When the band you're in starts playing different tunes...
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon!
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon!
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When is it time to quit your band?
- Thread starter The_Low_Dude
- Start date
I will admit that one band I am in is not fun. I quit it last year to do other things. But, they are in a bind and called for me to come back. I said I'd help, but my allegiance is to another band. So, what I'm doing is what I've often done, just being a working musician, a mercenary, if you will. My other band is the fun band, and we make money, too, and have more gigs to boot. But over the past decades I have gone to play many gigs with different bands just because I got the call. It didn't always matter if I was into what they played.
With that said, that's not your situation, though, I know. If my fun band became sour, I'd quit right away. I'm just saying that there can be circumstances in which anyone could be playing and not necessarily having so much fun, just to be working.
With that said, that's not your situation, though, I know. If my fun band became sour, I'd quit right away. I'm just saying that there can be circumstances in which anyone could be playing and not necessarily having so much fun, just to be working.
When you hear the phrase, "it's not my band, I want everyone to have input so we are all together on this", run the other way. If it needs to be said, it is not happening.
We just formed a new band from my old one and have been working out new members. One thing the old members have in common is we are a "everyone has say so". One of the people we tried out wanted it his way and it did not work.
What I'm trying to say is there are two basic internal management styles. 1) everyone has a say, 2) only one guy calls the shots.
Both have advantages but you have to be comfortable with the style the band is using and have confidence in it.
Everyone need to have a clear understanding of where the band is going as well.
This I have learned from my limited experience. Hope it helps
Jimmy
What I'm trying to say is there are two basic internal management styles. 1) everyone has a say, 2) only one guy calls the shots.
Both have advantages but you have to be comfortable with the style the band is using and have confidence in it.
Everyone need to have a clear understanding of where the band is going as well.
This I have learned from my limited experience. Hope it helps
Jimmy
I learnt this the hard way with the last band I was in. It ultimately wasn't worth the drama to stay in that band, even with the talented musicians there.
- Sep 9, 2007
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Simple as this. I wouldn't give them a couple of months. A couple of rehearsals tops, to see some sort of attempt.
Absolutely. I found it was time after a new lead/rhythm guitarist joined to augment our bandleader's guitar. Bandleader got ambitious and called numerous rehearsals in his unheated, cramped storage room. I had trouble with my hands freezing and my legs cramping from not being able to move. Ah well, I figured it'd warm up soon enough. Our bandleader then started belittling our sax player and his own daughter (in front of all of us, it was painful to watch), leading to ugly scenes interrupting what should have been time rehearsing. Unsurprisingly, the bandleader blamed these scenes on the targets of his ire. I wanted to play, not watch a live-action soap. Even so, I thought things would smooth themselves out as they had in the past. I was wrong.
The last few weeks were like this: The sax player finally quit in a mutually acrimonious incident with the bandleader. Since all the band members had written songs except me and we'd lost the sax player's tunes, I was encouraged to write a few if I could. I managed a couple and needed to finish them off for the next rehearsal. Foolishly, I described them to the new guitarist. He flatly said he couldn't play in the proto-funk style the songs needed. It was fairly simple Steve Cropperish guitar work I wanted, and he certainly is an excellent guitarist. No dice. The band had straight rock, rockabilly, latin, and even a couple of folk-style ballads. Guitarist had no problem playing those, and Bandleader's sense of rhythm was too wobbly for me to rely on him playing anything but short fills. I believe Guitarist's attitude stemmed from my not learning his songs fast enough. Lastly and most outrageously, Bandleader pestered me to register for a porn site in my name for his use! Said he would pay me even though I know he never pays a bill if he can avoid it and he's not exactly broke. I didn't even bother to call a meeting. I told Bandleader he could find another bassist and not to contact me again, although we had been friends for years. I should have handled it more gracefully, but the piling on of incidents in so short a time made me hate the idea of even being around the two of them, and I thought a line had been crossed with the last incident.
Sad, too. I really liked our just-acquired drummer. Maybe I could poach him for a band of my own
This is very true ^
I was talking to an originals band here in Knoxville a while back. They had some good material, but they said they were interested in a bassist who would provide fresh ideas to their songs and would write more intricate basslines.
I thought it'd be fun so I told them to send me some rough demos of their tunes and from there I would write 3-4 new basslines per song that had more intricate lines.
After our first rehearsal, they latched on to all of my ideas almost instantly. However, after more and more rehearsals my ideas slowly got cropped back until all my original lines became copies of the demo basslines. It became pretty apparent that they were just looking for a bassist to do what they wanted and provide zero input so I left.
