Weird Guitar Player

[BassFishingInAmerica]

TYDR
Too Yellow. Didn’t Read

 

[callofcthulhu]

Yellow text is hard to read

 

[Mvilmany]

My dog is just sitting here, shaking his head at the yellow font. Ruh-Roh!

 

[bobba66]

Maybe.

 

[2112]

It sounds like this guitarist is not a good fit for the band. Talk to the bandleader and see if she agrees with your opinion.

And yes, please ditch the yellow font. I had to highlight those sections to read them.

Dark theme for the win!

 

[Ellery]

I am surprised noone has brought up the obvious solution to your problem...
Fire the drummer!!

 

[Ellery]

All joking aside I've learned that I can't change people, if a situation passes a certain point I'm done.

 

[osonu]

Does it really matter why? It seems pretty obvious this guy isn't cutting it after having been given plenty of opportunity. I'd say it's time to get busy finding his replacement. It sounds like a good enough situation that you should be able to find someone that will be a better fit.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

My situation is weird but not unique as I'm pretty sure at least one or more person(s) have encountered people like this (could be a drummer, keyboard player, horn player, vocalist, percussionist and what not).

This band that I'm currently playing in has this guitar player who is rather lazy and may have an ego problem (at least in my opinion).

I say this because at the previous rehearsal I specifically asked him to level his patches (you must be thinking that patches being balanced or not is also a subjective thing. I would disagree in this situation as he is barely audible during rehearsals, as if he were trying to hide behind everyone else). As he uses analogue pedals, this requires some effort as levels change according to the dynamics of each and every song and it requires him to actively remember these settings and switch them between the set. Either that or your playing dynamics are just that good (which is obviously not the case here). This rehearsal was last Saturday.
Fast forward to yesterday's (Thursday) rehearsal. We had some covers (specifically, 3) that we had planned to do. I made my patches and balanced them out with my other sounds (which is a combo of clean, drive, octave down, +1 and +2 octaves. not including time based effects as they don't actively affect your gain structure unless you want them to. just my opinion, you may disagree). Not only were his patches not balanced, he was simply struggling to remember his parts. To top it off, he was rather aggressive (borderline yelling) in his responses to me pointing out his mistakes. So much so that the vocalist later told me that she would have walked out of the room had I not kept calm, laughed it off in that moment and moved on to the next song instead.

I completely understand that every week in a musicians' life is unscripted (I'm on the same boat, LOL) but, if something like this goes on for too long, you know that something is wrong in the equation. He does teach around the city to make ends meet and claimed to have a rather busy week but I find it hard to believe him on account of the previous night (that the vocalist shared with me) where he played a gig with the vocalist and another person as a trio and left the venue at 2 in the night when he could've easily left at 11 (since that is the time the vocalist left) and could've done at least some homework. Further, in the group chats, Mr You-Know-Who specifically said, "They are just covers." Can't say that I'm a fan of that kind of an outlook.

Now, a little more context.

The band is not "mine". A girl fronts it and is the primary source of all the financial capital because its her music (meaning she writes the lyrics and the melodies and a basic chart and then brings it to us and we have complete freedom to modify it for the better. again, something that is rather subjective).
I'm not the band leader either but I value her time and investment and I genuinely like the music which helps me be motivated and actively think about it. She "depends" on my judgement and I try to do my best.
Also, this band has an "indie" sound. What comprises this specific sound is, again, subjective but I think it focuses on vocals, guitars and drums/grooves.

The issue with the guitar player started a couple of months back when we hit the studio to record an EP of this music. He was unprepared is an understatement; forget patches, he struggled to track his own parts with a click track. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and tried tracking him with the recorded drums and bass tracks without (and later with) the click. This exercise cost us 4 hours of precious studio time.
The producer also felt that some songs needed more guitar parts and this guy failed to come up with anything that the former liked. Since I had done tracking my parts, I thought I'd help out and I sat down with a guitar, some pedals and an amp in a corner of the studio and started making parts. To my surprise, the producer really liked them and I ended up tracking them and some acoustic guitar parts as well. Since that moment onwards, rehearsals have been unpleasant to say the least.

