Whats your biggest beef about your musical peers?

[brianrost]

I get the reasons for a lot of this, people are busy with their lives and just want to get to the glory aspect of things.

There is no glory aspect for me. I want to have fun playing good music with people I enjoy playing music with. That usually entails gigs, otherwise those people aren't available to play.

I will rehearse if the band is into rehearsing.

 

[Muskie59]

My beef is that I don't play well enough to have any "peers".

Lol. I was going to say the same thing.

 

[selowitch]

Instrumentalists should not be adjusting to the singer's timing. They should be holding down a steady tempo so that the singer can riff as he/she sees fit over that.

I agree with you, but how many times has this particular singer argued that our playing is "throwing him off." Aaaaaarrrrrghhhhh! If we were aboard ship when he said that, I would toss him overboard and then throw him an anchor.

Blaming others for one's own poor musicianship is a major pet-peeve.

 

[bon viesta]

since i'm 15 with above average musical skill/obsession for my age, my peers are just too darn amateurish!! it sounds narcissistic, but i think it's true. i've only played with two guitarists my age, and usually it comes to me struggling with them/trying out a different instrument so we're both sort of in a 'don't know what we're doing' mode. one of them was that scenario, back when i could hardly play bass guitar, and the other we just haven't tried anything because we don't know what to do together, i give them chord notes or something and we try to do something for a minute and then it's over. it's a real shame, because i really want to gel with people. btw, bass is my second instrument out of three. when you can't gig with anyone, you get bored and end up playing piano for a little, after you've already switched from drums to bass

 

[selowitch]

The upside of playing with your musical superiors is it often causes you to grow as a musician—sometimes by a lot!

 

[LBS-bass]

I agree with you, but how many times has this particular singer argued that our playing is "throwing him off." Aaaaaarrrrrghhhhh! If we were aboard ship when he said that, I would toss him overboard and then throw him an anchor.

Blaming others for one's own poor musicianship is a major pet-peeve.

Oh, I wasn't implying that you were wrong and he was right. If he's not in time and he can't follow or come back into time with the rhythm you're laying down, it's a problem whether he's attempting rubato or not. Both are equally annoying sides to the same coin!

 

[bon viesta]

actually, i have jammed with one person successfully, my step dad and me were playing and i just gave him the chords and we played for like 15 minutes and it was fun.

 

[levis76]

Gear snobbery.

 

[selowitch]

Oh, I wasn't implying that you were wrong and he was right.

No indeed, I didn't think that was what you were saying at all.

 

[selowitch]

Gear snobbery.

Don't worry. There are no gear snobs on Talkbass, right?

 

[Muskie59]

Same for me. Learn the damn songs!

Similarly, one of my bandmates would constantly say stuff like..."we are a cover band not a tribute band, so we are going to do songs our way". Well, that so far has translated into alot of half-assed versions of songs. Alot of people hear that and think, oh, ok, cool, Ill just listen to it once or twice, get the basic gist of the song and then wing it. He started with the "our way" yesterday at practice as a matter of fact and I feel like Im always the one to throw cold water on them and say that you still need to learn the songs well. If you want to embellish a little here and there, fine but the structure and main details need to be there.

The other thing, like twofingers above said, are the setlist choices. We have a new singer and he was suggesting new songs he would like to add to the existing setlist. Only one of them was a big hit (Pour Some Sugar On Me) and even then, we dropped that song in my previous band because it sounds so empty without all the production. The others I have either never heard of or were minor hits years ago. But the other guys were all excited and I again had to stop them and say that we need better choices. Its a definite problem that the rest of them just want to add "a cool song Id like to do".

 

[Muskie59]

Same for me. Learn the damn songs!

Similarly, one of my bandmates would constantly say stuff like..."we are a cover band not a tribute band, so we are going to do songs our way". Well, that so far has translated into alot of half-assed versions of songs. Alot of people hear that and think, oh, ok, cool, Ill just listen to it once or twice, get the basic gist of the song and then wing it. He started with the "our way" yesterday at practice as a matter of fact and I feel like Im always the one to throw cold water on them and say that you still need to learn the songs well. If you want to embellish a little here and there, fine but the structure and main details need to be there.

The other thing, like twofingers above said, are the setlist choices. We have a new singer and he was suggesting new songs he would like to add to the existing setlist. Only one of them was a big hit (Pour Some Sugar On Me) and even then, we dropped that song in my previous band because it sounds so empty without all the production. The others I have either never heard of or were minor hits years ago. But the other guys were all excited and I again had to stop them and say that we need better choices. Its a definite problem that the rest of them just want to add "a cool song Id like to do".

 

[selowitch]

The mere fact that a poseur like you has inadequate gear doesn't make me a gear snob.

