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Tyrant Music leader?

#82
Kirk Bryant said:
While the world is filled with two faced people iregaurdless of their color creed pollitics religious affiliation sexuality or anything eles you want to throw in the mix. when you know or understand people and personalities the decision will be clear. Either you can hang or it all becomes too much work. I find in my old age (60) I like folks that are "real". My BS tolerance is growing smaller.

Short answer is if you are comfortable do it, if not...NOT. Some of the above was very cogent.
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I'm glad I'm not alone in that sentiment (over 60 also).

BTW, "ireguardless" is not a word, but if it were, it'd be spelled "irregardless."
 
#87
Maybe someone else asked this question and I missed it, but does this particular leader in fact know what a fretless bass guitar is? The only reason I ask is because I have had individuals refer to my upright bass as a "fretless." If the worship leader also suffers from this misconception, that may make his statement make more sense.
 
#88
redheadedstrngr said:
Maybe someone else asked this question and I missed it, but does this particular leader in fact know what a fretless bass guitar is? The only reason I ask is because I have had individuals refer to my upright bass as a "fretless." If the worship leader also suffers from this misconception, that may make his statement make more sense.
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OK, this thread has gone into places that I could not have forseen. This guy seems like he would be somewhat hip and I can't imagine a "music leader" who doesn't know what a fretless bass is or even sounds like. If I brought in my fretless and the guy said "oh, I thought you meant a stand up" I would instantly lose respect for the guy as a musician. He does play guitar and boards so I'm assuming he knows what a fretless is. I guess as a bass player when I make the statement that I play both fretted and fretless bass it is to show that I am versatile, open-minded and talented; when I get a response like "well I don't think we'll be playing anything that needs fretless" I tend to think that person is just the opposite. I also tend to think the same thing of someone who would make a statement like "rock players don't play fretless".
 
#90
Just throw away what you've "heard" about the WL and do the audition with an open mind. Just be flexible and accomodating and things usually work themselves out. If you don't like it after a couple months just bow out.

As far as a "hard to work with" rep goes, the WL could have gotten that after he had tell some parent that their musical prodigy was not going to be playing because he only knows 3 chords and can't play them in a sequence coherently.

In my experience, the audition is merely a way to allow the WL to weed out the folks that obviously have not built up the skills needed, and also gives him a baseline on the player, anywhere from "this guy can jump right in" to "will need a couple months of rehearsals before he is ready" to "this guy needs to go take lessons and come back in 6 months or a year".
 
#91
That could be. Musicians tend to embellish details at times. :hiding:

My drummer got blacklisted with the in-crowd many years ago. I was told from a trusted friend that he was a horrible drummer with a horrible temper. Within 5 minutes of meeting the guy, my trusted friend was no longer a trusted friend. Subsequently, being in a band with this drummer got me blacklisted with that crowd. Now I'm a horrible bassist with a temper AND bad tone. :eyebrow: Sadly, the guy who badmouthed my tone works at the store that SOLD me that bad tone.
 
#93
tonylevinkix said:
About a year ago we moved closer to my wife's work and most the churches in town don't believe in what you would call modern music. We found a church that does play Christian rock (and we agree with their beliefs) and we've been going there. The music leader/ singer/ keyboardist/ guitar player (get the picture) is rumored to be very controlling about who plays what, exactly what. There are 3 services and the Saturday night service is rumored to need a new bass player. When I spoke to the leader about an audition he asked about my qualifications. I've been playing bass for 30 years, I've played in two other churches before this and before that I played bars. When I told him I played both fretted and fretless he got a kinda funny look on his face and said "I realize there's a place for fretless but I don't think we'll ever do anything where we need fretless". That hurt because I love playing fretless especially on some of the slower songs. The bass player on Sunday mornings, wears the bass like a guitar (slung low) and plays with a pick and plays a very basic bass part, in short I think he's just a guitar player who couldn't quite make the cut so he settled for bass. I was really pumped about possibly playing with this band (I've got another little 4 piece I'm playing with on Tuesday's) but now I'm not so sure. I was thinking of taking both the fretted and the fretless to the audition and if he told me to just use the fretted, I'd just tell him to forget it. I absolutely love playing live on Sunday morning but I'm not sure it's worth it.
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Man, sounds like your church hired Pol Pot as its music director!

Nah, seriously... band leaders are mostly all cut from the same cloth, whether it be church band, bar band, etc. Egomaniacs, control freaks..... they all either become band leaders, or despots....
 
#96
Well, remember why you are there. It's not about you per say. Even if the guy is a control freak, the problem is his, not yours. If you are there to play your favorite bass lines to songs, and play your favorite bass, then you are there for the wrong reasons. You are there to lift up praise and to bring others into a mindset to (without getting too religious) take in what is going on. The point of music in a church service is to grab the people out of their daily lives and bring them into the moment. To grab their attention and allow them to focus on the message. So, if you are there for the right reasons, be a team player and let the control freak have his control. As you build a relationship with the guy, then you can bring up suggestions for things that you can do on bass to enhance the music and the service overall. Put your ego in your pocket. If he is too prideful, he will have to answer for that one day. If you want to get to know him, and then minister to him about his control issues, that's one thing. But start out doing what he asks and try to be a part of what the music is there for.

Good luck.
 
#99
I also agree with the posters that say you should take any reports of this guy with a grain of salt. I remember a number of years ago when I came into a church that had two different praise bands. I was told by a number of people that one of the bands was really bad and very difficult to work with while the other one was was great in every way. Well, I came to find out that all of that "information" I was fed was one band's clique trying to poison the well.

Also, don't try to read too much into the statement "well I don't think we'll be playing anything that needs fretless." It is a statement that could come from pure ignorance or from a previous bad experience. It could also be an indication of the WL's personal taste. In any case, it doesn't definitively speak to the WL's musicianship or leadership ability. It is certainly not a statement to from which to decide wether or not you respect someone or not.
 

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