has some of the best damned ears ever. She'll quote my own fills and solo bits back after hearing it once.
which leads me to acoustic guitar/tenor banjo/vox dude. He's singing 90% of the lead. Which isn't a problem, just a data point. He's solid vocally, good phrasing, isn't pitchy at all, and has great diction. These things aren't the issue. Neither is the banjo stuff. He doesn't play a traditional tenor banjo style, but kind of a finger picking thing. Not BG style finger picking, more of an acoustic guitar fingerstyle thing. This is also not a problem.
Problem is a buncha other stuff.
dude is a BUSY guitar strummer. His right hand gets going and will. not. stop. bangity bangity bang all the way through. Can't not play constantly. Can't/won't palm mute anything so it just rings and rings no matter what. Only plays basic cowboy chords; it's like pulling teeth to get a 7th or god forbid a 9th or worse yet, something like a Am add 2. Try to write a guitar part that isn't cowboy chords and you can bet it'll be dumbed down and played with cowboy chords. Did I mention that he's the BUSIEST acoustic guitar strummer in the world? Absolutely has to fill every nanosecond of every beat with strumming. Plays the same few strumming patterns on everything no matter what. J. Cash and J. Carter's "jackson"? bangity bangity bangity bang all the way through, none of the classic arpeggiated guitar line. Just smash on through. It's like he's playing by himself and not listening to anything the rest of the band is playing. Rhythm section has a nice greasy groove going on? Doesn't matter, bangity bangity bang totally out of synch with what they're doing. It's mind boggling.
There's other stuff as well. Dude will write a tune and automatically think the band wants to play it. Isn't receptive to feedback about stuff he's written. At all.
Dude is really passive-aggressive. Got his feelings hurt a year ago when he pushed bass dude's buttons hard enough that bass dude told him to 'shag off, man'. Now, bass dude didn't handle it well tbh. Oh well, we all have our moments. Problem is guitar dude held that resentment for 6 freaking months and then brought it up and said "I don't want you to just say sorry, I want you to feel bad about it". W.T.F.?
In full disclosure, there were some ruffled feathers all around. Difference is when a couple folks in the band were called out on stuff, they said "damn, sorry, gonna not do that crap anymore. You're right, it's bs y'all had to deal with my poopy attitude." And then made changes to shift the sub-optimal behaviours. Guitar dude is continuing on with his P.A. crap and has taken to petty crap. Like won't respond to anything bass dude asks in the band chats or emails. Makes stage dress plans with a couple folks in the band and doesn't mention anything to others. Grabs a sub for fiddle chick (damned honeymoons in Greece) and doesn't inform bass dude.
Ignores stage issues that affect other people but will stop the show for stuff that affects him. Like last night for some reason the gain on the bass D.I. went to zero for some reason (I think someone was trying to adjust their IEM mix and fat-fingered the gain) and guitar dude's response was "let's just keep playing" HUH????? I fixed it on the fly but what a PITA.
There's a few other things, like guitar dude's penchant for rambling on explaining things to the audience, blah blah blah, but that may be that I'm just out of patience for the guy right now.
So....?
.