Having re-read the entire thing to check for errors, I realise that this is a rant.
I would like to say that I have nothing against this person but I clearly do.

Is he irresponsible? Maybe
Does he lack motivation? Maybe
Is he genuinely busy? Maybe
Does he not care? Maybe

Answers to all these questions and more elude me and I turn to you good folks for a solution. I would like to be an adult and just talk to him and solve whatever issue there might be (I did try this once before but it did not yield any positive outcome) but, at this point of time, I feel he will be rather defensive if I point out his mistakes and try to talk about them.

I get it, you’re good and prepared and in a band with a slacker. I will say, since this is a leader situation, unless you’re in really good with the leader and clearly this is part of your duties, it’s not your place to call out other band members. If that guy walks, is there another player in line ready to go? Running a band is very difficult, and above all, the leader needs bodies to play the parts, and you pushing another member out might not be as helpful as you think it is.

If you want to call the shots, start your own band, it’s not that hard if you have good material. If you don’t, you’ll need to learn to pick your battles and make the best of your situation, because unless you’re the leader, you’re a replaceable piece in the puzzle, and if you’re making things unpleasant, you could end up on the chopping block yourself.

You might also have to leave if it gets too pathetic. I can’t think of a single circumstance in my life where I left a band/job/girl and regretted it in the long term. You gotta know when to hold em...

 

[BobKos]

Most difficult post to read ever. Not just ridiculous yellow parenthesis in every sentence, but content. Just saying...

 

[TWolf]

Yellow text is hard to read

Wait, What did you say?

 

[Oleg BassPlayer]

No wonder the things got worse after you wrote and recorded guitar parts. Other people may not have come at the next rehearsal at all.

You always can ask him politely and in a friendly manner whether there is something he is unhappy with. Perhaps at some point you guys and girl(s) rejected his input or did something in spite of his objections and all. Or he doesn't like the music you play but can't decide to leave. Or is suffering from unrequited love with the girl This may help or not.

Anyway, as a person that once joined "not his" band and unwillingly caused it's breakup and hatred of it's founder and frontman over a very similar issue (problems with lazy and irresponsible drummer which I wanted to fire, and guitarist taking my side and finally leaving with me), if I were you I would rather stay clear of the s**t. Or if you feel confident, bring up your concerns to the leader and possibly other members, but it's playing with fire, and it can strike back.

 

[QORC]

thanks for the alternating colors. It forced me to skip most of the your post

 

[equill]

I think you kicked him right in the insecurities.
The recording session sounds like a nasty mix of unprepared musician and red-light fever.

The approach you take is critical. Firstly, you need to tread softly because he's already defensive around you. If you offer to help with improvements, it'll go down better than leading with "here's what's wrong about what you're doing." If you're better with these things than I, you could go even softer and enthuse to another band-member about this thing you read about improving time-keeping with one weird trick (probably involving a metronome).

Or you could cut your losses and ditch somebody who's not willing to put in the work to bring themself up to standard, after having been presented with the evidence of how far short they're falling.

 

[bearfoot]

I had no idea so many people prefer this site with a blinding white background. It's always the first thing to go , if the option is there, for my eyes.

Also, go Steelers!

Lastly, yes. Guitarist is a whackjob. Replace guitarist. Retain the drummer.

 

[Rumbledore]

wait, did you record in yellow too?

 

[JRA]

your guitarist is limited, obviously, in several ways, and you're probably expecting more from him (because you have skills you are no doubt taking for granted!) than he can currently deliver. lower your expectations and/or discuss with the BL. the BL should have a plan (or will make one) to deal with your frustrations. good luck!


quitting is easy and the encouragement you get for that specific approach may not be sincere. but it's always an option for anyone wanting to 'move on'.