 

[friskinator]

Unwillingness to learn new material other than the same songs that have been on the set list for the last 10 years.

 

[Dincrest]

My beef with a healthy portion of musicians out there (at least in the circles I rolled in in during my most actively gigging/touring days) is that they're often flaky and unreliable.

I often joke that I get more gigs and callbacks than bassists with far superior skill who straight up annihilate my meager skills, because I'm actually responsible and dependable.

Not enough people seem to realize that while being in a band is fun, it's not all fun and games. You actually have to work! It's like a marriage or a relationship. You have to put in the effort to make it work! If you're unreliable and don't put in the work, you get kicked to the curb, even if you are a superior musician. A dedicated person who's a mediocre musician can be taught to be a better musician. A superior musician who flakes out all the time... you can't really teach a flake to not be a flake. You can teach a skill but you can't teach personality.

 

[Bringindafunk]

I end up being "the bad guy" sometimes when I poopoo their choices. I pick my battles. Everything else about this band is so awesome that I just let them win one from time to time.

This is a great point. I am constantly dumbfounded by musicians who don't understand that the band they're in is made up of individuals with different musical needs and desires. Too many people want to write all the songs and choose all the covers and set the musical direction and don't seem to really care what the other members want. Conceding something now and again to give them a win is often all that's really necessary to keep the other members happy and focused.

Also I can't stand it when people noodle on their instrument between songs...

 

[selowitch]

Also I can't stand it when people noodle on their instrument between songs...

Yes and no. Sometimes that's how a great song comes into being! Ya never know....
Hot for Teacher, my favorite Van Halen song, was created that way.

 

[matthewbrown]

Or, in your mind what are people doing wrong?

For me it's two things.

The first is too much of an emphasis on gigs and not enough emphasis on development as a group and refining song structures. It seems like everyone I am involved with musically is just far too focused on the performance aspect of things, to the point that many just don't even really rehearse, and just book gigs.

It really just tells me that people are far more interested in being seen playing music as opposed to actually playing music that sounds good. While a lot of these "live jam sessions" sound ok, they just lack a lot of subtleties that would really make them sound better.

Even the jazz combo I put together some months back is starting to talk about gigs. Its all amateurs, and the goal for me with this was to just bring people together to work on their jazz skills but at least one of the people involved is talking about trying to book gigs with it and mentions it at almost every opportunity. Its fine I suppose, but playing out with this group isn't something I had on my mind, it was really just put together to work on chops.

Second for me is lack of consistency and continuity in most projects. Perfect example is one set of guys thats focused solely on putting sessions together where they pay musicians to come in and play with the intent of having "awesome jams". I get it, but generally these don't work out or sound as great as the expectations are. I keep making the argument to the person putting them together that it makes far more sense to just find musicians, (even if they are at a lower skill level), that are dedicated to playing on a regular basis and improving. personally I see more benefit in regular playing sessions with a core group of people than I do in sessions with random people even if they have a better skillset.

I get the reasons for a lot of this, people are busy with their lives and just want to get to the glory aspect of things.

As I'm mainly interested in playing jazz, I'm in that sometimes uncomfortable zone between being a pro (I used to be a f/t player, and attended music school for 2.5 years before changing paths) and not being a pro any more. I can play with pro players, but I don't have the repertoire to play standards gigs without referring to lead sheets frequently, so I am not anyone's first call. When I play with amateurs, however, I can sometimes be frustrated by "rehearsals" that are mainly social occasions. Many amateurs don't know how to rehearse effectively. And on the gig, the standards of performance are correspondingly low.

When I lead jazz gigs, I hire people who expect to be paid for rehearsals, and the gigs don't allow for that. So the gigs are pick-up gigs ("casuals"). I don't hire amateurs who will require many rehearsals. The pros can cut the gig better without rehearsals, because they know the jazz language -- how to begin and end tunes, the formats for improv, etc. I'd love to put together a tight jazz band that rehearses frequently, but the pay for that kind of project just isn't there -- except for amateurs willing to pay for cut rates.

 

[LBS-bass]

Not enough people seem to realize that while being in a band is fun, it's not all fun and games. You actually have to work! It's like a marriage or a relationship. You have to put in the effort to make it work!

Another piece of this is that you're only as good as your worst member, so if there's one person who is consistently NOT doing the work, it drags the whole band down. I look at it very much like a marriage in that regard. It's a contract between players to create something good. If one person isn't working to make that happen, they're embarrassing the rest of the band.

 

[5StringBlues]

People that use headstock tuners but don't turn down to tune.


Thankfully I've not played with any in a band, just heard them at blues jams.

 

[mongo2]

When someone has issues with time.